President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday evening called the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and the Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara from the United Kingdom where he is on vacation.
The two presiding officers of the National Assembly gave accounts of their separate conversations with the president who was said to be curious about happenings in and around the country.
In his official Twitter handle, @BukolaSaraki, the senate president tweeted on his telephone conversation with Buhari thus: “Happy to have spoken with @NGRPresident @MBuhari tonight. He was in good spirits and joked about my working late into the night, as usual”.
On his part, Speaker Dogara, in a statement issued yesterday by his special adviser on media and publicity, Turaki Hassan, said he got Buhari’s phone call around 9:00pm on Tuesday night and that they spoke for about five minutes.
Before issuing the press statement, Dogara had via his official Twitter handle, @YakubuDogara earlier announced speaking with Buhari.
Hassan noted in the press statement that although the President and the Speaker discussed many national issues, much of the conversation time was devoted to how the executive and the legislature could work together to ensure food security for Nigerians.
“They discussed many national issues, including ways of ensuring food security for Nigerians”, the statement noted.
Similarly, the Presidency also tweeted about the visit of two All Progressives Congress (APC) national leaders, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Chief Bisi Akande, to President Buhari in London yesterday.
The picture of the visit, which was released, shows the President sitting down on the same sofa with Tinubu with Akande facing the duo on another chair, as the trio were discussing.
Also, Saraki’s tweet came hours after Hajiya Rakiya, the only surviving sister of Buhari, said since the president left in January, she had been speaking with him on a daily basis.
Buhari who was expected back in the country last Sunday had written a letter to the Senate and House of Representatives, informing the legislative chambers of his desire to extend the vacation.
The president’s health condition had drawn a lot of concern from the public, compelling Acting President Yemi Osinbajo and presidential aides to come publicly to assure Nigerians that Buhari was “hale and hearty.”
