President Buhari, Senate President Meet Over APC Crisis, Insecurity, Others
President Buhari and senate President, Ahmed Lawan met on Sunday to discuss issues currently ravaging the country.
President Muhammadu Buhari and the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, held crucial talks on Sunday over the deepening crisis in the ruling All Progressives Congress.
They met at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The party is battling leadership crisis following last week’s confirmation of the suspension of the National Chairman, Mr Adams Oshiomhole, by the Court of Appeal.
The National Working Committee is also a divided house, while in a number of states, including Oshiomhole’s Edo home state, the party is in disarray.
Edo state Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, who came to office in 2016 on the ticket of the party, last week defected to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party after he was unable to reconcile his differences with Oshiomhole.
Lawan told State House Correspondents after the closed-door meeting that the crisis in the APC was discussed with Buhari.
He gave the indication that the President, in the next few days, might move in to see how the differences in the party could be resolved as quickly as possible.
Lawan stated, “I also had the opportunity to talk to my President and my leader about the challenges in the APC. I believe that we have to deal with these challenges.
“This is the ruling party of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, with the President, with the control of the National Assembly, with more governors than any other political party. The situation should not, must not be allowed to degenerate further than it has.
“I believe that we must go into the constitution of our party and see how we are to address this but we must not allow this to continue as it is today. Because, the stability of APC is the stability of Nigeria; this is the party that is running the affairs of this country.”
On what to expect after the meeting with Buhari, he said, “By the grace of God, in the next few days, we will see that certain actions will be taken and we are praying that all our leaders in the party across the country will make every possible effort to get the party reconciled.”
The Senate President disclosed that the meeting also discussed the worsening insecurity in the country, as he applauded Buhari for telling the service chiefs that they were not doing enough to arrest the situation.
He stated that the National Assembly would welcome a supplementary budget from Buhari for the specific purpose of increasing funding for the security agencies to do their work.
Lawan said any security head who could still not prove their worth after the additional funding, should simply bow out.
He spoke further, “You know the country is facing very deep and serious security challenges and I have come to discussed with Mr President what we discussed previously that we should do whatever it takes to improve the security situation in the country. And we believe that the Senate and indeed the National Assembly is positively disposed to receiving even supplementary budget purposely to address the fundamental needs of the security agencies of our country.
“So, in that way, we are able to empower them to fight Boko Haram in the North-East, banditry and other security challenges across the country.
“Secondly, in the senate, we believe we need to provide more resources for recruitment by the Army, the Navy, Air Force, Police, immigration and the paramilitary agencies generally.
“Section 14, sub-section 2b of the Constitution of the Federal Republic Nigeria is very categorical and crystal clear; that the purpose of government shall be to provide for security and welfare of the people. Therefore, we have no luxury of any option other than to address the security challenges more than any other thing.
