President Muhammadu Buhari is billed to meet Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and other leaders of the All Progressives Congress at his country home in Daura, Katsina state today, a day after he received the party’s governors. Agenda for meeting is wrapped under the guise of condolence and solidarity but insiders said it is a strategy meeting for 2019.
On the surface, the APC leadership and top chieftains of the party would be converging in Daura to commiserate with the President who recently lost two members of his extended family but political alignment and fence-mending would form part of the meeting.
Insiders said APC leadership have realized the need to mend the various cracks in the party and Buhari is seen as the best option for the full restoration of peace in the party which has suffered several schisms after the 2015 elections.
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Chief Bisi Akande had on Feb. 13 met with President Buhari behind closed doors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Akande after the Tuesday meeting with the president, dismissed the speculation that they met with the president over 2019 presidential election, adding that they came to condole the president.
Tinubu, who also spoke to newsmen after the meeting, expressed his commitment towards ensuring electoral victory for all APC candidates in the forthcoming 2019 general election.
He also commended Buhari for appointing him to lead the consultation, reconciliation and confidence building efforts toward improving cohesion within the APC.
A source had also confided in News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the second meeting of Tinubu with the president in Daura on Saturday might go beyond mere condolence visit.
“Look, in the next few weeks and months the president will continue to receive different groups and organisations whose sole aim is to put much pressure on him to declare his intention for re-election in 2019.
“So, those Nigerians calling on him to seek reelection would continue to seek audience with the president with hope that he will finally agree with them to sustain continuity in APC-led administration, come 2019,’’ the source said.
According to the source, which preferred to remain anonymous, the meeting between the president and the APC chieftains might also deliberate on some socio-political matters affecting the country.
The APC governors who met with President Buhari on Friday in Daura included the Chairman of the Governors’ Forum and Zamfara Governor, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari; Rochas Okorocha (Imo); Abubakar Muhammed (Bauchi); Kashim Shettima (Borno); Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo); Aminu Masari (Katsina) and Malam Nasir El-Rufa’I of Kaduna State.
Others are Gov. Badaru Abubakar of Jigawa, Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano); Godwin Obaseki of Edo; Yahaya Bello (Kogi); Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi); Abubakar Sani-Bello (Niger) and Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa State, while the governors of Benue, Osun and Ogun were represented by their deputies.
The governors of Benue, Ogun and Osun were represented by their deputies while Yobe and Plateau were also represented by top government officials at the meeting.
