The Federal Government has said that the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari will receive the hand-over note from the outgoing government on May 28, a day before his inauguration.
He will be hosted to a dinner, which will be President Goodluck Jonathan’s last official engagement on May 28 and be given the notes, the Minister of Information, Patricia Akwashiki said.
She made this announcement after the meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) which was presided over by President Jonathan.
According to her, May 29 has been reserved for the incoming government and other activities have been lined up “to showcase what Jonathan’s administration has achieved”.
She also said the President has directed all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to submit their transitional briefs to the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) on Monday.
“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 on May 29,” Mrs. Akwashiki said.
According to her, a format has been developed for all the MDAs to follow in preparing the notes.
She said: “So we are going to be busy putting our handing over notes together. The President also emphasised that he would require another little briefing from all MDAs to indicate inherited projects, how far it has been executed and initiated projects by his administration and the level of completion, whether completed, ongoing or abandoned.
“If they do that, it will be easier for the President to compile everything. The format is to ensure you submit everything before they are passed to the incoming government.
“We discussed other issues but we are particularly paying attention to the transition and how to make it effective. As you are all aware, we have transitional committee already set up by President, headed by the Vice President. Other than that, we have an inaugural committee that is headed by the SGF.
“So everything we are doing we are doing to achieve smooth transition, getting all our notes together. That is not to say that governance has stopped. Of course, we are in government until the day the president-elect takes the oath of office.”
She also added that “There is no space vacuum, there are things happening. And if you have any pending contract approval, it has to be submitted before the 13th of May. Everything that requires the President’s approval should be submitted before May 13th.”
“We also do not want the incoming administration to accuse us of rushing projects, which is normal. So, we are guided by that. And if you have approvals, we are going to have Federal Executive Council every week. The last one that will be the valedictory one will be on 20th May, 2015,” she stated.
