None of the 24 state governors elected under the platform of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) are present at the ongoing inaugural meeting of the presidential campaign council of the party being chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The governors are part of the council as coordinators for their own states.
The council was inaugurated Monday by President Buhari at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.
The meeting is currently holding at the conference hall of State House Presidential Villa Abuja.
It is attended by almost all the other members of the council and is co-chaired by former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu.
It is not clear why the governors are not at the event, but President Buhari recently told Nigerian voters not to re-elect any governor who failed to pay workers salaries after receiving bailout funds from the federal government.
President Buhari had while inaugurating the council announced that Bola Tinubu will take full charge of his re-election campaign.
However, it was gathered that President Buhari will be attending campaign rallies in Kaduna, Bauchi and Gombe states over the weekend.
A source at the presidential villa said President Buhari will travel to Kaduna tomorrow, Bauchi on Saturday and Gombe on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the national chairman of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, has said the 24 governors elected under the platform of the party stayed away from the inaugural meeting of the Presidential campaign council simply because “they are governors”.
None of the governors were present yesterday at the inaugural meeting of the council chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Asked why the governors were absent, Oshiomhole said: “because they are governors, they are governing their states.
“Don’t forget that elections are not defined in Abuja, it will take place in the 36 states and I am sure there are APC members who are campaigning for the House of Assembly, various federal house and senate constituencies, governorship constituencies.
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election campaign kicked off on a low note in the Southeast yesterday as Owelle Rochas Okorocha, the only South East Governor of All Progressives Congress (APC), failed to attend the first strategy meeting of the zonal campaign council in Enugu.
Others, who were noticeably absent include former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, former Anambra State Governor, Chief Jim Nwobodo, four Ministers from the South East, Chris Ngige (Labour), Geofrey Onyeama (Foreign Affairs), Anthony Anwuka (Education/State Minister) and Okechukwu Enelama (Trade and Investment).
Ogbonnaya Onu, the Minister of Science and Technology was the only Minister from the South East that attended the closed door strategy meeting, convened by Miss Sharon Ikeazor, the Director of Buhari Campaign Council, South East.
The meeting was earlier scheduled to start by 10.am but it was delayed for several hours, following the absence of some key stakeholders.
It eventually commenced by 1.pm when it was obvious that Okorocha and other key stakeholders were not coming.
Some inside sources who confided in journalists, blamed the absence of notable South East APC leaders on their dissatisfaction with the appointment of Miss Ikeazor, a political rookie without any electoral antecedents as the Director of the Buhari Campaign in the South East.
Most of the APC leaders were said to have seen her appointment as an attempt by President Buhari to add salt to the injury already inflicted on Ndigbo by his administration.
Answering questions from journalists after the first session, Miss Ikeazor played down the absence of Okorocha and others from the meeting, saying that workings of government cannot ground to a halt because of politics.
