Jonathan Behind My Ministerial List Delay–Buhari

Nigerians are gradually becoming impatient over the delay by President Muhammadu Buhari to announce those he wants to work with in his cabinet. This is coupled with the fact that it has not made this administration get to work in earnest as expected by many Nigerians who voted him in power to give them the desired change.

But in an interview with Sahara TV on Saturday, the Presidency explained the reason for the delay.

Senior Special Assistant on Media to Buhari, Garba Shehu, explained in the interview that the delay was because the immediate past administration of Goodluck Jonathan “did not deliver the handover notes until two or three days to the inauguration, meaning that these handover notes were submitted at a time when everyone had been consumed by [inauguration] activities.”

He stressed that “there was no time to look at them until after the President had been inaugurated. The President was left in the dark. He had to understand what the situation was and what was on the ground.

“That was why he set up a different transition committee. It was only this week that the committee, led by Dr. Ahmed Joga, scrutinised the handover notes and handed over the report to him [Buhari].”

Shehu disclosed that Buhari “would have hit the ground running if the previous government had handed over the notes early. However, the Jonathan government did not even permit any minister to interact in any way with the Buhari Transition Committee. Evidently, we had our hands tied behind our backs until we took over. Thus, there is nothing shady about it.”