Tinubu, Babangida in closed-door meeting in Minna
By Ishaya Ibrahim
President Bola Tinubu, on Monday, visited the former Military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (rtd), at his hilltop mansion in Minna, Niger State, where they both discussed the state of the nation.
Tinubu had left the venue of the inauguration of the agricultural mechanization revolution project executed by Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago in Minna, Niger State capital, straight for the hilltop residence of the former military leader in the capital city.
Tinubu had visited Niger State on Monday on a one-day working visit to commission the remodelled terminal of the Minna Airport now renamed Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Airport, among other engagements.
READ ALSO: Tinubu appeals to governors to implement wage award
A report in the LEADERSHIP newspaper said President Tinubu visited and spent over one hour discussing issues bordering on the current situation in the country with General Babangida, who was Nigeria’s military president between 1985 and 1993.
It was learnt that only the Niger State governor, Mohammed Umaru Bago, was present at the closed-door meeting.
Babangida, it was learnt, “offered him (Tinubu) advice as a statesman and stressed the need to urgently walk his talk.”
It was learnt that he advised that all programmes of the government should be targeted at the common man and promised to make his door open anytime to all leaders but insisted on maintaining the unity of the country.
Speaking earlier at the flag-off of the agricultural mechanization revolution for food security and the commissioning of the remodeled domestic terminal of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Airport in Minna, the President stated that all states need to adopt the wage award saying that the National Executive Council would also adopt it.
He said: “If all of you, the sub-nationals have been paying the wage award, pending the determination of the new salary wage. Let all the states start paying the wage award. Whatever they are taking now plus the wage award would relieve the public.
READ ALSO: Food security and the Bago challenge
“Please, I am not giving an order, I am appealing to you states, start paying the wage award, let everyone start paying it. It is a relief to the people. The mechanism is the fact that it won’t be inflationary if we announce the new salary wage in a few weeks or months, they would have gotten used to the basic wage of N30,000 plus the wage award, and it will have a dampening effect on the market. Please get sub-nationals together and NEC should adopt this.”
He assured that the student loans and other economic measures would soon commence as steps are being taken by the government to relieve the people of hunger.