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The Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting which is expected to hold today, Wednesday has been shifted to Thursday, sources within the presidency say.
While it is hard to confirm why the meeting was shifted different sources are giving various reasons.
One source, which spoke to Daily Trust said the meeting was shifted because the details of the 2018 budget, which are billed to be discussed, are still being worked on by the Budget Office.
President Muhammadu Buhari had last week submitted the 2018-2020 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and the Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) to the National Assembly in which he proposed the sum of N8.6 trillion for the 2018 budget. The Federal Government had said that the 2018 budget proposal would be submitted to the National Assembly in October.
President Buhari returned from Niamey, Niger Republic Tuesday evening where he had attended the 4th meeting of the Presidential Task Force on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Currency Programme.
Other sources believe the FEC meeting was shifted to allow President Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to rest after as both of them had been out of the country in the last one week.
Buhari had, in the previous week, also travelled to Istanbul, Turkey where he met with leaders of the D-8 countries before travelling to Niger. Osinbajo on the other hand, left the country on Sunday for Indonesia.
NewTelegraph investivations however reveal that the President is still tinkering with the idea of carrying out major changes in the cabinet and is likely to do so on Thursday.
A senior presidency official, who spoke to the newspaper on the condition of anonymity, said President Buhari is likely to shock most of his cabinet members tomorrow when they meet.
“I can confirm to you the issue of making changes in the cabinet of part of the reasons why the meeting was rescheduled for a Thursday.
“The FEC is really one of the items scheduled for Thursday 11a.m.,” the source said.