Tinubu absent as Buhari hosts APC National Caucus meeting

A national leader of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, was conspicuously absent on Monday as President Muhammadu Buhari played host to a meeting of the national caucus of the party.

The meeting, which began at about 8:20 p.m. is holding 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 new set of leaders should be elected by 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.

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.