Buhari’s absence at state functions worrisome – Fayose

The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has questioned President Muhammadu Buhari’s absence from state functions, especially the weekly Federal Executive Council meetings.
The governor, in a statement issued in Ado Ekiti, on Thursday, by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, asked if the President was now governing the country by proxy.
According to him, it is becoming obvious that a group of cabal is exercising the powers of the President.
He said, “Everyday, what we hear is ‘President said this’, ‘President said that’ without seeing the President in any official function and one is prompted to ask, where is the President?
“I saw the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Babachir Lawal, on television responding to his suspension and what came to my mind was that there could actually be many Presidents operating in the Buhari’s Presidency.
“Perhaps, it is for this reason of a possible existence of governments within the government of Buhari that confusion pervades the polity – with the President himself writing a letter to the Senate to clear someone of wrongdoing and the same person is being suspended three months after on the basis of the same allegation.
“It is also for this reason that the President nominated Ibrahim Magu to the Senate for confirmation as the EFCC Chairman and the Department of State Services – an agency under the Presidency – wrote the Senate not to confirm him.”
Fayose said the flimsy excuse that the Easter break stalled this week’s FEC meeting was not tenable.
“How could the Easter break that ended on Monday be responsible for the inability to hold FEC meeting on Wednesday? Definitely, there is more to this than meets the eye.
“It has, therefore, become necessary that Nigerians hear the voice of their President and see him physically, not through surrogates or the cabal operating behind the scene,” the governor said.
Describing the President as the face and image of the nation, Fayose urged Buhari to hold regular media chats in which Nigerians could ask questions and offer suggestions about the running of the country.
“Since his first and only media chat was held in December 2015, Nigerians have not had the opportunity of seeing their President address them directly and this is not the best approach to governance in a democracy,” he added