Transition Committee Submits Report Without Outgoing Goodluck Jonathan Govt's Input

President-elect, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, on Thursday, said the 19-man transition committee he set up was to enable him hit the ground running after inauguration, saying “it is not that we are preparing for indictment. What we are trying to get is a starting point.”

Buhari spoke when he received interim report of the transition committee, led by its chairman, Alhaji Ahmed Joda.

While addressing the committee members, the president-elect said the outgoing government misunderstood his intention of setting up the transition committee, saying “what we expected was for the outgoing government to make a presentation to this (transition) committee and for this committee to study the document and make submission to the incoming government.”

The president-elect, who thanked the committee members for their efforts, said “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 incoming government.”

To this end, he said “my expectations was that each ministry makes their 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.”

On his part, Alhaji Joda said the committee’s interim report was without the input from the outgoing government, noting that the committee was expecting to get the report of the Federal Government’s side today.

The interim report dealt with issues of good governance namely the executive, legislature and judiciary, finance and economy, as well as core sectors like agriculture, oil and gas and solid minerals.

The report also looked at infrastructure and power, national security, education, health and social welfare.