Jonathan, Buhari’s committees meet again, deny rift

The leadership of the two transition committees, set up to ensure smooth transition of power from President Goodluck Jonathan to the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, on Monday denied any rift between them.  Vice-President Namadi Sambo heads the committee, set up by Jonathan while Ahmed Joda headd the one put together by Buhari.

The All Progressives Congress had recently accused the Presidency of not cooperating with the Joda-led committee. The allegation was however denied by the Sambo-led committee, which said it had had fruitful deliberations with the Buhari’s committee at least twice. On Monday, Joda again led some members of his committee to meet with the government’s group inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

At the end of the closed-door session, he told State House correspondents that his committee had been getting all necessary cooperation from the outgoing government.He said his committee had never told anybody or group that it had not been receiving the necessary cooperation from the outgoing government’s committee.

“Our committee has never said to anybody that there is no cooperation. We have never said that and we are waiting for the reports, until when they come,” he declared.His position was corroborated by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Pius Anyim, who described the Monday meeting as “fruitful and cordial.”He said there was no contending issue between the two committees as being speculated in some quarters.He said, “The meeting was very, very fruitful, it was very cordial.

“There is certainly no (contending) issue; we are flowing and we have clearer understanding of the working of the two committees.”

Contrary to Anyim’s position however, the Minister of National Planning, Dr. Abubakar Sulaiman, had recently said the Federal Government took exception to some utterances and terms of reference of the transition committee set up by Buhari.

The minister, who is the chairman of the Technical Subcommittee of the outgoing government’s transition committee, had said the government noted that such actions were suggesting that the current government was either being stampeded or being intimidated.

He had said,

“We did receive from the incoming government’s transition committee some terms of reference, which we looked at critically and council did agree that Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan remains the current head of government of this country.

 

“The incoming government should avoid creating a parallel government while the government is still on.

 

“We take exception to some utterances and some of the terms of reference that look as if the current government is being stampeded or intimidated.

 

“Council frowned on ‎most of the statements, most of the provocations and council members are advised to work in line with the terms of reference of the current government.

 

“Council members are also told that the terms of reference as formatted by our transition committee should be strictly complied with.

 

“When the incoming government takes over government, they can come out with their programmes, they can come out with their own ‎agenda, they can decide to come out with policies in the way they feel like.

 

“This government remains resolute to the various programmes and projects ‎it is pursuing and the government will continue to do that until the morning of May 29.“