The president-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, lamented that the out-going administration of President Goodluck Jonathan has failed to provide the in-coming government with all the necessary information needed for a smooth take-off next week, particularly on how to tackle the current fuel scarcity in the country.
General Buhari, who spoke when the APC Transition Committee headed by Ambassador Ahmed Joda submitted an interim report of the committee to him, also said the out-going government misunderstood the terms of reference of the committee, thinking he was already running a parallel government.
Ahmed Joda had earlier told General Buhari that the government committee headed by Vice-President Namadi Sambo refused to provide his committee with necessary information to make better decisions.
According to Joda, the committee had to rely on its initiative and assistance from the organized private sector, the Lagos Business School, international development partners and members of the public to draw up a plan.
In his response, Buhari stated that the aim of the committee was not to indict anyone, but to make adequate preparations for the task ahead.
He said: “The in-coming government was misunderstood. It is not that we are preparing for indictment. What we are trying to get is a starting point, where exactly we are going to start from.
“We have seen the debt profile now and the performance of the economy. The question is, what can we do about it especially the urgent ones like social security, lack of fuel in the country and fraud? The list is endless. I thank you for what you have done and I hope that the subsequent submission by the government will make your job easier and more efficient and tell us where to begin from.
“What we expected was for the out-going government to make a presentation to this committee and for this committee to study the document and make submission to the in-coming government.
“For your simple mindedness, you went to work. But unfortunately, this committee was accused of running a parallel government. From then on, this committee was constrained to take this initiative and break into various sub-committees and assigned various tasks to study the most important issues nationwide and see what they can put on record.
“I thank you very much for this effort which you have made and I want to assure you that we will find time to read your initial report and when the government decides to finally present to you their own records, you will study them and merge with the report of the various committees and present to the in-coming government.
“My expectation was that each ministry will make its own presentations. The politicians know that they are going, while the bureaucrats who do the jobs know they are staying.
“They are the ones who are going to do the job and they are going to be available to help cross-check the information. I think that this research you have made will help the incoming government to cross-check the information on paper given by the outgoing government”.
While making the presentation earlier, Joda said that though the Federal Government did not make any input in the interim report, the committee was expecting government report today, stressing that availability of useful tips from the government would tremendously help in the final report of the committee. – Vanguard.
