The decision was taken at a late night meeting the APC governors had with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Wednesday.The meeting, which was held behind closed-doors, ended in the early hours of Wednesday.At the end of the meeting, Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State told State House correspondents that he and his colleagues were worried by the development in the National Assembly and decided to discuss the matter with the President.Okorocha said the governors believed that the party’s position should be respected.He said they also used the opportunity of the meeting to commend the President on the steps he had taken so far to address the issue of the nation’s economy, which he said, was literarily in a shambles.Okorocha described the meeting with the President as reassuring, adding that there is light at the dark end of the tunnel.He said, “With all these achievements and progress we are making, we are worried by the pockets of disagreements going on at the National Assembly.We have resolved that we came from a party and our party’s views should be respected.So, we feel that there is the need for us to invite our senators and look more into the matter and see how we can all make peace.We believe that everyone should respect our party from which we all came from and for that reason, we have decided that we are going to invite our senators and rub minds with them.We are saying that there should not be a winner-take-all attitude, that we should carry everybody along and accommodate others as suggested by the party.”Also, Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State said all they agreed on was that senators should adopt the position of the party.He said, “We were all elected on the platform of the party. We are not just a collection of individuals, we are a political party and when the party has spoken we must listen, otherwise if it is a game of individuals like golf then individuals can go their own way.I think it is very clear at this point that the party has the responsibility to keep the system going, so we as progressive governors we have listened to the President and we have discussed extensively and we are clear that the party’s position should be supported by the senators.This is the way it should be and we should start on a note of working closely. We, as governors, we listen to the party, we expect our senators to also listen to the partyWe are going to call them and tell them this is it and explain our reasons, it is about party supremacy.”The meeting which started at about a few minutes before 11pm on Wednesday was attended by 16 APC governors.It was reliably gathered that President at the meeting expressed dissatisfaction with the way the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, was rubbishing the zoning formula adopted by the party to choose the principal officers of the party in the Senate.He was also said not to be happy with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, on the same issue.It was gathered that the President wondered why it was difficult for all elected members of the party to realise that without the party giving them ticket, they wouldn’t be where they are today.One of the governors, who was at the meeting, told one of our correspondents that the President mandated them (the governors ) to convey his displeasure to all those concernedThe President is not happy with the leadership of the Senate at all. This is because he felt that members of the Senate who are from our party should lead by example,” he said.He said thePresident felt that Saraki, being a senior member of the party, a former governor and an experienced senator, should be able to carry the party along and also listen to the directive and suggestions made by the party.The governor said that although the President had said he was ready to work with Saraki, he would have preferred that the zoning done by the party was adhered to.He said, “The President does not need to come out openly to speak on the issue like this, because he is father to all.But he told us last night that he was not happy with what is happening to the party at the National Assembly through its leadership.He said that since the lawmakers are from our states and that we supported them, we should go and talk to them before things go out of hand.The President, with the way he spoke, knows that the National Assembly crisis, if not treated with care and maturity, is capable of affecting his government.”When contacted, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, said what Buhari was quoted to have said at the meeting was not different from his position immediately after the National Assembly elections.The presidential spokesman said, “That is not radically different from the President’s position as stated after the national Assembly elections…The President’s position on the matter remains the same.
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