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| Buhari, President-elect (L) and Osinbajo, Vice President-elect (R) |
GRAPHITTI NEWS had reported on the
disquiet and concerns among stakeholders over the unnecessary “innovation” the
Jonathan Administration wishes to introduce with the proposal to handover on
May 28 rather than May 29 as appropriate.
As the day of transition approaches,
the speculation over the real motive of Jonathan Government grows. There are
strong undercurrents in various quarters and nobody has embraced the purported
explanation of wanting to reserve May 29 we can reserve May 29 for “the
incoming government” and for Democracy Day proffered by the Minister of
Information after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting last Wednesday.
Conspiracy theorists have now
shifted their speculative machine into high gear.
Now a Punch newspaper investigation
is adding gristle to the speculation feedmill.
The Saturday Punch reports:
There are indications that the All Progressives
Congress is uncomfortable with the May 28 handover date proposed by the
out-going administration.
Investigation by Saturday Punch
revealed that the outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan and the President-elect,
Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) are set to clash over a proposal by the Jonathan
team to hand over the mantle of leadership to Buhari on May the 28th, instead
of the 29th.
Saturday Punch gathered that the Buhari team had already gone over what they considered as
an act of ill-will laced with sinister motives. This is sequel to an announcement by
the Minister of Information, Senator Patricia Akwashiki, that President
Jonathan would perform the handover ceremony at a dinner on May 28.
Akwashiki made the announcement
after Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council meeting.
She told journalists, “By May 28,
the President intends to have the formal handover done at a dinner so that we
can reserve May 29 for the incoming government.”
However, since the return of
democracy in 1999, the traditional date for the handover of power has been May
29, which is also observed as Democracy Day.
This tradition has been the vogue
for the past 16 years. It also presents an opportunity for the outgoing
President to formally present the instrument of authority to his successor in
the full glare of members of the public, local and international media, as well
as foreign dignitaries.
A top member of the All Progressives
Congress, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to
speak to the media said, “It is simply not acceptable, we are rejecting it, it
is a trap.”
He explained that from a security
point of view, it could be considered a trap.
“How can anyone explain a situation
where an outgoing president and his team will conveniently excuse themselves from
an event where they are supposed to play a role when the President-elect and
the Vice-President- elect are supposed to be present?” he queried.
According to the party chieftain,
power abhors a vacuum as such, the constitution does not envisage a situation
where Nigeria will be without a sitting President even for one hour.
He said, “If Jonathan hands over on
the 28th, who accounts for the hours before the morning of the 29th when the
Chief Justice of the Federation is to administer the oath of office and the
oath of allegiance?
“What if there is even a sinister
motive to this whole saga? As the President of the nation; who will still be
the Chief Security officer until he hands over, there is no excuse that is
strong enough to excuse him from the event.”
When contacted, a member of the
Buhari campaign team, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, said while he was not privy to any
meeting on the subject yet, it was only logical to ask Nigerians not to rest on
their oars until total liberation was achieved.
He described the announcement by
President Jonathan to hand over a day earlier than was due as a ploy to rubbish
the gains made with the historic win by the opposition APC.
Fashakin said, “It (the proposed
handover on the 28th) portends ill for the political destiny of this nation.
“That statement is loaded and it
shows that the Nigerian people should not rest yet that there is still ominous
signs which we should never take for granted. If Jonathan truly said he is
handing over on the 28th it presupposes that he will be absent on the 29th.
“Number one, if he hands over on the
28th to the President-elect, does Gen. Muhammadu Buhari start to act
effectively on that date? The answer is an emphatic NO.
“GMB does not start to act on that
date, if you get what I mean. Handing over to GMB on that date is not only
meaningless, it is stupid. It has no meaning in law, or reality. It means that
for 24 hours before GMB takes over there will be a vacuum.”
He further argued that on the side
of morality, Nigeria borrowed its constitution substantially from the American
Constitution, and as such, it should learn a thing or two about how it
operates.
He said there was never a time in
recorded history where an outgoing American President, who is hale and hearty,
will absent himself from the handover ceremony of his successor no matter their
political differences.
Although, it is not yet clear how
the Buhari team would handle “this threat,” it was learnt that the party’s
legal team is being put on notice to be on the alert.
It was also gathered that the
President-elect and his team have kept the issue of ministerial appointments in
abeyance.
A member of the party’s National
Working Committee, who pleaded for anonymity because he was not authorized to
speak to the media, said, “The general is a meticulous person and we all know
that the main task before us now is the transition committee. The issue of who
will be minister has been kept in abeyance.”
When contacted to speak on the
president-elect’s views on the handover date and appointments, the APC National
Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said, “You will get our reaction
later after due consultation.”
Attempts to speak with the Minister
of Information proved abortive. She was not in the office when our correspondent
visited. However, the Personal Assistant to the Minister on Media, Mr. Joseph
Mutah, promised to get in touch with her and revert to our correspondent.
He had yet to do that as of the time
of going to the press and when his mobile number was called, he did not pick
the call.
The Information Minister had also
after the FEC meeting said the President had directed all Ministries,
Departments and Agencies to prepare their handover notes and submit them to the
Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Pius Anyim, on or before Monday.
According to her, it is Anyim’s
responsibility to compile the notes, which will form Jonathan’s handover
document to Buhari on May 28.
She had said, “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 that is coming up on May 29.”
The minister said the valedictory
FEC meeting would hold on May 20, adding that everything that required the
President’s approval must have been presented to him by May 13.
Meanwhile, two Senior Advocates of
Nigeria, Sebastian Hon and Joseph Nwobike, on Friday, disagreed on the appropriateness
of President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision to hand over on May 28 instead of May
29 when his four-year tenure will statutorily end.
The two lawyers spoke with one of
our correspondents in separate telephone interviews.
Hon insisted that the best option
was for the President to hand over on May 29 as past presidents had done.
But Nwobike said nothing was
unconstitutional in the president’s decision as handing over is a process that
would end with the inauguration of the incoming president on May 29.
Nwobike said, “Handing over is a
process and not an event. So the paper work will be done on May 28 and the formalization and the completion will occur on May 29. So there is clearly
nothing unconstitutional about it.”
But Hon queried the basis for the President’s
plan to hand over on May 28 as doing such on May 29 as it is usually done would
not affect the nation’s democracy.
He said, “The best and the most
appropriate thing to do is for President Jonathan to hand over at 12.01am of
the morning of May 29, 2015.
“If he hands over before May 29, it
means he is no longer the president. He should hand over by 12.01am of May 29
or do as the usual practice by 7am in the past. It will not be late if it is
done by 7am on the morning of May 29.
“Remember that all former presidents took over
on the morning of May 29. If he does that, nobody will query him and the
transition will not be truncated.”
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