The Presidency on Monday blamed former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan for current president Muhammadu Buhari’s delay in forming government cabinet.
Buhari, sworn in on May 29, 2015, took over six months after to assemble his working cabinet – November 11.
Although the president did not give reasons for the delay, over three years after, a presidential spokesman Gerba Shehu said the former government’s transition committee did not cooperate with Buhari.
“That President Buhari took 166 days to form a cabinet is absolutely untrue. It took him time to form a cabinet because the outgoing administration in 2015 did not cooperate with the transition committee,” Shehu said while speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
Shehu alleged that Jonathan did not give Buhari handover notes until 48 hours before his departure.
According to him, “The President was given handover notes 48 hours to the handover of power and for whatever reason, the President at that time determined that two governments would not operate at the same time.”
He said Jonathan told all ministers and permanent secretaries under his government not to cooperate with Buhari and “we cannot have the two governments at the same time.”
However, on the same programme, a spokesman for the People’s Democratic Party presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation, Phrank Shuaibu, said it had become usual for Buhari to blaming others for his inability to prepare for office.
“Saying Mr President had to wait for handover notes from his predecessor before forming a cabinet is an admittance of lack of preparedness for the office of the President and the onerous responsibility of managing a country like Nigeria,” Shuaibu said.
playing the blame-game is their usual style. Talking about PDP is out of place he (Buhari) knows he’s a failure
“For an office, you sought election for four times, obviously you should be able to identify eggheads that can help you manage the country.”
He argued that if Buhari had prepared for office “he didn’t need to wait for handover notes before being able to form a cabinet. He had no working plan. He was practically what El-Rufai would refer to as an accidental public servant or an accidental President.”
