Buhari Says Govs Holding Nigeria Together – NGF Chairman
Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) and governor of Zamfara State, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar, on Wednesday quoted President Muhammad Buhari as saying that State governors were holding Nigeria together.
Briefing the governors on their visit last July to London to see Buhari in what many termed a first-hand assessment of the President’s state of health, Yari said, “I was invited to select six governors, one from each geo-political region, to visit Mr President and I led them to London.
“The Governors are Akwa Ibom, Oyo, Kano, Benue, and Kashim”, Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State, with the last, but by no means the last person in the delegation, being Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State.”
He described President Buhari as being “in very good health”, while assuring them that the Forum’s message of goodwill was delivered to which President Muhammadu Buhari thanked the governors for “holding Nigeria together in his absence.”
According to a press statement by the NGF Head, Media and Public Affairs, Abulrazque Bello Barkindo, “This would be the first time anyone visiting the President is delivering any word from the President or revealing anything that they discussed with President Muhammadu Buhari who is on his 103rd day out of the country.
“Although President Buhari is reported to have felt fit enough to return and continue his duties of presiding over the affairs of the country, it wouldn’t be until his doctors give him the nod, reports say.
“However, those who have previously visited the president in London including the minister of Information and the presidents’ own media team have only returned to the country to narrate the status of the president as at the time they met him, but non ever delivered any wishes of the president or what he discussed with them regarding the Nigerian people.
“Governor Yari therefore becomes the only person to deliver a message to his colleagues, from President Muhammadu Buhari. Even the governors who went along with Governor Yari Abubakar had in their earlier statements only spoken about the Presidents stability and were mute about a message.”
Before that visit by a delegation from the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Imo and Kaduna State governors, Owelle Rochas Okorocha and Malam Nasir el Rufai respectively had visited President Muhammadu Buhari along with other top functionaries. But, mum was the word.
Yari told the NGF that President Muhammadu Buhari had also thanked the governors for their concomitant cooperation with the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo and urged them to continue to put their faith in his leadership.
In attendance at the meeting were governors of Borno, Kebbi, Kwara, Niger, Imo, Osun, Plateau and a host Deputy governors, among them those of Kaduna, Yobe, Nasarawa, Rivers, Enugu, Lagos, Ondo, Ekiti and Cross Rivers among others.
