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Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Jonathan shocked me by conceding easily, says Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday said he
never expected that former President Goodluck
Jonathan would concede defeat so easily after
the March 2015 presidential election.

He said it was unbelievable that Jonathan, who
had spent 16 years in public offices ranging
from deputy governor and state governor to
being vice-president and president, could throw
in the towel like that.

Buhari spoke while hosting State House
correspondents to a lunch at the Presidential
Villa, Abuja, as part of the activities marking his
one year in office.

He said, “This is where I pay my respect to
former President Goodluck Jonathan. This is
actually privileged information for you.

“He called me at a quarter-past-five in the
evening. He said, ‘Good evening, Your
Excellency, sir’ and I said, ‘Good evening.’ He
said, ‘I have called to congratulate you that I
have conceded defeat.’

“Of course, there was dead silence on my end
because I did not expect it. I was shocked.

“I did not expect it because after 16 years; the
man was a deputy governor, governor, vice-
president and was president for six years.

“For him to have conceded defeat even before
the result was announced by the Independent
National Electoral Commission, I think it was
quite generous and gracious of him.

“Gen. Abdulsalami recognised the generosity of
Jonathan to concede defeat and said we should
go and thank him immediately and that was the
first time I came here.”

Buhari recalled that it was the former military
leader, Abdusalami Abubakar, who suggested
the setting up of transition committees because
that was the way he did when he wanted to hand
over to former President Olusegun Obasanjo in
1999.

Buhari regretted that while Jonathan was not
opposed to the idea at the beginning, he was
later prevailed upon by his ministers not to do
so.

He said their argument was that the former
President would have handed over government
to him (Buhari) before his inauguration.

Watching from outside government, Buhari said
he underrated the influence of the Peoples
Democratic Party’s 16 years in power.

Buhari recalled that he reduced the number of
ministries from 42 to 24 and reduced the
number of permanent secretaries.

He regretted that some permanent secretaries
were used to the past arrangement, hence they
saw the All Progressives Congress’ campaign
promises as rubbish.

He said things became more difficult during
budget preparation as some government
officials padded the document.

The President, however, expressed the hope
that the nation would recover from the setback
by the fourth quarter of the year.

Buhari said, “The permanent secretaries that
were there for the past five to seven years, the
only thing that they know is how things were
done in the previous years.

“Whatever we did in the campaign, to them, we
were saying rubbish and that made it very
difficult for us.

“Things were even more difficult during the
budget, which you all know about. For somebody
like me, for the first time I heard what is called
padding.

“So, really, it was a nasty experience for us. It
was also a nasty experience for some of the
ministers who were never in government, for
them to sit down day and night to work. I saw
some of them literarily lost weight because they
were sleeping less and eating less, working on
every kobo to be spent.

“Because we had become a mono-economy,
everybody relied on oil and forgot about solid
minerals, agriculture, making and exploring
things. We recently just found out that we are
poor because we don’t have anything to fall back
to.”

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