No facts from Jonathan and his administration no fuel crisis for May 29 handover

 The president-elect, General Mohammadu Buhari, yesterday, lamented that the out-going administration of President Goodluck Jonathan has failed to provide the in-coming government with all the necessary information needed for a smooth take-off next week, particularly on how to tackle the current fuel crisis in the country.

The President-elect spoke on a day the Senate directed its committees on Petroleum Resources ( Upstream and Downstream ) to immediately commence investigation into the remote and immediate causes of the fuel crisis in the country.

The Senate directive was sequel to the motion by the Deputy Senate Majority Leader, Senator Abdul Ningi, who had called on the lawmakers to pay serious attention to the fuel crisis that had created great hardship for Nigerians at the moment. Senator Ningi wondered why a country that has abundant oil resources should face the kind of biting scarcity that had increased the suffering of Nigerians.

But the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over the plenary, noted that since the Deputy Senate Leader raised the motion under personal explanation, the senate would not debate it but would rather approve his prayers.

Senator Ekweremadu said: “Ningi’s prayers are simple and straightforward. He is asking us, as representatives of the people, to direct our committees on upstream and downstream, to find out what is currently going on in the oil sector and possibly find a way of addressing it.

“In that regard, we now ask our committees on Petroleum Resources ( Upstream and Downstream), to find out what is going on and what the government is doing about it and report back on Tuesday next week. That is our wish”

Meanwhile, General Buhari, who spoke when the APC Transition Committee headed by Ambassador Ahmed Joda submitted an interim report of the committee to him, also said the out-going government misunderstood the terms of reference of the committee, thinking he was already running a parallel government.

Ahmed Joda had earlier told General Buhari that the government committee headed by Vice-President Namadi Sambo refused to provide his committee with necessary information to make better decisions.

According to Joda, the committee had to rely on its initiative and assistance from the organized private sector, the Lagos Business School, international development partners and members of the public to draw up a plan.

The committee’s mission
In his response, Buhari stated that the aim of the committee was not to indict anyone, but to make adequate preparations for the task ahead.

He said: “The in-coming government was misunderstood. It is not that we are preparing for indictment. What we are trying to get is a starting point, where exactly we are going to start from.

“We have seen the debt profile now and the performance of the economy. The question is, what can we do about it especially the urgent ones like social security, lack of fuel in the country and fraud? The list is endless. I thank you for what you have done and I hope that the subsequent submission by the government will make your job easier and more efficient and tell us where to begin from.

“What we expected was for the out-going government to make a presentation to this committee and for this committee to study the document and make submission to the in-coming government.

“For your simple mindedness, you went to work. But unfortunately, this committee was accused of running a parallel government. From then on, this committee was constrained to take this initiative and break into various sub-committees and assigned various tasks to study the most important issues nationwide and see what they can put on record.