FEC meeting aborted at last minute

Written by Daily Trust Thursday, 11 March 2010

ShareThe weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) was cancelled again yesterday by Acting President Goodluck Jonathan. It was the second time in three weeks that the meeting would be cancelled.

The FEC meeting of February 24 was cancelled by the acting president following the confusion that ensued on the return of President Umaru Musa Yar’adua from a 93-day medical sojourn to Saudi Arabia on that day.

The cancellation of yesterday’s meeting, which was earlier rescheduled for 2pm from the usual 10am commencement time, was announced to ministers who were already seated in the Council Chambers at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation Alhaji Mahmud Yayale Ahmed at about 2.05pm.

Yayale said, “The acting president is just closing from an international agro-business seminar and coming back to the residence. He is equally engaged with other state duties. So he has asked me to convey to you that this executive council meeting is cancelled. Next week Insha Allah, it will be reconvened or any day the acting president deems it fit to reconvene it. I thank you for attending”.

Despite the reason given for the cancellation of the meeting by Yayale, Daily Trust gathered that the acting president’s inability to attend the meeting may have been occasioned by fatigue. A reliable Presidency source said Jonathan may have been weighed down by the high volume of work he has been doing since he took over the mantle of leadership. “The acting president has been working round the clock without a deputy since he was empowered by the National Assembly. So he needs to take it easy so that he doesn’t break down. You can read the cancellation of the meeting in that light”, the source said.

Another source said the meeting was cancelled because Jonathan was yet to make up his mind on the sacking of some ministers whose removal was to have been announced yesterday. “Consultations are still going on over the matter of removing some ministers. Pressure is being mounted on the acting president to spare some of the ministers who have been penciled down for removal. If the plan had been concluded they would have been removed today”, the source said.