FEC Meeting in session (File photo)

The Nigerian presidency moved in swiftly Wednesday to explain why the weekly meeting of the cabinet, otherwise known as the Federal Executive Council (FEC) was cancelled.

The swift explanation was to douse speculations that the weekly cabinet meeting may have been cancelled due to ill health of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The presidency explained that weekly meeting did not hold a result of the Easter holiday.

Last Friday and Monday were declared as public holidays in celebration of Easter by the Federal Government.

Senior Special Assistant to the president on media and publicity, Garba Shehu told journalists that the meeting was canceled because the FRC secretariat staff had no opportunity to circulate relevant documents for the meeting because of the Easter holiday.

He said, “I think it is because of the Easter holiday. The secretariat had no time to circulate the necessary documents,

“The staff on the Council secretariat  resumed on Tuesday after the Easter. There was no time to prepare and circulate memos to ministers.

“By practice, the ministers receive council memos two or three days ahead of meetings because they must read them and sometimes undertake research.

“It is not a rubber stamp council so everyone must prepare themselves well for debates,” he added.

When he was asked why the documents were not circulated before the holiday since the secretariat knew before hand that there would be a holiday, he explained that as human beings, they also needed the break.

He said suggestion that the cancellation was related to the president’s state of health would be worong and not be fair.”

There were similar speculations about the absence of President Buhari last at the last meeting which was presided over  Yemi Osinbajo .

Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information had told journalists then that the President who is believed to still be recuperating after about eight weeks medical leave in the United Kingdom decided not to be part of the cabinet meeting because the agenda was light.

He dismissed speculations that the President did not attend the meeting due to ill health.

He said: “Clearly when we came in this morning, Mr President was not in the chambers but the Vice President did preside over the council meeting.

“Understandably, that has sparked a lot of controversies and imputations in the mind of people.

“I just want to make this clear, Mr President is in town. Mr President is attending to other issues. Mr president looked at the agenda, it was a very light agenda and decided that the Vice President should preside.

“It’s not unusual for the kind of interest that is shown especially given the fact that Mr President was away for a while on medical treatment and is not. We are not surprised that people will be wondering is he ill again?

“He is not ill, he is not sick. Am sure that later in the day or tomorrow morning, he will be back in the office. I just want to clear that misconception.

“Is not unusual even if Mr President is hail and hearty and everything is going on well for the VP to come and preside over meetings of the federal executive council.

“The fact that Mr President is not in the office does not mean that he is not working.

“I have just been told now that the Secretary to the Government is already with him in the residence working,” said Mohammed.