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Tag: Progressives Governors Forum

  • We have done well – APC governors

    We have done well – APC governors

    Governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) under the auspices of the Progressives Governors Forum and the National Working Committee of the party Wednesday rose from a meeting to give the APC government in the country a pass mark, saying “we have done well”

    Briefing newsmen at the meeting which was attended by about nine governors and six deputies, Plateau state governor, Simon Lalong said the problem facing the party will soon be a thing of the past, adding that the party now has reasons to smile.

    The APC has been facing serious financial crisis in recent times and has not been able to meet its obligation to its creditors.

    But Lalong said the meeting of the governors with the National Working Committee reviewed the situation in the party and resolved to take issue concerning the party more seriously henceforth.

    Lalong who was accompanied by the Niger stage governor, Sani Bello and the National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi said “the purpose of this meeting was to review our party activities and to talk about preparations for our second year anniversary.

    “The meeting took a total review of the activities so far and the performance of party in the various states where we have APC government and came to the conclusion that so far so good, we are doing very well.

    “That was essentially the purpose of this meeting. We also agreed that this meeting will be on a monthly basis. We started last month, today is another meeting and next month will be another meeting.

    “The issue of National Convention was raised and it was part of the decisions we took at the last meeting. Unfortunately, like you already know, the President is not around and he is the leader of the party.

    “So what we have done is that since we have an acting president, the team that was supposed to meet with the President with a suggested date convenient, the same team should meet with the Acting President.

    “We are going to organise a convention which is constitutional and the leader of the party must also be at the convention. The time we agreed to meet with the President, he had to travel out of the country and now, the Acting President is around. The first approach was to the President and now, we all agreed that if the President is not there, there is an acting president and so, we are going to meet with him to agree on a date for the convention.

    “During our last meeting, we had issues, but today, things have changed and people are smiling. The party is even smiling. So, those challenges have been taken over by events. That is why I told you that even if we were backward before, now, we are taking issues of our party seriously and we are meeting on monthly basis. So, issues like that are no longer issues in APC.

    “Part of the conclusion of the meeting was a report on the issues and disagreement in some states such as Bauchi and Kogi. The party report d that they have invited those people and those issues are almost resolved”.

    Addressing the meeting earlier, National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie Oyegun commended the governors for delivering on their promises to their people, saying most of the achievement of the governors was being down played.

    He expressed happiness that the party leadership and the governors are meeting regularly now, saying “I want to say that I am so happy that we have met twice and we are seeing the effects, very positive, very salutary effect are beginning to manifest in the party.

    “The numbers, with which we turned out alone, is an encouragement to members of the National Working Committee and I thank you for your commitment. Since we started meeting a lot of things are happening. I have invitations all over now to come for commissioning of projects.

    “I have a wonderful experience in Zamfara state where I had distinct privilege of commissioning very two magnificent water projects with facilities to reticulate, redistribute water to over 6,000 km of pipelines. I said I am especially happy because its effects on the lives of people are obvious.

    “It made me to see that our Governors are in fact, embarking on projects that touch the ordinary man and woman and made them feel that they have benefited from the APC government.

    “Already we decided that we are going to do these projects of showcasing in the various states. In fact, it is sad that we are full of issues at the central level which the social media has tended to concentrate on.

    “All the good works that our governors are doing tend to be downplayed. I thank you Zamfara. On Saturday, I am going to Kaduna state. I was to be in Kano state tomorrow (Thursday) but I can’t. So, I am sending the deputy national chairman north to Kano.

    “So, we are very glad at this development and very soon, the public will see that it isn’t just the rate of Naira that is the issue but in fact, progress is being made in all our states, 24 of them all over the country.”

    Governors present include Simon Lalong of Plateau, Sani Bello of Niger, Mohammed Abubabar of Bauchi, Godwin Obaseki of Edo, Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina, Badaru Abubakar of Jigawa, Samuel Orton of Benue and Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi and Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara state.

    Six deputy governors of Kwara, Kogi, Lagos, Ogun, Osun and Nasarawa States also attended the meeting.

     

     

  • APC governors, NWC meets Wednesday

    APC governors, NWC meets Wednesday

    Governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) under the auspices of the Progressives Governors Forum will Wednesday meet with the national leadership of the party to chat the way forward for the party.

    Although the agenda of the meeting was not known as at the time of the report, it was gathered that second anniversary of the government and efforts to get the party out of the current financial mess will top discussion at the meeting.

    This is the second time the governors will be meeting with the National Working Committee of the party this year.

    During the last meeting which took place in April, the governors promised to hold regular consultative meeting with the leadership and help it source funds to finance its activities.

    The party has been enmeshed in acute shortage of funds which has made it impossible for them to hold constitutionally mandated meetings such as the National Executive Committee meeting and the midterm convention.

    The party has also found it difficult to settle debts some of which date back to campaign period.

    It was also not clear as at press time whether the governors have fulfilled their promise to help the party source funds from within even though the party is said to have installed a software that will automatically deduct N100 from the phone of members monthly as membership due.

