Buhari says GEJ is reason new govt is slow

The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media, Garba Shehu says the president has been unable to meet the expectations of Nigerians to hit the ground running because the last administration of Goodluck Jonathan did not deliver the handover notes on time.

This is coming amid a public outcry over President Buhari’s delay in announcing his choice of ministers.

Speaking in an interview with Sahara TV on Saturday, Garba who begged Nigerians to be patient, said “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.

“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).

“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 explained that the ministerial appointments had yet to be made because the committee needed to conclude its findings first, an 800-page report of which was presented to Buhari on Friday.

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