By Bode Olagoke
Abuja
President-elect Muhammadu Buhari yesterday accused the federal government of misunderstanding his intention of setting up the APC transition committee and refusing to provide it with the necessary information needed to carry out its duty.
Likewise, the chairman of the APC committee, Alhaji Ahmed Joda, complained that the government’s own transition committee headed by Vice-President Mohammed Namadi Sambo, has refused to provide them with information to work with. It, therefore, had to rely on its own initiative.
Receiving the interim report of the committee in Abuja yesterday, Buhari said he was disappointed that “the incoming government was misunderstood”, adding: “It is not that we are preparing for indictment. We are trying to get a starting point, where exactly 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 and 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 outgoing government to make a presentation to this committee and for this committee to study the document and make submission to the incoming government.
“For your simple-mindedness, you went to work. But unfortunately, this committee is accused of being a federal government. From then on, this committee was constrained to take this initiative and breaking into various subcommittees 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 incoming government.
“My expectation 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”.
Presenting the interim report to the President-elect, its Joda said they had to prepare the first interim report without input from the government, adding that they are expecting the government to make a presentation to the committee on Friday (today).
Joda, who led other members of the committee to the Defence House, said when they eventually get such input, it would be built into the final report that would be submitted to him after the May 29 inauguration.
While complaining of lack of time for the committee to carry out its work, Joda said the committee would have needed more members and time to adequately cover all areas, adding that in spite of the limitations, they were able to cover all areas by breaking into four different sub-committees.
Joda said the committee received a lot of contributions from Nigerians, especially those who have served the country both in the private and the public sectors and in various fields.
