by Alexander O. Onukwue
The press corps at the Villa would probably have fallen over themselves yesterday to get a picture of President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Ayo Fayose shaking hands or exchanging banter.
Who knows how it could have been, since one cannot truly make judgements about how politicians feel towards each other simply by what is heard and read on the news.
Perhaps Mr Fayose would have been as exuberant and wide-mouthed in laughter as was Dr Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta state, after a jibe from the President describing him as very active in the press. Maybe they would have exchanged jokes about how the President did not want him to come visit him in London so as not to become a permanent resident of Abuja House.
Perhaps there would have been no banter, no laughter, just mandatory handshakes. The Governor would probably walk straight to take his seat at a far end of the council chambers, outside the direct view of the President, without making much in terms of contributing to the agenda. He would probably have thrown a piece of paper rumpled into the shape of a ball to Dave Umahi, the Ebonyi State Governor, who was singing praises to the President as being kind and fair.
It would have been all too uncomfortable for Mr Fayose that the only way not to create a distasteful scene in Abuja was to make sure not to be seen in the first place, hence chieftaincy and Udiroko.
For what it is worth, the meeting had no substantial significance to the country at large, other than a symbolic rallying together of the members of the boys club, regardless of party. It was not an avenue for scoring political points, as there had been a meeting of APC and PDP party leaders with Buhari before that of the Governors.
It was not an allegiance-pledging event either, if that were to be Mr Fayose’s fears; beside the hand-in-cap monthly journey they make via their commissioners of finance and state accountant-generals, the Governors are lords of their own territories and hardly owe much to the President’s influence.
Yet, Mr Fayose had made it all too awkward for him to be present there, with the self-bestowed mantle of being the one who targets to tarnish, as against merely opposing. Perhaps he felt he had crossed one of those national red lines, hence, not mustering the might to take to Abuja, a sincere smile.
