Buhari’s aide blames Jonathan for Buhari’s delay to form cabinet

Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, has said ex-President Goodluck Jonathan caused the delay in President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointment of his ministers.

It took President Buhari six months to unveil his cabinet.

Speaking, while featuring on Sunrise Daily, a programme on Channels Television, on Monday, Shehu attributed the refusal of Jonathan’s government to cooperate with the transition committee as having negative effect on the current administration.

Frank Shuaibu, special adviser on public communications to Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who also featured on the programme, had listed Buhari’s delay in appointing his cabinet as one of the factors that plunged the economy into a recession.

In response to Shuaibu, Shehu said Buhari was kept in the dark of the workings of the government and had to wait till he assumed office, causing the delay in the appointments.

“The claims made by my dear friend here that President Muhammadu Buhari spent 166 days without forming a cabinet, that absolutely is untrue,” Shehu said.

“It took him time to form a cabinet because the outgoing administration in 2015 did not cooperate with the transition committee.

“The President was given handover notes 48 hours to the handover of power and for whatever reason, the President at that time determined that…the question that president Buhari was asking, for details of this and that, amounting to running a second government in office.

“And he came out to all his ministers and permanent secretaries not to cooperate with Muhammadu Buhari that this country will not have two governments running at the same.

“What this means is that President Muhammadu Buhari had wait to come into office and learn about all the inner things that they had done so that he can build on the processes. The government he inherited was horribly disjointed, it was broken.”