Stop blame games, your incompetence reason for your failures, Jonathan tells Buhari

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has expressed worries over the unending blame of pst administrations by President Muhammadu Buhari for the perceived failures of the current government.

He has therefore called on the Presidency to free him of their blame games but instead blame the incompetence of President Muhammadu Buhari for his clear failures about four years of his government.

Jonathan was responding to the claim by Buhari’s spokesman, Garba Shehu, that the reason it took Buhari about six months to appoint his minister was because the immediate past administration did not give him handover notes in time.

Earlier, Phrank Shuaibu, a spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, campaign organisation had alleged that Buhari’s delay in constituting a cabinet contributed to the factors that pushed the country into recession following Buhari’s assumption of power.

Responding, during an appearance on Channels Television’s morning breakfast show, Sunrise, Shehu claimed that the former administration kept Buhari in the dark until two days to the inauguration.

“The claims made by my dear friend here that President Buhari spent 166 days without forming a cabinet, that absolutely is untrue. It took him time to form a cabinet because the outgoing administration in 2015 did not cooperate with the transition committee.

“The President was given handover notes 48 hours to the handover of power and for whatever reason, the President at that time determined that, the question that President Buhari was asking, for details of this and that, amounting to running a second government in office. And he came out to all his ministers and permanent secretaries not to cooperate with Buhari that this country will not have two governments running at the same,” Shehu had claimed.

Responding in a statement through his media adviser, Ikechukwu Eze, Jonathan said, “Assuming, without conceding, that the last administration was as bad as they want Nigerians to believe, is it not a fact of governance that it is the duty of every responsible administration to seek to make better the situation it met on ground? Anything less than that is a proof of incompetence for which a failed administration has no moral justification to ask for a fresh mandate.

“While members of the current administration continue to blame President Jonathan for their failure to deliver on their mandate, they should be reminded that there are many African success stories that proved that a progress-minded administration has no business focusing only on the past.”

The statement entitled ‘Garba Shehu’s gaffe on Jonathan’s handover notes to Buhari’ read, “Our attention has been drawn to a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu in which he blamed the failure of President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint ministers until six months after taking over office on the administration of former President Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.

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“Speaking on a Channels television programme on Monday December 17, Shehu had claimed that it took President buhari who was sworn in on May 29, 2015 until November 11, 2015 to appoint his ministers because the “President was given handover notes 48 hours to the handover of power”.

“As strange as that particular assertion may sound, it still beggars belief that a spokesman of a President who is seeking re-election would still be looking for a scapegoat for the administration’s failure, at a time he should be showcasing his scorecard. That amounts to merely clutching at straws.

“One thing is as clear as daylight: The Jonathan administration has absolutely nothing to do with the failure of this government to appoint ministers early enough to inspire confidence in investors because it is obvious that handover notes from a predecessor does not contain the list of ministers for the incoming administration.

“However, that is even making light of Garba Shehu’s unending embarrassing gaffe. It is expected that a man who has been around the corridors of power for that long, beginning from when he served as a media adviser under President Obasanjo for years, should understand Government’s basic functions and procedures. Handover notes, being transitioning documents, are usually received by an incoming President from his predecessor at the time of change of government.”

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