POWER TRANSITION: Jonathan To Handover May 28

President Goodluck Jonathan, outgoing President (Image source: The Nation)

Based on briefing from the Minister of Information Patricia Akwashiki, GRAPHITTI NEWS gathers that President-elect Muhammadu Buhari will receive the hand-over note from the outgoing government on May 28, a day before his inauguration. The President-elect will be hosted to a dinner in what will be President Goodluck Jonathan’s last official engagement on May 28 and be given the notes, Minister of Information Patricia Akwashiki said.

This the outline of the transition of power plan as announced by the Federal Government said yesterday.

The Minister briefed reporters after the meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) presided over by President Jonathan.

The Nation report continues:

According to her, May 29 has been reserved for the incoming government.

Other activities have been lined up “to showcase what Jonathan’s administration has achieved”.

She said the President has also directed all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to submit their transitional briefs to the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) on Monday.

The MDAs have also been directed to submit latest by May 13, anything requiring President Jonathan’s approval.

The FEC will hold its valedictory session on May 20.

“Also, you know May 29 is our Democracy Day.  So 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 on May 29,” Mrs. Akwashiki said

According to her, a format has been developed for all the MDAs to follow in preparing the notes.

She said: “So we are going to be very busy this weekend, putting our handing over notes together. The President also emphasized that he would require another little briefing from all MDAs to indicate inherited projects, how far it has been executed and initiated projects by his administration and the level of completion, whether completed, ongoing or abandoned.

“If they do that, it will be easier for the President to compile everything. The format is to ensure you submit everything before they are passed to the incoming government.

“We discussed other issues but we are particularly paying attention to the transition and how to make it effective. As you are all aware, we have transitional committee already set up by President, headed by the Vice President. Other than that, we have an inaugural committee that is headed by the SGF.

“So everything we are doing we are doing to achieve smooth transition, getting all our notes together.

“That is not to say that governance has stopped. Of course, we are in government until the day the president-elect takes oath of office.”

“There is no space vacuum, there are things happening. And if you have any pending contract approval, it has to be submitted before the 13th of May. Everything that requires the President’s approval should be submitted before May 13th.”

“We also do not want the incoming administration to accuse us of rushing projects, which is normal. So, we are guided by that. And if you have approvals, we are going to have Federal Executive Council every week. The last one that will be the valedictory one will be on May 20th.”

“So governance is not stopping, we are still working and in the event you have approvals it must be concluded before 13th,” Mrs. Akwashiki said.