    The meeting which will be presided over by the National chairman, Chief John Odigie Oyegun is expected to be attended by the all the governors elected on the platform of the parry.

  • It’s not compulsory for Buhari to preside over FEC meeting – APC governors

    It’s not compulsory for Buhari to preside over FEC meeting – APC governors

    Governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) under the auspices of the Progressives Governors Forum rose from a meeting with members of the National Working Committee of the party Thursday night to say that it was not compulsory for President Muhammadu Buhari to preside over the Federal Executive Council meeting.

    The governors also resolved to conduct a fund raising exercise at a yet to be announced date to ensure that the activities of the national secretariat and other organs of the party that has suffered due to lack of funds function properly.

    Addressing newsmen after the meeting, Kaduna state governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai said the governors and the leadership of the party were not worried about the inability of the President to preside over the FEC meeting for the third time in a roll.

    The Kaduna governor said at 74, it was a normal thing for the President to have health challenge, pointing out that while the absence of the President from the meeting may not be unconnected with his health situation, they were “not worried about the development, it is not compulsory for the President to preside over every Federal Executive Council (FEC) that is why our constitution makes available the place of the Vice President.

    “Mr. President is 74 years old; at that age it is possible to have one ailment or the other, even I at 57 take medications for one ailment or the other. Our prayers is that the president gets better.

    “But the reason he has a Vice President is because of a time like this. It may not be as a reason of sickness that he didn’t attend FEC. He may have had other pressing issues to attend to. I have not had to chair every state Executive Council in Kaduna state because the deputy governor is there, if I have other issues of greater priority to attend to.

    “We are not worried yet or have any reason to be worried but I call on every Nigerian to join all of us to pray for the improve health of the President. It has improved in the last few weeks since he came back and we will continue to pray for his improve health.”

    On the decisions arrived at during the meeting, he said “The most important decision is that henceforth we will hold a meeting here at the National secretariat once every month.

    “This is with a view to increase the interaction, foster relations between the National and state branches of the party as well as work towards strengthening the party. We also took certain resolutions and the first is that the Progressives governors have committed to work acidulously at strengthening and rebuilding the party and ensuring reconciliation and unification of the party at all levels.

    “We have committed to providing the NWC all the support that they need. We will also engage in fund raising from our donors and sympathizers of the APC  to ensure that the National headquarters of the party and indeed all organs of the party have the wherewithal to continue with the difficult work they have been doing within the party.

    “The joint meeting between the NWC and the governors also resolved to that at our next meeting, we are going to look at the arrangements for the midterm convention and put in place the resources needed to ensure that the convention hold as required by our party.

    “The governors reinstate their loyalty to Mr. President, the Vice President and all the leaders of our party. We enjoin Nigerians to continue to pray for the improved health of the President.

    “We are proud as a party and as governors that the state governments under the APC have recorded progress in the last few months and the increasing performance of the federal government at the National level. The governors will continue to advance the course of good governance, fighting corruption, improving security in our country.”

    Four governors of the party, namely Akinwumi Ambode of Lagos, Rauf Aregbesola of Osun, Godwin Obaseki of Edo state and Jibrilla Bindo of Adamawa were absent at the meeting.

     

  • Governors fault Buhari’s ambassadorial list

    Governors fault Buhari’s ambassadorial list

    …Put your complains in writing, Buhari tells governors

    Progressives Governors Forum on Monday faulted the ambassadorial list forwarded to the Senate for screening and approval by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    They had complained that it was lop-sided in favour of some senatorial zones in the states at the detriment of other zones.

    Plateau State Governor, Solomon Lalong, who spoke with State House correspondents at the end of the meeting with the President, shed light on Pauline Tallen’s rejection of the ambassadorial appointment.

    He said: “Pauline is an astute politician from my state, and part of the issue we also raised was on some of the appointments that were made. So all the states that had complain are going to put it in writing and the president promised he is going to look into it.

    “Well, it is not only about her husband I think it is the dimension of plateau politics because I had already made complains to Mr. President that appointments should not be concentrated in one zone. And so all these appointments came again from one zone, in that particular zone.

    “So the complains that are coming from our state is not about her own personal interest, it is the fact that two ambassadorial appointments are coming from the same zone that we had complained. That is my zone.

    “We had complained that the next appointment should go to the other zone the central and the northern zone. And so when that appointment came the kind of uproar that followed that appointment also necessitated an intervention.

    “And I think as a matured politician she stepped down and sacrifice that for the people of plateau,” he added.

    He said that the state is still working on Tallen’s replacement.

    According to him, a little consultation before the appointments were announced would have resolved the problems.

    “It is not a big issue but at times a little consultation would have solved that problem because these are issues in the interest of the state. So you can’t have two appointments, very key appointments like that coming from a particular zone that is already overloaded with appointments. All the federal appointments is from the southern zone, so it would not be fair.

    “So it is the issue of fairness now we are approaching Mr. President to consider fairness and appoint people from those areas that do not have representation.” he stated.