From: Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The crack in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) widened, on Monday, when a scheduled meeting of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) with members of the National Assembly and the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party was massively boycotted by 21 governors, legislators and some NWC members expected at the meeting.
The meeting slated for the Musa Yar’adua Center had to be disappointingly rescheduled due to the absence of major stakeholders and party chieftains after early comers like the deputy governor of Plateau State, Sonni Tyoden, and Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, left the venue angrily after waiting for close to an hour.
Blaming the failure of the event, which was had only three out of 23 governors, few members of the National Assembly and federal government representatives, on poor planning, a source close to the PGF office, said the meeting was to brainstorm on the 2017 budget geared toward bringing the country out of the current economic recession.
However, another APC source argued that most of the stakeholders shunned the meeting due to leadership crises at the highest level of the party and within the APC Governors forum.
Fielding questions from journalists at the venue, the Chairman of the forum and governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, who arrived an hour behind schedule to meet a very poor attendance, maintained that the absence of the Acting President Yemi Osibanjo was responsible, insisting that they wanted him to be physically present at the meeting.
According to him; “We wanted the Acting President to be here in person. This programme coincided with other programmes because there are lots of questions that might come up that require national answers. Most of the legislators; the Senate President and Speaker are also engage in another programmes.
“Only last Friday, most governors left for their state to come back on Monday but it was not convenient. The dispatched messages couldn’t get to them, some had come and some did not get the message, so we agreed we should shift it to next week,” he said.
Asked the agenda for the meeting, governor Rochas said: “The budgetary system vis-a-vis capital projects in the face of this current economic recession, we try to rob minds with the legislative arm even with our own state legislature to see how we can come up with a proper budgetary system that all can key into.
“Most of the time when the federal government make their budget, state make their budget and local government make their budget, they will be at variance with each other but if we can unite and have a common understanding about the budgetary system it will help for faster development,” he noted.
Speaking, Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, said ‘several issues’ were responsible for the poor outing.
In his words: “The meeting is postponed because of several issues, political, social and other reasons but it’s a normal thing. What is worth doing, is worth doing well. There are people we wanted to be present but for one reason or the other, they could not be here. The meeting will hold at a more opportuned and convenient time.”
On what the meeting was meant to achieve, he said: “One of the most important thing being considered right now is the budget and we wanted to make sure as the budget of the party in government which is APC, reflects the wishes and aspirations of the people.”
Asked whether the postponement would be a setback, Gbajabiamila noted: “At all, like I told you that postponement is something that happens everyday in life even marriages are postponed.”
The few stakeholders in attendance include Gov Rochas Okorocha, Zamfara State governor, Abdullazeez Yari, Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello, House of Reps led Majority Leader, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila and Minister of National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma among others.