By Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja
For the first time since the inauguration of the National Assembly on June 9, 2015, the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) will today meet with the Senate leadership at the secretariat of the party in Abuja to lay the foundation for a renewed relationship.
THISDAY learnt last night that the move was part of the fresh arrangements to strengthen the renewed relationship between the executive and the legislature as well as the relationship between the party leadership and the leadership of the National Assembly.
THISDAY was reliably informed last night that in this renewed move to bury the hatchet between the party leadership and the National Assembly, today’s meeting will set the pace for a forthcoming meeting with the APC caucus in the National Assembly.
The meeting will cement a fresh romance between the APC caucus and leaders of the ruling APC to be led by its National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.
It was further learnt that the planned meeting with the leadership of the party and the National Assembly will hold before the National Assembly proceeds on Christmas and New Year break. A source privy to the information told THISDAY last night that the meeting would either take place before or after the presentation of the 2016 budget.
THISDAY further learnt that this fresh move was spurred by a piece of advice to the presidency that it was not enough for President Muhammadu Buhari to commence moves to build a better relationship with the Senate leadership without involving the party leadership.
Besides Senate President Bukola Saraki visiting the Presidential Villa three times in one week, a rare development since his emergence as the Senate president on June 9, last year, the Chairman of the APC Governors’ Forum and Governor of Imo State, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, had recently visited Saraki in his office where he emphasised the need to chart a new course within the party.
Okorocha had harped on the need to ensure unity of purpose among stakeholders in the party and forge a new relationship capable of overshadowing the hitherto estranged relationship between the party and Senate leadership.
There has been no love lost between Buhari, members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC and Saraki since June 9, 2015 when he emerged as the Senate president against the wish of his party.
As a result of the situation, the NWC of the party had never attempted to meet with the Senate leadership as well as the APC caucus in the Senate as the case should be.
