Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state has said it was becoming obvious that a group of cabal is exercising the powers of the president in Muhammadu Buhari’s government.
Fayose in a statement issued on Thursday, April 20, by his special assistant on public communications and new media, Lere Olayinka, questioned whether or not Buhari was now governing the country by proxy following the president’s absence from state functions, especially the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meetings, The Punch reports.
He said: “Every day, what we hear is president said this, president said that without seeing the president in any official function and one is prompted to ask; where is the president?”
Speaking on the suspension of SGF Babachir Lawal, he said: “I saw the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Babachir Lawal on television responding to his suspension and what came to my mind was that there could actually be many presidents operating in the Buhari’s presidency.”
According to him there is confusion in Buhari’s government because of a possible existence of governments within the government, Daily Trust reports.
Fayose said: “Perhaps, it is for this reason of possible existence of governments within the government of Buhari that confusion pervades the polity, with the President himself writing letter to the Senate to clear someone of wrongdoing and the same person being suspended three months after on the basis of the same allegation. It is also for this reason that the President nominated Ibrahim Magu to the Senate for confirmation as EFCC Chairman and the DSS, an agency under the Presidency wrote the Senate not to confirm him.
“Most importantly, the President did not attend the FEC meeting last week and the meeting did not hold this week under the flimsy excuse that Easter Break stalled it. How could Easter Break that ended on Monday be responsible for the inability to hold FEC meeting on Wednesday? Definitely, there is more to this than meets the eye.
“It has therefore become necessary that Nigerians hear the voice of their President and see him physically, not through surrogates or the cabal operating behind the scene,” the governor said.
NAIJ.com learnt that Fayose described a president as the face and image of a nation and urged President Buhari to hold regular media chat in which Nigerians can ask questions and offer suggestions on the running of the country.
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari approved the constitution of the board of solid minerals development fund on Thursday, April 20, in Abuja.
A statement by the ministry of mines and steel development said Mr Buhari charged the seven-member board to carry out its duties diligently, The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
The board is chaired by Uba Malami from Nasarawa state, a geologist and former vice-president of the Abuja chambers of commerce