No fewer than ten governors attended the crucial meeting between the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, and state chief executives at the party’s national headquarters on Sunday. The gathering comes barely a week before the presidential and National Assembly polls scheduled for Saturday, February 25. Among those present were Governors Nasir El‑Rufai (Kaduna), Abdullahi Sule (Nasarawa), Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya (Gombe), Mai Mala Buni (Yobe), Abubakar Badaru (Jigawa), Abubakar Sani Bello (Niger), Yahaya Bello (Kogi), Simon Lalong (Plateau), Biodun Oyebanji (Ekiti) and members of the party’s National Working Committee. Representatives of the Imo and Katsina state governors were also in attendance. The absence of Governors Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano), Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi), Babajide Sanwo‑Olu (Lagos) and virtually all their counterparts in the South was noticeable.
Addressing journalists shortly before the closed‑door session, Adamu said, “It is my privilege to welcome you to this important and emergency meeting. We have found a situation where there is a pressing need to get together as standard‑bearers of our states in Nigeria who were elected on the platforms of our great party, the APC. I am happy with the response so far, and I understand that more governors are on their way. You will recall the recent development that has necessitated this invitation. We do not want to sit in judgment of anybody or any bodies regarding what is happening today in the country as it affects our party. I thought it best to bring together those holding critical positions to interact, so we can better interpret and appreciate the situation we are in. That is the essence of this invitation.”
Although the programme listed “Interactions” and “Preparations for the General Election” as agenda items, the chairman’s speech also hinted that the talks would address the current friction between President Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) and several aggrieved governors over the naira redesign policy. In the past four weeks, many Nigerians have endured severe hardship, with violent protests and bank vandalizations reported in Oyo, Lagos, Rivers, Ogun and Edo states. The cash‑squeeze policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria worsened after the president declared that only the old N200 note should coexist with the new naira notes. Hours after the broadcast, Governor Nasir El‑Rufai of Kaduna State addressed his constituents, stating that the former military head of state was wrong to re‑introduce only the old N200 note as a measure to curb the cash crunch. El‑Rufai, who affirmed that the old N1,000 and N500 notes remain legal tender in his state, warned that the naira redesign aimed to sabotage the general election and pave the way for an interim government.
Tensions between the governors and the president reached an unprecedented height on Friday when the APC Campaign Council felt compelled to issue a statement refuting claims that its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, had asked some APC governors to ignore the president’s directive. The council’s Director of Media and Publicity, Bayo Onanuga, dismissed the allegation as fake news circulated by an online platform and clarified that the purported information did not originate from the PCC Adviser on Media and Communications, Dele Alake, as had been suggested.
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