Presidency says Jonathan is to blame for delayed ministerial list

The Presidency has said that President Muhammadu Buhari is yet to appoint ministers into his cabinet because he did not receive handover notes from former President Goodluck Jonathan on time.

This was disclosed on Saturday, June 13, 2015, by Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Media, Garba Shehu during an interview with Sahara TV.

Shehu also urged citizens to be patient with the President and stop comparing his government to states who have already chosen commissioners.

“The President did say he would hit the ground running, but he has not been given the chance to hit the ground running because the administration that he succeeded — the Jonathan administration — 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,” Shehu said.

“Unfortunately, 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),” he added.

“To be fair to him, he 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,” Shehu said.

Buhari is expected to present his ministerial list to the National Assembly next week.