There have been speculations about what President Muhammadu Buhari told Senator Dino Melaye (PDP-Kogi West) after a picture emerged of the president pointing his index finger at the lawmaker after he presented the 2020 budget at the National Assembly on Tuesday, October 8.
In the photo which went viral on the internet, Melaye was seen responding to the president’s gesture by hailing him with a salutary fist.
However, The Nation reports that a source disclosed that the president had asked Melaye, “You mean you are still in this chamber?”
Melaye’s confrontational stance with Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC), some observers guessed that the president was issuing a threat to the outspoken senator.
A source who was reportedly at the scene of the interaction, however, disclosed that the president didn’t issue any threat but simply asked the lawmaker the afore-mentioned question.
The question may be in connection with the fact that the president had already gotten wind of the direction of the judgment of the appellate court which sacked Melaye on Friday, October 11.
Buhari may have simply been expressing surprise that the senator was still in the red chamber despite having been deposed.
President Muhammadu Buhari briefly exchanged pleasantries with Senator Dino Melaye during his presentation of the 2020 budget. Given the harshness and the consistency of his criticisms of the federal government, the last thing Nigerians expected to see was Melaye smiling and exchanging warm greetings with the president.
