It’s Unconstitutional For Buhari To Hand Over Transition Documents To Tinubu Before May 29- Ohuegbe

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With barely four days to the inauguration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the 16th Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic, veteran journalist, and public affairs commentator, Chuks Ohuegbe has tackled the Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government for handing over transition documents to a President-elect who hasn’t been sworn into office.

Reports currently making the rounds in the country’s media space indicate that Buhari, on Thursday afternoon, handed over his government’s transition documents to Tinubu during a special event organized by the office of the Secretary-General to the Federation (SGF) in the Federal Capital Territory.

According to a publication by The PUNCH, the handover of transitional documents was in line with ‘Executive Order 14’ which mandates that the transition council issues handover notes to the incoming President.

However, while appearing in an interview on Africa Independent Television’s ‘Kaakaki’ program a few hours ago, Ohuegbe, who is the Director of Publication at The Pilot paper, described it as ‘strange’ and ‘unconstitutional’ for the current government to hand over documents to a President-elect before being sworn into office.

Going further, the veteran journalist pointed out that since Nigeria returned to democratic rule in 1999, all Heads of State handed over transition documents to their successors only after they have received their oath of office from the Chief Justice of Nigeria on May 29

He said; “There is no doubt about it, unless the court rules otherwise, Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the President-elect. But the question is this; why is Buhari handing over transition documents to Tinubu today? What will then happen on Monday, May 29? Are they preempting something? The 7th schedule of the 1999 Constitution as amended, vested the CJN with the power to swear in and administer the oath of office on the President-elect. So, what is the essence of handing over documents today instead of on Monday? It’s unconstitutional and strange as far as I am concerned.

A lot of things are being shrouded in secrecy and Nigerians need to know what is going on. There should be full disclosure of what is happening in the system. The real issue here is who administered the oath of office before the documents were handed over. I have followed the transition programs from 1999 till date and all of these things are done on the day of inauguration at the Eagle Square in Abuja. The outgoing president hands the transition documents over to the incoming president and the CJN administers the oath of office immediately. You see, there is so much tension in the air, and those who are leaving office should do all they can to reduce the tension by being seen to be transparent in its handover process.”

SOURCE: YouTube (Forward video to 1:01:46).

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