By Etta Michael Bisong
Abuja
The seemingly endless blame game between President Muhammadu Buhari and his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan continued yesterday with the former claiming that the delay in constituting his cabinet was caused by Jonathan’s ill preparedness to hand over power.
Specifically, Buhari attributed the delay to what he called the “inadequacy of the handover notes from the previous administration,” which, according to him, “contributed in no small measure to the delay.”
The president therefore said he needed more time to have a clear idea of what his administration was inheriting, before constituting a new cabinet.
“The inadequacy of the handover notes contributed in no small measure to the delay in constituting my cabinet, as I needed to have a clear idea of what my Administration was inheriting. Had a system been in place, real-time information would have been available to assist the incoming government to quickly settle down, form my cabinet and go about the system of governance.”
President Buhari stated this while presenting his keynote address at the ongoing conference on Government Transition Framework for Nigeria, entitled: “The Challenges of Transition in Nigeria and Imperatives for a New Framework,” organised by the National Democratic Institute (NDI), in Abuja.
The President, who was represented by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, explained that his administration, in its wisdom, took a decision to constitute a transition committee for a smooth transition process in order to achieve his electoral mandate.
“I decided to constitute a transition committee which I constituted after our historic victory in the last election and had hoped that the outgoing government’s team will sit down with our committee to ensure an orderly handover of notes, exchange of views and clarifications.
“We expected a comprehensive report on the state of the economy, the security situation, infrastructure development or deficit and social issues, among others, in an atmosphere devoid of bitterness, confrontation and conflict.
“What we got was the exact opposite of what we expected. The team put in place by the outgoing government did not for once sit down with our own transition committee to discuss the nitty-gritty of what we were inheriting. The incoming government was completely left in the dark, and only got the handover notes four days to the hand-over date.
“The result was that the 19-member transition committee, led by Alhaji Ahmed Joda, had to turn itself to a resource group by dividing itself into five groups covering Finance and Economy, Security, Social Issues, Good Governance and Foreign Affairs.
“It was good that the committee took that action because when the outgoing government finally sent in its handover notes, they were not as helpful as they ought to have been. The notes did not disclose the information that would help the incoming government.
“This explains why, upon assuming office, I had to take briefings from ministries, departments and agencies for almost two months, even as I had to attend to other serious issues of governance.’’
The President, however, urged all democrats to imbibe the culture of true democracy, by appreciating the power of the people in determining whether or not they remain in power.
“No administration must look beyond its immediate mandate, and elected governments must eschew arrogance and avoid personalizing and politicizing the system.
“It is absolutely important that we put in place an institutionalized system that guarantees a seamless transition of power, whether intra, that is from a ruling government to itself, or inter, from the ruling power to the opposition.
“This will in turn reduce the kind of tension and anxiety that attended the last transition, and set the tone for a predictable and orderly transfer of power.
“Our Administration irrevocably committed to our cardinal programmes of tackling insecurity and corruption, as well as creating jobs through the diversification of the economy and upgrading of
infrastructure, it is also determined to ensure that our change agenda touches all spheres of our national life.”
In his welcome address, the NDI Country Director, Jasper Veen, said despite the growth in absolute and relative number of democracies with elected presidents, there was comparative lack of experience and understanding of how a country transitions from one government to another.
Other speakers at the conference, who expressed satisfaction with the just concluded general elections, noted that democracy had established its roots deeper than people imagined.