By James Orji
In the midst of the chaotic situation of fuel scarcity in the country, President Muhammadu Buhari, on Tuesday, left the country for Belgium to join European and other African leaders as well as heads of multilateral organisations at the 6th European Union-African Union Summit in Brussels.
The petrol scarcity conundrum also comes on the back of a request by the president to the Senate to approve a whopping N2.5 trillion for petrol subsidy in this year’s budget. The request was contained in the amendment bill sent to the Senate by the president before he left the country.
Checks indicate that more than N400 billion has aleady been allocated for that purpose in the initial budget signed by the president in December last year.
According to a statement by Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, the leaders are meeting to discuss issuescurrently affecting the global community, whiich include “Financing for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth; Climate Change and Energy Transition, Digital and Transport (Connectivity and Infrastructure); Peace, Security and Governance; and Private Sector Support and Economic Integration”.
The president had departed the country as the confusion over the All Progressives Congress, APC, his party’s National Convention slated for February 26 this month, continues to linger.
The meeting initially scheduled between the APC governors and the president at the Presidential Villa, Abuja was cancelled at the eleventh hour without prior notice the governors and other stakeholders.
According to sources in the nation’s capital, the governors only got to the Villa, led by the Chairman of the APC Caretaker Committee and the Governor of Yobe state, Mai Mala Buni, to find out from the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari that Buhari had left the country to attend the meeting in Brussel, and that the meeting would no longer hold.
Even though the magazine cannot really explain what informed President Buhari’s decision, it was learnt from multiple sources in the Villa, that the manner in which the Buni led APC has been handling the party’s affair has not really gone down well with the president, particularly the plan by some governors to push the convention further into the year.
“Part of what the governors wanted to tell the president is the need to postpone the convention, giving reasons such as the problems facing the party from multiples fronts, particularly the division and the struggle over the control of the sojls of the party, at the state levels among governors, ministers and National Assembly members. They wanted to plead for time to reconcile aggrieved parties so that the party can move forward,” a source in the presidency told the magazine on Wednesday.
Recall that a panel headed by a former governor of Nasarawa state, Adamu Abdullahi recently pleaded for time to meet all opposing sides in APC with a view to bringing everybody together before the convention.
But watchers of the ruling party said the president needs to provide leadership for the party at this time to prevent an implosion.
“As the leader of the party, the president should call all aggrieved parties together and talk to them, they are likely to listen to him. With the way things are, the APC looks likes a rudderless party, that has no leadership that can draw the line and instruct members on what to do. There are govrnors of the party led by Buni on one side, and another one by National Assembly members and ministers that want to control the party at all cost. It’s like Buhari is runny away from his responsibility as the lead of the party,” an analyst, Comrade Deji Akinleye said.
Meanwhile, commuters and motorists continue to suffer as the pains of fuel scarcity bites harder across the country, despite the NNPC assurance of availability of petrol. The government oil agency said on Wednesday, that it has ordered for 1.2 billion liters of petrol that will last the country for one month. No need for panic buying, the corporation said, even as queues appeared in filling stations across the country.
