The All Progressives Congress (APC) has insisted, for the umpteenth
time, that the Jonathan Administration is not cooperating with the
party’s Transition Committee, while describing PDP’s spokesman Olisah
Metuh 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 its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
”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,” it said.
APC restated its earlier advise to Metuh to urgently undertake a crash
course in how to be an opposition party spokesman so he won’t 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’s 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.
”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 set back, 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,” it said.
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.
Alhaji Lai Mohammed
National Publicity Secretary
All Progressives Congress (APC)
