By Baron Ike
Tardiness on the part of workers of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) Secretariat, rather than issues of the health of President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, April 19 caused the complete postponement of the weekly meeting of the President and his cabinet.
Following the recent Easter holiday that saw many of the FEC Secretariat workers out of town, they were not able to put the right logistics for the meeting in order leading to its postponement.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, confirmed that the FEC meeting could not hold due to logistic issues.
He said it was cancelled as the FEC secretariat workers were unable to distribute necessary documents because of the Easter holiday.
According to Shehu, “by practice, ministers must receive memos two or three days ahead of meetings to enable them undertake research, if necessary.”
He further stated: “I think it is because of the Easter holiday. The secretariat had no time to circulate the necessary documents.
“The staff on the Council secretariat resumed on Tuesday after the Easter. There was no time to prepare and circulate memos to ministers.”
He described as “very unfair’’ those attributing the cancellation of the FEC meeting to the President’s health conditions.
Because of Buhari’s absent at last week’s FEC meeting which was presided by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, there were speculations that his health may have taken a turn for the worse.
But it was learnt that the President met behind closed doors with the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Winifred Oyo-Ita, and the Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, both of who updated Buhari on the activities of their ministries.