VP In Charge In The Villa Presides Over FEC, Tripartite Committee Same Day

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, on Wednesday, chaired the Tripartite Consultative Committee of the Executive, Legislature and leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress at the State House, Abuja, few hours after presiding over the weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council due to the President’s absence.

In what is considered a reflection of Osinbajo’s important role in the Buhari administration, a source at the Presidential Villa said even though the President has not transferred power to the VP since he is not going to be away for 21 days, everyone in the Villa knows the VP is much in charge.

The source said this was different from when the Villa Cabal took over once the President is away once he does not transfer power. “It’s a different situation here now in the Villa, especially with the Chief of Staff to the President seen at both meetings chaired by the VP and also conferring with him Daily since the President left on Tuesday.”

The VP yesterday morning presided over the FEC meeting with ministers joining virtually and some physically in the Villa in a meeting that lasted for about three hours. All the President’s aides including the Chief of Staff, National Security Adviser and media aides were all in the meeting.

President Muhammadu Buhari had appointed the Vice-President the chairman of the Tripartite Committee which is saddled with the responsibility of enhancing communication and relationship between the executive, legislature and the ruling APC, with a view to ensuring smoother and effective service delivery to the deserving people of Nigeria.

The President had said amicable resolution of conflicts in the party through regular consultations will create more understanding.

Addressing newsmen after the meeting, Senate President Ahmad Lawan said, “The Tripartite meeting of the Executive, Legislature and the APC is a committee that looks into the various policies of the Federal Government and the situation across the country,

“In the meeting, we reviewed our various polices, their effectiveness and efficacy, and where possible, we suggested ways of making them even better.

“As a political party in power, we are very conscious of the fact that we need to ensure that the most ordinary man in Nigerian is protected, that life is easy, the security situation, thank God, with new strategies coming from the recently appointed service chiefs and chief of defence staff, we are seeing better situations and we are conscious of the fact that we need to do more to support the security agencies to ease the situation in the various parts of the country.

“It was a meeting that was meant to strategise on the best possible ways of service delivery to the people of Nigeria.”

Continuing, Lawan said, “Each time we meet, we come up with ideas on how to make governance better and you can see that the Federal Government of Nigeria working with the states across the country is making a lot of inputs into the lives of the people.

“This is the government that had done much more than any previous administration in terms of empowering the most vulnerable in our country and this is one idea that we want to continue to always do even better so that the people living below the poverty line have a better life.”