PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI DECLINES MEETING WITH HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE

Reports have confirmed that President Muhammadu Buhari has backed out of a meeting with members of the House of Representatives.

The meeting of the House members with the president was initially scheduled to quiz his administration about the way it has handled issues relating to security, kidnapping, armed banditry and Boko Haram.

Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila announced last week that the president had agreed to meet with the House in the wake of the horrific massacre of scores of farmers in Nigeria’s war-ravaged Borno.

The president’s meeting with parliamentarians was initially scheduled for December 11, during which he would be taking questions from enraged and, mostly young, lawmakers.

But the meeting has now been called off amidst fears that the president could be exposed as too frail to govern or not mentally-aware at worst.

Some top allies of the president, led by Nasir El-Rufai, had taken on Mr. Gbajabiamila during an APC national caucus meeting with the president.

They accused the Speaker of losing control of the House, saying he should not have agreed to let the president be railroaded into a meeting with all lawmakers to give accounts of his leadership amidst widespread chaos.

The cancellation would now allow the president to circumvent rendering accounts for handling of national security, especially his enduring defiance to sack service chiefs who are largely deemed incompetent.