No shred of information on handover, says APC

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has insisted that the Jonathan administration is not cooperating with the its transition committee, while describing, Olisa Metuh, spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as a man with an incurable disdain for the truth.

“We say, with all sense of responsibility, that as of today, May 14th 2015, just about two weeks to the May 29th handover date, no shred of information as to the status of governance from any ministry, department or agency of government has been given to our transition committee,” the party said in a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday by Lai Mohammed, its national publicity secretary.

“If that qualifies, in Metuh’s lexicon, as cooperation, then there is a problem somewhere. We dare Metuh or anyone for that matter, to controvert the fact that not a line of handover note has been handed over to our transition committee. Until then, Metuh has egg on his
face.”

The APC restated its earlier advice to Metuh to urgently undertake a crash course on how to be an opposition party spokesman so he would not talk or write himself into avoidable trouble in the days ahead.

The party admonished the PDP spokesman to always cross-check the information available to him in order to separate rumours from facts,
saying had he done that, he would not have issued the statement in which he tried to cast aspersion on the APC by accusing it of ”fabricating lies” over the issue of the Jonathan administration’s non-cooperation with the APC transition committee.

“Metuh decided to put his foot in his mouth when he latched on to the statement made by our transition committee chairman, forgetting that in making his statement, the chairman was only acting the statesman that he is by not saying anything that will put the federal government in bad light,” it said.

“A discerning party spokesman, rather than a rabble-rousing one, would have understood the elder statesman’s stand for what it is
instead of using it as a peg to issue a needless, hollow statement that puts his party and government in bad light. We had decided to
allow sleeping dogs to lie, but now that Metuh has stirred the hornet’s nest, it is time to put out the facts for Nigerians to judge.

“What happened was that, following the request by our transition committee to meet with them, they invited us to what was the first
formal meeting between both transition committees. But the meeting was a mere photo-op, as it yielded nothing concrete as far as handover notes are concerned.

“In fact, what we met at the so-called meeting was far worse than what we had thought. Whereas we had hoped to get their handover notes
on May 14th (the date they had indicated to us informally), they told us point blank that the notes won’t be ready until May 24th. Because
this date falls on a Sunday, that means we won’t be getting the handover notes until May 25th, just four days before the May 29th
handover date.

“How do they honestly expect us to peruse thousands of pages of handover notes, ask pertinent questions and seek necessary
clarifications within four days? Because we want a smooth transition, we asked if we could meet with some of the ministers, pending the
release of the handover notes, but they said no. When one of their members even suggested that the whole process be fast-tracked, they
did not budge.

“Despite this setback, we decided not to put the whole issue in the public domain, until the babbling Metuh decided to look for trouble,
describing the deliberate stonewalling by the Jonathan administration as cooperation.”

The APC assured Nigerians that whether or not the Jonathan administration cooperates with it during the transition, the party will live up to
expectation by providing purposeful governance.

The outgoing administration of President Goodluck Jonathan initially fixed May 28 for handover to the new government of Muhammadu Buhari, rather than the conventional May 29.

One week later, Patricia Akwashiki, minister ‎of information who made the earlier announcement, clarified that Jonathan will hand over to Buhari on May 29, saying the March 28 event is only a dinner by Jonathan for Buhari.

However, both camps remain divided on the timing of presentation of handover notes, and the motives behind it.