Buhari Receives Handover Notes from Jonathan

President-elect Muhammadu Buhari said President Goodluck Jonathan chose the path of honour by congratulating him on the telephone and conceding defeat before the final collation of the results of the 2015 presidential election. 

Buhari said this inside the Council Chambers of the Aso Rock Presidential Villa Abuja yesterday after receiving the handover document from President Jonathan. The president-elect stressed that with that telephone call; Jonathan had changed the course of Nigeria’s political history and had earned himself a place in the country’s history.

Buhari also stated that for stabilising the multi-party democratic system in the country, the president had also earned the respect of Nigerians and world leaders.

According to him, if the president had attempted to make things difficult, he (Jonathan) could have done so at the expense of lives of poor Nigerians.

The president-elect, therefore, acknowledged that rather than make things difficult, Jonathan chose the part of honour.

“What I will say is, since the telephone call you made, you have changed the course of Nigeria’s political history. For that, you have earned yourself a place in our history. For stabilising this system of multi party democracy system, you have earned the respect of not only Nigerians, but world leaders.

“All the leaders that spoke to me and congratulated us for arriving at the point we arrived, mentioned this, and I could understand a lot of relief in their voices that Nigeria has made it after all, and this is largely owed to a situation.

“If you had attempted to make things difficult, you could have made things difficult, and that would have been at the expense of lives of poor Nigerians. But you chose the part of honour, and may God help all of us. Thank you very much your Excellency,” Buhari told Jonathan.

On the handover notes presented to him, Buhari said he would not make any “strong contributions” on the document until he studies and digests it.

“I will read and digest these notes from the president. I don’t think I will be in a position to make any strong contribution,” he said.

Before presenting the handover notes to his successor, Jonathan said the document would give Buhari a mission statement of the commitment of the outgoing government for the past five years and enable him (Buhari) to “navigate” through the directions the nation was going.

“So, it’s my pleasure on behalf of the vice president, members of the executive council and other senior government functionaries to formally hand over these hand over notes to General Muhammadu Buhari, the president-elect, who will assume office tomorrow (today). Congratulations,” he said.

The president also presented the report of the recommendations of the 2014 National Conference to Buhari, asserting that the document was more important than the handover notes.