OBJ, Buhari, Rotimi absent as Council of State meets

FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo and another
former head of state, General Muhammadu Buhari,
as well as Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State
were, yesterday, conspicuously absent from the
National Council of State, NCS, meeting at the
Presidential Villa, Abuja.
No reasons was given for the absence of Obasanjo
but Buhari had earlier vowed that he would not
attend the NCS until the injustice allegedly done to
him during the 2011 presidential election was
redressed. Amaechi was, however, said to be out of
the country.
Those who attended, however, endorsed the
proposed national conference by President
Goodluck Jonathan saying anything that would
strengthen the unity of the country should be
encouraged. The council also advised politicians to
desist from making inflammatory statements that
are capable of threatening the peace and security of
the country. Among those present were former head of state,
General Yakubu Gowon, ex- President Shehu
Shagari, General Ibrahim Babangida, Chief Ernest
Shonekan and General Abdulsalami Abubakar.
Former Chief Justices of the Federation,
Mohammed Lawal Uwais, Idris Kutigi, Alpha Belgore
and Dahiru Musdapher as well as the Senate
President, David Mark and the Speaker of the
House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, also
attended the meeting which has not been held for
more than a year now.
Before the commencement of the meeting,
yesterday, a mild drama played out between the
Governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako and his
Abia State counterpart, Theodore Orji, when the
former protested that he would not sit close to the
later because he was no longer in the People’s
Democratic Party, PDP. Though there was no
official briefing at the end of the meeting, the
governors of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam and Imo
State, Rochas Okorocha, told State House
correspondents that the council discussed the issue
of national security, the appointment of the
chairman of the National Population Commission as
well as endorsed the proposed national conference.
Okorocha said, the meeting “deliberated on how to
move the nation forward; we also discussed other
national issues including the centenary celebrations
and other security matters. We have to adopt some
new strategies on how to move the nation forward.
Politicians have also been warned against
unguarded utterances so as not to heat up the
polity.
The meeting has helped to resolve a lot of issues
”We have to adopt some new strategies for tackling
security issues in the country. We discussed
national conference which we saw as a welcome
development. Conference is a good development
and discussions were not along party lines.”
National conference
On his part,Governor Suswam said, “The president
briefed us about a lot of things including the national
conference that is coming up. There were a lot of
contributions and the council approved it. We were
also presented with a list of the new chairman for
the population commission and some new members
to be reappointed. That too was approved and then
the National Security Adviser, NSA, briefed us on
the general security situation in the country which
all members of the council contributed as to the way
forward and the decisions that will be taken to
address some of them.
”The NSA briefed us that some of the unguarded
statements by some prominent Nigerians were
capable of inciting people; that we should be careful
as major actors in the polity to avoid making some
unguarded utterances that could unwittingly incite
the generality of Nigerians. The council took note of
that and agreed that people should be more careful
about what they say as public office holders.”