President Muhammmadu Buhari has said contrary to his statement on Wednesday about the 9-hour long judgement of the presidential election petition tribunal, he was indeed troubled by whatever would be the outcome, as he would have gone into trauma If he held was left with just the tribunal session.
The President holds weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meetings every Wednesday. However, the tribunal announced on Tuesday that it was going to deliver judgment on the petition filed against Buhari (APC) by former vice president Atiku Abubakar (PDP) on Wednesday.
The first FEC meeting of Buhari’s second term coincided with the period the tribunal gave its verdict. Politicos is not sure if the president would have attended the session in person or watch on television. However his Chief of Staff, party chairman, ministers, governors and party supporters were present at the tribunal.
The tribunal upheld Buhari’s victory at the February 23 presidential election.
Buhari’s immediate response to the verdict was: “I was unperturbed all along, because I knew Nigerians freely gave us the mandate. We are now vindicated.” This was on Wednesday.
However on Friday, while speaking to governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who visited him at the State House, Abuja, the President said the cabinet meeting distracted him from goings-on at the tribunal.
“On this judgement, again it was a fabulous coincidence that it came almost the same time the first Federal Executive Council meeting of this government was taking place,” he said.
“It lasted about the same time with the judgement. I thank God for that because I think would have gone into trauma or something. So I was busy trying to concentrate on the memo.
“The first memo was on the budget and it took more than five hours. So, while you were doing your thing for nine hours, we were doing ours for about seven hours here.
“It is a very interesting coincidence and I thank God for it because I would have been in trauma or something of that sort. So thank you very much for sharing the glory with us. What I will say to your congratulations, the chairman of the party and the governors is that we must make sure that we really institutionalized the party, so that when we leave the stage the party will continue to lead.”
