TheCable

President Goodluck Jonathan has fixed May 28 for handover to the new government of Muhammadu Buhari, rather than the conventional May 29.

This was revealed by Patricia Akwashiki, the minister for information, who spoke to journalists at the end of Wednesday’s edition of the weekly federal executive council meeting.

Akwashiki said the president would hand over on May 28 at a dinner with Buhari and his incoming governing team, while reserving the May 29 democracy day for the new government.

“By May 28, the president intends to have the formal handover done at a dinner,” she said.

“You know May 29 is our Democracy Day – we have activities lined up all through that week, showcasing all what we have achieved and all other things we do normally on our Democracy Day except that this year is special with the inauguration of our new president.”

She added that all handover notes are expected to have been submitted on or before April 20, which is the next meeting date for the presidential transition committee.

“The president emphasised the need for all MDAs and government parastatals and departments, agencies to submit their handover notes to the office of the SGF by the 20th (April) that is next Monday. So, we are going to be very busy this weekend, putting our handover notes together.

“The president also emphasised that he will require another little briefing from all MDAs to indicate inherited projects, how they have been executed, initiated projects by his administration and their level of completion (whether completed or ongoing or abandoned).”

Jonathan’s side of the presidential transitional committee began its work with a meeting on Monday.

Addressing journalists after the meeting, Pius Anyim, the secretary to the federal government, had said his duty was to “collect from all the MDAs (ministries, departments and agencies) our own handover briefs, prepare the handover briefs, prepare the president’s handover note”.

“After we have collected our own briefs from the ministries, then we put it together and interface with the other committee so that whatever clarifications they want, whatever questions they have, we will be able to address them,” he said.

Present at the committee’s meeting were the likes of Jelil Adesiyan, ministers of police affairs; Idris Umar, minister of transport, Paul Orhi, director-general of national agency for and drugs administration and control (NAFDAC); Mohammed Adoke, attorney general of the federation; and Bashir Yuguda, minister of state for finance.