A method is provided by a network element to execute a forwarding information base (FIB) manager to program a packet forwarding function of the network element. The FIB manager supports a hybrid control plane with software defined networking (SDN) and local control plane processes. The method includes receiving a request to configure a node reachability configuration element, where the node reachability element describes packet processing instruction for the packet forwarding function to forward packets toward a referred node, selecting a flow control agent to be updated for reachability to the referred node, and updating a logical forwarding information representation to encode a next hop identifier for the referred node.