A former Lagos state governor and national leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, was on Monday conspicuously absent at the meeting of national caucus of the party hosted by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The meeting, which began at about 8:20 p.m. was held inside the new Banquet Hall of the State House, Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The caucus meeting is preparatory to a meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) which is expected to hold at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja, Tuesday.
A similar caucus meeting was held on February 26 where a decision was taken to extend the tenure of both the national and state officials.
At that meeting, Mr Tinubu had reportedly kicked against the idea of tenure extension for the party executives insisting that congresses should hold where a new set of leaders should be elected by the party faithful.
The NEC, however, jettisoned the stance of the former Lagos State governor, who was earlier appointed by Mr Buhari to head a committee to reconcile feuding groups within the party.
Since that NEC meeting, Mr Tinubu is not known to have made any moves to reconcile warring groups, neither has he selected any committee members to work with on the reconciliation task.
No official reason was, however, given for his absence at Monday’s meeting.
Recall that Senator Sheu Sani representing Kaduna Central (APC) had on Saturday said “Tinubu has endured a lot of humiliation under the present administration. He was never much consulted, never much recognised as somebody who sacrificed his energy, time and resources to bring the party to where it is.”
Those attending Monday’s caucus meeting include Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara.
Also in attendance were the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Boss Mustapha, former and serving governors as well as top party stalwarts and officials.
