Former Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim has opened up on the meeting with President Bola Tinubu at Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Wednesday.
Daily Trust had reported how Anyim and Olisa Metuh, former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), visited Tinubu.
Addressing reporters after the meeting, Anyim, who served as Secretary to the Government of the Federation under ex-President Godluck Jonathan, said, “It was a great honour to pay courtesy to the President and congratulate him, first and foremost, for his successful inauguration as the 16th President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and also to encourage and congratulate him for the bold he has taken so far. We had a whole lot of heart-to-heart discussions, but primarily, it’s to congratulate him.”
On his part, Metuh said while he commended the President for a good start in the area of policies and also discussed the idea of “participatory democracy”.
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The PDP ex-spokesman said although the country had suffered awful injuries in the past eight years, he was confident that the Tinubu administration would achieve national cohesion.
Metuh said, “We came to see the President, to commend him for his very good takeoff; the policies he has brought, his inclusiveness, and most of all to canvass for the idea of participatory governance, participatory democracy.
“We believe that for policies and programmes, there has to be options and alternatives for those programmes, but only when we are together can we achieve success. Our nation has bled for over eight years, but we believe that from now onwards, Mr President has shown the way that the country will come together and then we’ll be able to live happily.”
The duo were very critical of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the platform under which Tinubu contested and won the presidency in the buildup to the 2015 elections.
But Anyim teamed up with the APC in Ebonyi for the victory of Governor Francis Nwifuru in the March 18, 2023 gubernatorial election.
Metuh had in October 2022 announced his resignation from the PDP and partisan politics.
He had, in a letter dated October 25th, 2022 and addressed to the party’s National Chairman, stated that his decision to leave the party was taken in the course of his recent medical trip abroad.
This was after he stood trial for alleged corruption under ex-President Muhammadu Buhari.
