State governors come to the Presidential Villa, Abuja regularly either to confer with the President or attend one meeting or the other. Some are frequent faces while a few others are seen once in a while. Since there is no attendance book for governors to sign every time they come to the Villa, it is extremely difficult to identify the most frequent governor but a simple analysis might give a fair result.
In the last six months, in my estimation, the award of the most frequent governor in the Villa will not even go to a Peoples Democratic Party governor, though one of their governors may come second. I give it to the soft-spoken Peter Obi of Anambra State!
The reason is not far-fetched. Except for the meetings or events that are strictly for PDP members, Obi is not known to be absent from any event that has governors in attendance in the Villa. Maybe that is one of the reasons why some people refer to the Alliance for Progressives Grand Alliance governor as ‘a PDP member in Diaspora’.
Obi is faithful when it comes to attending the National Economic Council monthly meetings chaired by Vice-President Namadi Sambo. He is not too disposed to sending his deputy to represent him. I did a random sampling of my colleagues in the State House Press Corps and none of the about 10 of them I spoke to know his deputy. As a member of the Economic Management Team, the governor also attends the team’s monthly meeting religiously. Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State is also a member of the EMT. He was also regular at such meetings until lately when a state of emergency was declared in his state.
Apart from these regular scheduled meetings, Obi is also a member of some other presidential committees that meet regularly in the Villa. One of such is the Committee on Police Reforms and Funding. Apart from meetings, he also breezes in once in a while to discuss issues relating to his state and other matters with the President.
The likes of Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State, Gabriel Suswam of Benue State, Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State and Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State also belong to committees that have to do with power or privatisation. But in all, Obi carries the day while Nyako is second.
Some governors are ‘scarce commodities’ as far as visiting the Villa is concerned. One that stands out is Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State. He is not known for regular visits. Many times, he will not attend NEC meetings and will not bother to send a representative. Somebody close to the governor said he vowed that he would only attend such meetings when serious issues are discussed. His definition of ‘serious issues’ is only known to him, so he goes with his own award……the least visiting governor!
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