Ahead of the resumption of the National Assembly on Tuesday, President Muhammadu Buhari is billed to meet with members of the All Progressives Congress caucus in the House of Representatives on Monday.
The meeting is aimed at resolving the lingering leadership crisis that has engulfed the Lower Chamber since its inauguration on June 9.
Mallam Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, confirmed the meeting will hold at the new Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja by 5pm.
According to him, “President Muhammadu Buhari will be meeting with the APC members of the House of Representatives at the new Banquet Hall of the State House on Monday at 5pm”.
It was reliably gathered that top on the list of agenda of the meeting scheduled to hold at the banquet hall of the presidential villa by 5pm is how to resolve the issues of key positions in the House that have torn the APC caucus apart.
According to a source who preferred not to be named in print, “the president has concluded that he cannot just fold his arms and watch the legislature, which is also an integral part of the federal government under his watch, stray for too long when the APC government is supposed to be acting as one in setting the pace for good governance in line with their campaign promises for Nigerians.
“The meeting tomorrow (today) is an indication that, as the leader of the country and the party, President Buhari, who had hitherto vowed not to meddle in the affairs of the National Assembly, has finally resolved to wade into the crisis for the interest of the party and the entire country.
“To avoid the crisis from continuing unabated now that the House has resumed its session, hence frustrating the legislative process under his government, the president feels he should discuss with all parties involved in the rift and urge them to come up with a better way of achieve their aim without necessarily resorting to rancour”, the source added.
As for the Senate crisis, he said, “There are also plans by the president to meet with the APC members in the Senate to address the fracas. But this will come only after the issue of fraudulent forgery of the Senate rules must have been properly investigated and treated by the relevant security agencies”.
Obviously in preparation for the reconciliation parley today, a factional leader of the House, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, was at the presidential villa on Friday where he had a closed-door meeting with the president.
The source added that “the idea of tomorrow’s (today’s) meeting is to talk to Speaker Dogara and his faction to stop anti-party activities in the House and begin a reconciliation process that would unite the APC members in the House, with a view to forming a formidable majority in the Green Chamber of the National Assembly”.
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