Former
President Goodluck Jonathan, has reacted to claims made by the
presidency that he was responsible for the delay in the appointment of
Ministers by President Buhari in 2015. On Monday, Senior Special
Assistant to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said
President Buhari took six months in appointing his Ministers because the
former president did not give him handover notes. Read here.Reacting to
this claim, the former President through his media adviser, Ikechukwu
Eze, asked President Buhari to take responsibility for his failures as
he is not in any way responsible for his ineffectiveness. In a statement
released by Eze, Jonathan berated the presidency for always attempting
to paint his administration in bad light. He noted that the Buhari-led
administration was elected to come in to make progressive changes and
not remind Nigerians of his administration.Read the Full text of
ex-president Jonathan's replyGarba Shehu’s gaffe on Jonathan’s Handover
notes to Buhari 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.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. It is not a document that guides a
President to appoint his ministers.Under normal circumstances, a newly
inaugurated President needs the support of his ministers, who would
handle different departments of Government, to study and understand his
handover notes for effective performance of his initial duties. Those
who think like Shehu that a Government would not function properly if it
does not receive handover notes in time, should be reminded that there
is no law establishing the process. It is simply a matter of convenience
for an outgoing President to develop handover notes to guide his
successor understand key issues and hit the ground running.In his own
case, former president Jonathan magnanimously set up a transition team
that produced the handover document which President Buhari received
ahead of his inauguration. Anyone who uses handover notes to justify a
President’s indiscretion of not appointing ministers until after
spending six months in power, is either being mischievous or does not
really understand governance processes. Father Mbaka : The priest in the
eye of the storm Sometimes, when Mr. Shehu speaks, he comes across as
someone who is unaware of the fact that, under our laws, an
administration is elected for a tenure of four years within which it is
expected to have fulfilled its campaign promises, before returning to
the electorates for a fresh mandate.In case he does not know, Shehu
should be reminded that blaming others for one’s failures is not a prove
of performance. Assuming, without out 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 prove 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.From a past of the worst genocide in recent history, Rwandan
President Paul Kagame did not blame anybody when he took charge. He
simply hit the ground running, and today, we all know where Rwanda
stands in Africa’s growth and development index. The story is similar in
Cote d’Ivoire where President Alassane Ouattara was able to turn around
the Ivorian economy within two years after it had virtually collapsed
following the negative impact of the country’s worst political crisis.As
the Buhari Government nears its end, the minders of the administration
should please tell Nigerians what new projects, programmes and
institutions for good governance they have added to those established by
the various administrations of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),
since they took office on May 29, 2015. The truth is that this unhelpful
blame game must stop if we have to move forward as a nation.Ministerial appointments: ''I am not responsible for your failure'' - Jonathan replies Buhari
Former
President Goodluck Jonathan, has reacted to claims made by the
presidency that he was responsible for the delay in the appointment of
Ministers by President Buhari in 2015. On Monday, Senior Special
Assistant to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said
President Buhari took six months in appointing his Ministers because the
former president did not give him handover notes. Read here.Reacting to
this claim, the former President through his media adviser, Ikechukwu
Eze, asked President Buhari to take responsibility for his failures as
he is not in any way responsible for his ineffectiveness. In a statement
released by Eze, Jonathan berated the presidency for always attempting
to paint his administration in bad light. He noted that the Buhari-led
administration was elected to come in to make progressive changes and
not remind Nigerians of his administration.Read the Full text of
ex-president Jonathan's replyGarba Shehu’s gaffe on Jonathan’s Handover
notes to Buhari 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.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. It is not a document that guides a
President to appoint his ministers.Under normal circumstances, a newly
inaugurated President needs the support of his ministers, who would
handle different departments of Government, to study and understand his
handover notes for effective performance of his initial duties. Those
who think like Shehu that a Government would not function properly if it
does not receive handover notes in time, should be reminded that there
is no law establishing the process. It is simply a matter of convenience
for an outgoing President to develop handover notes to guide his
successor understand key issues and hit the ground running.In his own
case, former president Jonathan magnanimously set up a transition team
that produced the handover document which President Buhari received
ahead of his inauguration. Anyone who uses handover notes to justify a
President’s indiscretion of not appointing ministers until after
spending six months in power, is either being mischievous or does not
really understand governance processes. Father Mbaka : The priest in the
eye of the storm Sometimes, when Mr. Shehu speaks, he comes across as
someone who is unaware of the fact that, under our laws, an
administration is elected for a tenure of four years within which it is
expected to have fulfilled its campaign promises, before returning to
the electorates for a fresh mandate.In case he does not know, Shehu
should be reminded that blaming others for one’s failures is not a prove
of performance. Assuming, without out 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 prove 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.From a past of the worst genocide in recent history, Rwandan
President Paul Kagame did not blame anybody when he took charge. He
simply hit the ground running, and today, we all know where Rwanda
stands in Africa’s growth and development index. The story is similar in
Cote d’Ivoire where President Alassane Ouattara was able to turn around
the Ivorian economy within two years after it had virtually collapsed
following the negative impact of the country’s worst political crisis.As
the Buhari Government nears its end, the minders of the administration
should please tell Nigerians what new projects, programmes and
institutions for good governance they have added to those established by
the various administrations of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),
since they took office on May 29, 2015. The truth is that this unhelpful
blame game must stop if we have to move forward as a nation.
