The growing international recognition accorded Nigeria’s President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, as well as his continuous activities in recent times are already causing ripples in the presidency, Huhuonline.com can report.
This got to a head on Wednesday when some of the ministers in the out-going government of President Goodluck Jonathan raised alarm, just after the weekly Federal Executive Council Meeting.
Since the results of the election were released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Buhari has been receiving international guests and delegations.
He recently moved to the Defence House, Abuja to continue with his activities.
Just before the presidency warned Buhari against establishing a parallel government on Wednesday, the President-elect had inaugurated a 19-man transition committee with terms of reference which — apart from liaising with the out-going administration for purposes of a smooth hand-over and to receive hand-over documents from Ministries, Departments and Agencies in order to itemise the most important or most urgent issues confronting the in-coming government — is expected to review and make preliminary assessment of the balance sheet of government “with particular emphasis on the status of assets and liabilities of government; cash flow position of the government; quantum of public domestic and external debt of government and their deployment; government’s out-standing contractual obligations and its ability to meet such obligations and the status of implementation of capital projects.
“The committee is also expected to undertake a preliminary assessment of the security challenges facing the country and the counter-insurgency measures taken by the government thus far; the counter policy measures being implemented in the Niger Delta to deal with unrest and major economic crimes in the area. In particular, the status of the Amnesty Programme, the readiness of the Police and other national security and intelligence agencies in addressing threats to law and order and provide a brief over-view of CBN, NNPC, NCC, Customs andFIRS,” a statement by Lai Mohammed, spokesman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, had said adding that the committee is expected to come up with urgent solutions to some of the problems.
But in its reaction, the presidency, through the Minister of National Planning, Dr. Abubakar Sulaiman, said it was taking exception to some of the terms of reference of the committee.
Giving the impression that this was part of the discussions at the Federal Executive Council Meeting, Sulaiman, who heads the Technical Sub-committee of the outgoing government’s transition committee, said the FEC was not happy with the way Buhari was carrying on and so warned against running a parallel government since there is still a government in place.
To him, the magnanimity already shown by President Goodluck Jonathan should not be taken as a sign of cowardice.
Buhari, while inaugurating the committee, said the terms of reference was not a witch-hunting exercise by the incoming government since what has been done cannot be undone.
The President-elect, who later attended the induction ceremony of newly elected National Assembly members, however said the report expected from the transition committee was to enable his government know the steps to take.
