Transition: FG, APC c’ttees in maiden meeting

Vice President Mohammad Namadi Sambo, who heads the Federal Government’s committee, presided over the meeting which lasted about 20 minutes.
The chairman of the APC’s transition committee, Alhaji Ahmed Joda, led the APC National Chairman John Odigie-Oyegun, Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi, Chief Ogbonaya Onu and APC spokesman Lai Mohammed to the meeting.
Fielding questions from State House journalists, Joda stated that both committees were working together.
He also debunked the allegations that the Federal Government was not co-operating with the APC’s committee towards successful transfer of power on May 29.
The APC had, in a statement last Thursday by Mohammed accused the Federal Government’s transition committee of refusing to cooperate with it for a smooth transition.
The party’s spokesman had then said: “As we write, the transition committee of the FG has yet to hold a single meeting with our own transition committee, neither have they given us a line of handover notes…While their inauguration committee has been meeting with ours, their transition committee has yet to even meet with ours”.
But Joda said yesterday that “Our committee has never said to anybody that there is no cooperation. We have never said that, and we are waiting for the reports, until when they come”.
In his remarks, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, described yesterday’s meeting as “fruitful and cordial”.
The SGF said the two transition committees had no disagreement as being insinuated.
“The meeting was very, very fruitful. It was very cordial. There is certainly no issue. We are flowing, and we have clearer understanding of the working of the two committees”, Anyim said.
When the Federal Government’s transition committee was inaugurated on April 13, Anyim had told journalists that the committee would later interface with the transition committee of the APC for the May 29 handover.
He had said the committee was saddled with the responsibility of receiving briefs from the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) as well as preparing President Goodluck Jonathan’s handover notes.
“After we have collected our own briefs from the MDAs and then we put them together, we will then interface with the other committee (of the APC) so that whatever clarification they want, the questions they have, then we will be able to address them”, Anyim had said.
The SGF also had listed the committee’s terms of reference as collating relevant information for the handover briefs from all the MDAs, preparing them (briefs) and interfacing with the incoming administration’s transition committee.
After the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting of April 29, National Planning Minister Abubakar Sulaiman had put the work progress of the federal government’s transition committee at 80 percent, saying most of the ministries, departments and agencies had submitted their handover notes.
The minister had also stressed that as of April 28, almost all the MDAs that ‎were advised to submit their briefs and handover notes had complied, except one or two ministries.
“The transition process is on course in terms of handover notes, and briefs, we’ve covered almost 80 percent of our assignments”, Sulaiman had said.