President Buhari Holds Emergency FEC Meeting

Pressing national issues, notably the worrisome state of the economy, lin­gering fuel crisis, epilep­tic power supply and the missing Chibok girls will dominate deliberations at today’s emergency Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting called by President Mu­hammadu Buhari.

The meeting, which will be at­tended by all the 36 ministers and other critical stakeholders, will hold at the State House, Abuja.

Presidency sources said that the participants will also ap­praise the threats by the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to embark on a nationwide warning strike and protest against the continued hardships faced by Nigerians un­der the Buhari administration.

Ahead of the meeting, Buhari on Thursday appealed to the NARD not to resort to the planned strike, whilst assuring the members that he would implement agreements reached with them by previous governments.

Similarly, the Minister of La­bour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, has appealed to the NLC not to embark on a national pro­test because it will hurt more Ni­gerians and the economy.

The President called the meeting to thrash out salient is­sues regarding the 2016 Budget, fresh threats by Boko Haram sect and the inability of troops to lo­cate the over 200 missing Chibok schoolgirls who were abducted on April 21, 2014 by insurgents in Borno State.

The Commander of the United States (US)-Africa Command (USAF­RICOM), Gen. David Rodriguez, had claimed that the kidnapped Chibok girls were in a “tough” Boko Haram terrain, difficult for troops to access.

Earlier in March, Gen. Rodri­guez had told U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee that Boko Haram still holds territories in northern Nigeria. He was quot­ed as saying: “Actually, Sir, Boko Haram does hold some signifi­cant territory in Northern Nige­ria, as do Al-Shabaab in limited areas of Somalia.”

Last Wednesday, members of the terrorist group, in a video whose authenticity is yet to be established and which has also been removed from public domain, de­clared Buhari an infidel and verbally attacked Christians in the country.

The Aso Rock source told our correspondent that President Bu­hari is worried about the missing Chibok girls since the day he as­sumed office, hence it is one of the two key issues he instructed the security agencies to focus on.

While progress is being made on the first order of routing the terrorists, little progress has been made on the rescue of the school girls.

Buhari, Obasanjo meet in Aso Rock

Meanwhile, former Presi­dent Olusegun Obasanjo yester­day met with President Buhari at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.

Obasanjo had arrived at Aso Rock a few minutes after Buha­ri received the details of the 2016 Budget from the National Assem­bly, as he had demanded, for his final checks before he could sign it into law.

Obasanjo, who emerged from the meeting with Buhari, declined to give details of their discussion.

In an encounter with journal­ists after the meeting, Obasanjo feigned ignorance of the ongo­ing trial of Senate President Bu­kola Saraki at the Code of Con­duct Tribunal (CCT) over alleged false declaration of assets.

Obasanjo however denied al­legations by the House of Repre­sentatives that he signed the na­tional budgets without details during his tenure.

Also yesterday, Buhari urged NARD to shelve its planned strike and give the Federal Government more time to address the griev­ances of doctors.

At a meeting with the leader­ship of the Nigerian Medical As­sociation (NMA), Buhari assured the doctors that agreements duly entered into by the Federal Gov­ernment with them would be honoured by his administration.

The President, however, called for greater understanding and support from doctors and all Nigerians in view of the pre­sent shortfall in national revenue brought about by the decline of crude oil prices.

Lamenting the adverse im­pact of the falling oil prices on government’s spending plans for health and other sectors, he said his administration would none­theless do its best to address is­sues concerning the doctors and other Nigerians.

The President also gave the NMA delegation insights into his administration’s plan to establish 10,000 primary healthcare centres across the country in the next two years with the objective of pro­viding better healthcare for about 100 million Nigerians.

He also told the delegation led by the NMA President, Dr. Kay­ode Obembe, that the Nation­al Health Act will soon be ga­zetted and a steering committee appointed to oversee its imple­mentation.

The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, described the plan to establish more healthcare cen­tres as “the single most ambitious health plan for the poor in the history of Nigeria”.

In his remarks at the meeting, Dr. Obembe called for the im­plementation of the report of the Yayale Ahmed Committee on bet­ter relations among professional groups in the health sector.

[BreakingTimes]