President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday presented his handover notes and the recommendations of the 2014 National Conference to the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event, which took place at the Executive Chamber of the Presidential Villa in Abuja, was preceded by the guided tour of the State House complex.
At the ceremony, attended by the joint transition committee, Jonathan said the documents were to assist the incoming administration to navigate and resolve most of the problems hindering the nation’s progress.
“Let me formally invite the President-elect to hand over two documents, one of course is the hand over notes, well-packaged.
“But the volumes can fill here, the attachments can fill this room, but this is for you with a good executive summary.
“In any case, when you take over, the proper handover will be done by the directors and permanent secretaries that will brief their ministers whenever they are appointed.
“But, at least, this will give you a vision statement of the commitment of this government for the past five years in the direction we were going that will help you to navigate.
”So, it is my pleasure on behalf of the Vice President, members of the cabinet and other senior government functionaries to formally hand over these handover notes to Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, President-elect, who will assume office tomorrow. Congratulations.’’
The president said he was more interested in the implementation of the conference recommendations to resolve many national issues.
“There is another document that I will hand over to you.
“To me, this document is more important than the handover note.
“I have said it all, that the hand over notes are the activities of an administration. it shows how we started and how we were going. In some of the cases, you may follow; and in some, you may take another angle.
“But this is a document that was compiled by Nigerians, the main report of the National Conference 2014.
“We gathered almost 500 Nigerians from all aspects of life. They were not influenced by government in any way.
“And most of the recommendations here, if followed, most of our grey areas in our politics would be smoothened out. Most of the areas that people complain about bitterly, corruption, everything, this document took care of.
“Some people here were members of that body of about 500 eggheads. We were unable to because of the shortness of time to implement, but we were able to send it the National Assembly.
”But it is a document that we are hopeful that your government will look into it and give it the attention it requires.’’
The president also highlighted the achievements of his administration in infrasturucture development, electoral reforms and economy, human capital development and fighting corruption.
He said the period was full of challenges but that in spite of the odds and the fight against insurgency, Nigeria had moved on.
Jonathan said the efforts made to generate employment for the youth, save national funds through financial systems reforms, especially the weeding out of 60,450 ghost workers from 359 of the 425 agencies of government, saved the nation about N185.4 billion.
“Our administration has done its best to intervene robustly and impact positively on key aspects of our national lives.
“There is no doubt that challenges still abound but they are surmountable and overwhelming national transformation remains realisable with continuity, commitment and consistency.
“Nigeria is blessed with citizens that will always remain faithful, firmly committed to national unity, accelerated political, social and economic development.
“As we hand over the reins of government, I believe that our nation is secure, our democracy is stable and the future is bright.
“Let us all work together and with greater resolve continue to build a stronger and more positive nation.’’
In his remarks, the President-elect said he would study the two ducuments before making comments.
“I think, I will read and digest the voluminous submissions from your Excellency, the President.
”I don’t think I am in a position to make any strong contribution. But what I did say since that famous call you made, you have changed the course of Nigeria’s political history.
”For that, you have earned yourself a place in our history for stabilising this system of multi- party democracy system.
”And you have earned the respect of not only Nigerians but the World leaders.
“They spoke to me and congratulated us for arriving as a polity and I would like to mention this.
“And I could understand a lot of relief in their voices that Nigeria is ready afterall and this is largely owing to your statemanship.
“If you attempted to make things difficult, you could have make things difficult and that could have led to the loss of lives of poor Nigerians.
“You chose the path of honour and may God help us.’’
NAN reports that the event was attended by the members of the Jonathan’s cabinet and transition committees of the incoming and present administrations.(NAN)
