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President Muhammadu Buhari has presided over the country’s first ever virtual Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.
The FEC is the country’s highest decision-making body and it held this week as an e-cabinet where decisions including the formal announcement of Professor Agboola Ibrahim Gambari, 75, as the president’s new chief of staff was announced.
Presidential sources revealed that the weekly FEC may now be convening virtually as e-FEC until the pandemic is brought under control.
The last FEC meeting held physically March 18, 2020, inside the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa, Abuja. It was suspended indefinitely in March following the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown across Nigeria.
The virtual FEC meeting was organised and coordinated by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami whose ministry oversees Galaxy Backbone, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and Nigerian Communications Satellite (NigComSat) Limited – the three agencies responsible for providing the connectivity and online tools.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and with continuous use of technology, government activities would run uninterrupted, said Minister for Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed.
Gambari, scholar and diplomat; former Minister for External Affairs and Nigerian UN Envoy, assumed office as chief of staff following the demise of Abba Kyari, one of Nigeria’s high profile victim of COVID-19.
