FEC Wednesday meeting stalled over Buhari’s absence

The Federal Executive Council meeting on Wednesday was stalled following the absence of President Muhammadu Buhari who is presently in Japan.

The Wednesday meeting would have been the first meeting since the inauguration of the FEC last Wednesday by Buhari.

Recall that Buhari left Abuja for Japan on Sunday to attend the Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD7) which will close on August 30.

The President is scheduled to make a return trip to Nigeria on August 31.

A source in the presidency told The PUNCH that “being the first FEC meeting, ordinarily the President will like to preside over it to hear from the ministers on their first official engagements.

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“Also, recall that upon inauguration last week, the ministers were given two weeks to complete the process of familiarizing themselves with their ministries and to begin immediate work on the 2020 budget.”

Meanwhile, Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo presided over the Economic Management meeting, largely attended by heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies dealing with the economy and the finances of the government.

The participants included the Minister of Finance/Budget/National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed; Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Godwin Emefiele; Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr Ahmed Idris, among others.

The meeting was ongoing as of 12:54 pm.