Al-Makura yet to disband transition committee

Written by Hir Joseph, Lafia Thursday, 16 June 2011 00:00

Three weeks after he took over, new Nasarawa State governor, Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, is yet to dismantle the transition committee he set up to usher in the administration on May 29. Members of the transition committee have continued to work in the place of a new cabinet.

Neither cabinet appointment nor key aides to the governor have been made, even as he has continued to say he is taking stock and trying to keep expenditure low so as not to increase the liabilities he inherited from the immediate past administration. Al-Makura had announced that he inherited over N27 billion in debts which he believed will still count because more investigation is still on.

His deliberate plan not to make any cabinet appointment in the first weeks of his administration, has brought in the old Transition Task Force, comprising 42 members, functioning in the place of a cabinet.

The transition task force has Dr. Ahmed Mohammed as chairman while Silas Agara, a former commissioner who resigned from the cabinet of the former governor, serves as secretary. Former old Plateau State deputy governor, Halilu Bala Usman, Justice M. B. Garba, Musa Ilu Mohammed, a former associate of Doma who dumped him for Al-Makura, Rufai Ibrahim, Editor-In-Chief of People’s Daily Newspapers, among others are members of the transition body. They were appointed on May 4, and inaugurated on May 5.

Secretary of the task force, Silas Agara told Daily Trust on phone, yesterday that the body is yet to complete its assignment, and make a report with appropriate recommendations for the new government.

“We are rounding off very soon. All sub-committees are tidying up reports. None of the reports is ready yet”, he said, explaining that the new governor is yet to make cabinet appointments because “there are landmines” which the body has not cleared.

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