Presidency Tacitly Avoided “Apology” To S’South Leaders But Regretted ‘National Security’ Disrupted Meeting

The Presidency, on Wednesday, tacitly avoided using the word “apology” as it explained the reason why the President Muhammadu Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari-led high-profile Federal Government delegation was absent at the scheduled meeting with governors, leaders and stakeholders in the South-South geopolitical zone.

BIGPENNGR.COM reports President Muhammadu Buhari had few weeks ago delegated his Chief of Staff, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, to lead high profile government officials to various parts of the country to engage with youths and other stakeholders as part of the process to address their grievances resulting from the #EndSARS protest in the country.

However, the delegation failed to show up when it was the turn of the south-south region after earlier meeting with South-East leaders in the meeting which was earlier billed for Friday last week in Port-Harcourt but reportedly moved to Tuesday and abruptly cancelled at the ‘eleventh hours’ when everyone was seated for it in Port-Harcourt.

BIGPENNGR.COM recalls the Governors of the South-South led by its Chairman and Governor of Delta, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, who were in Port-Harcourt for the meeting, broke the news of the cancellation of the meeting after stakeholders comprising traditional rulers, religious leaders, opinion leaders, youths and women from the zone had seated at the Government House Port-Harcourt, the Rivers state capital.

Okowa, who spoke for the governors, informed the people that the Presidency gave an emergency security meeting called by President Muhammadu Buhari as reason for cancelling the Port-Harcourt meeting.

But in a solemn appeal to douse tension, Governor Okowa implored the people to remain calm in the face of the disrespect and embarrassment caused by the cancellation of the meeting.

He said that the governors were as pained as the other stakeholders over the disappointment, and assured that the governors would definitely convey the feeling of the people of the region to the Presidency.

“We understand the anger in you, and on our own part as governors, we are also angry because the South-South zone is a very important part of this nation. There is no doubt that we the governors also feel insulted and we feel very sad and touched at what has happened.

“We felt it was necessary to consult with you as critical stakeholders because if we had acted on the information without consulting you, that would have added to the insult already meted to us.

“Together we call for a public apology because the meeting was not called at our instance; it was called at the instance of the Presidency. Some of us didn’t sleep trying to put things in order to make this meeting a reality.

“We will convey this message to the Chief of Staff to the President that as a region we deserve public apology, particularly to our traditional rulers and opinion leaders and also to the Governors that you voted into office. This is the least we expect before this meeting can be reconvened,” Okowa had said.