Joda Transition Committee Submits 800-Page Report To Buhari

AFTER about five weeks of scrutiny, the Alhaji Ahmed Joda-led Transition Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday submitted an 800- page final report of its findings to President Muhammadu Buhari.

The event, which took place at the Defence House, Abuja saw the committee submitting the compressed report from the over 18,000 pages it received from the Dr. Goodluck Jonathan administration to Buhari.

Briefing State House correspondents after submitting the report, Joda said the committee got the cooperation of several groups to arrive at its recommendations.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quoted him as saying: “We have concluded our assignment, which was given to us on April 29.

“We spent about five weeks going through memorandum, listening to presentations from all over the country and sometimes from Nigerians living in different parts of the world.

“And I must say that we received wonderful cooperation from everybody in Nigeria, the business community, the professional people, the non-governmental organisations, society people.

“Everybody contributed to the success of our work. And today, we submitted about 800 pages of report and recommendations to the President.

“This is now his property and I think in due course, he will begin to act on them.”

Joda denied news that the submission of the report had delayed the action of the President in administration and appointments, but admitted that Buhari had to wait for the report.

He said it took time to sort the report out, analyse, get experts to interview on it and make recommendations.

He also said political appointments were at the discretion of the President, adding that with the paper work given to him, he would make up his mind on what to do, which required some time to do.

“In this country, we have never witnessed an occasion like this in which a political party in power lost an election and a political party in opposition won the election.

“We are now in a process of law and order and of due process and these processes have to be followed in our country.

“And I think, it is part of the evolution of democracy; the country has to be a little bit more patient. It cannot be with immediate effect anymore.”

He said that to be able to present the report on time, the committee worked up to the last moment.