UPDATED: FEC meeting cancellaion stirs worry over the health of Mr. President

Pres. Muhammadu Buhari

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina has revealed that the forestalled FEC meeting of Wednesday was, as a result of the Friday and Monday public holiday to celebrate the Easter.

In his words, “The staff on the council secretariat resumed on Tuesday after the Easter holidays. “There was no time to prepare and circulate memos to ministers.
“By practice, the ministers receive council memos two or three days ahead of meetings because they must read them and sometimes undertake research.

“It is not a rubber stamp council, so everyone must prepare themselves well for debates.”

Confirming the presidential spokesman’s claim, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, gave audience to reporters when it became clear that the FEC meeting wouldn’t be holding.

The Federal Government had declared last Friday as public holiday to mark Good Friday and Monday was declared as holiday to mark Easter Monday.

The two-day holiday made it difficult for members of the council’s secretariat to make memos available to ministers two or three days ahead of meeting days as it is the norm, he said.

Report reaching us from the nation’s capital, city of Abuja confirms that the Federal Executive meeting (FEC) earlier scheduled for today did not hold.

The council consists of Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, all ministers and some top presidential aides as members and chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The meeting is done weekly inside the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa.

Journalists arrived early at the Presidential Villa to witness the opening of the meeting were disappointed when they discovered that the meeting could not hold.

People, who spoke in animosity, said the meeting was not contained in the President’s schedule for the week.

Mr. President was absent at the last week’s meeting, fueling speculations that his health had deteriorated.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, was quick to refute the speculation, saying the President was hale and hearty the same claim he made many times while the President was away on medical vacation in the United Kindom.

President Muhammadu Buhari did not attend the weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, because he was attending to “other issues”, Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, has said.

The meeting, which held inside the council chamber of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Wednesday was presided by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo after Mr Buhari failed to turn up.

The absence of the president led to speculations that he has fallen ill again. The president recently spent almost two months in London on medical vacation.

Briefing State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, Mr. Mohammed said, “Mr President is not ill again”.

The minister added that “Mr. President is in town; Mr. President is attending to other issues. He looked at the agenda for the meeting and decided that the vice president should preside. It is not unusual for the vice president to preside over FEC meetings”.

A lie was however put to the claim when Buhari himself admitted when he returned to the country on March 10 that he had never been this sick in his life.

He told top government officials who were on hand to receive him that he had to undergo blood transfusion, going in and out of laboratory.

The President also dropped a hint then that he would return to UK within weeks for follow-up.

When Buhari was absent at the last meeting, Mohammed had told journalists then that Buhari decided to yield the stage for Osinbajo to preside over the meeting having gone through the agenda.