NIGERIANS may soon witness the establishment of the office of the Administrator-General who shall oversee the transition process after each general election in the country.

This is to avoid the recent ding-dong affair and other political controversies which played out between the then outgoing Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led government and the incoming and current All Progressives Congress (APC) administration after the outcome of the last presidential contest.

To this end, a Bill that seeks to set up office of the Administrator-General and provide for a smooth and orderly transfer of power from one outgoing government to an incoming administration is underway. The proposed legislation has already scaled second reading on the floor of the House of Representatives.

The proposed legislation which seeks to activate a legal instrument for the orderly transfer of power from one government to another, specifically provides for, among other things, a framework for the documentation and transmission of hand over notes from one administration to another and to ensure the publication of same in the official gazette.

The Bill is also to create the office of Administrator General for the purpose of superintending over the process of transition of power from one government to another, and in future, avert the accusations and counter-accusations similar to the one that trailed the process of the transition between the last administration of President Goodluck Jonathan and the current administration of President Mohammadu Buhari.

Before now what has guided the transition process in Nigeria has been customary practice which does not carry any legal backing.

It would be recalled that during the last transition process, the All Progressives Congress (APC) accused the then Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led federal government of not cooperating with members of the Buhari’s transition team with respect to the hand over.

Also, ahead of the 29 May handover date, it was reported that President Jonathan accused the Buhari team of “acting like a parallel government and trying to stampede the Jonathan administration out of office”. The allegation went further to state that “the Buhari transition team was making impossible demands from the government.”

In a sharp turn of events however, it was reported that both transition committees met on 11 May 2015 and that there was no rift whatsoever between the two Committees as widely reported earlier.

But another round of confusion in the transition process arose when President Jonathan announced that he was going to present the hand over notes to President Buhari at a dinner on 28 May, 2015 ahead of the official hand over date of 29 May.

These controversies encountered during the most recent transition process only reveal the effect of the absence of any law guiding or regulating the transition process in Nigeria. Thus, the need for a formal transition procedure, according to the sponsors of the Bill, has become very crucial in order to forestall a recurrence of the incidence mentioned above.

It is against this backdrop that the House of Representatives, apparently peeved by the development, recently introduced a Bill on the floor of the chamber, seeking to create the office of Administrator General for the purpose of superintending over the smooth process of transition of power from one administration to another.

Specifically, the proposed legislation titled, “A Bill for an Act to provide for smooth and orderly transfer of power from one government to another; and for other matters related thereto (HB.102); and a Bill for an Act to provide for, among other things, a framework for the documentation and transmission of handover notes from one administration to another and to ensure the publication of same in the official gazette; and for other matters related thereto (HB.109), passed second reading on the floor of the House of Representatives on 16 December, 2015 during a session presided over by the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara.

However, an altercation between one of the Bill’s sponsor and House Majority leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, and Hon Ossai Nicholas Ossai who faulted the propriety of the proposed legislation on the floor of the chamber was averted following the intervention of the House Minority Leader, Leo Ogor who sued for peace.

Despite the initial hiccups that trailed the Bill’s passage following stiff opposition to it by Hon Ossai who cited infringements on the provisions of the 1999 constitution, the proposal scaled second reading via a voice vote and was consequently committed by the Speaker to the House Committee on Justice for further legislative action.

Leading debate on the general principles of the Bill, Gbajabiamila argued that when passed into law, the piece of legislation will address the bottlenecks which conspire to affect a smooth transition as witnessed during the last hand over exercise between former president Goodluck Jonathan and the current President Mohammadu Buhari.

The lawmaker further submitted that the bill, when eventually passed into law, would address issues of accountability as well as other critical issues in the country’s transition process.

“In the course of our political and democratic history, particularly in the fourth republic, we, as legislators have not directed our minds to some challenges that may occur during presidential transition and one possible reason is the fact that we have not had a situation where one political party will be transferring power to another political party.

“Since necessity is the mother of invention, the development arising from the last general elections which culminated in the transfer of political power from one political party to another has made it necessary for a legal document that will smoothen the transfer of political power from one government to another and from one party to another.

“This bill, when passed will reduce perceived challenges in transition processes and enhance accountability and good governance. It will reduce acrimony and the tendency of the outgoing government to hoard some important information that would otherwise be beneficial to the smooth take off of the incoming administration without struggling.

“Some may argue that we did not experience much acrimony and other challenges during the last transition. While that may be correct, I am of the opinion that we should not take the maturity of the outgone president and the current president for granted. Even at that so many mistakes were made because there was no legal document to guide us. Furthermore, experiences in the states over the years characterized with so much tension, acrimony, ill-feelings and bad blood clearly shows that we do not have a proud transition history, hence the need for this House to be proactive.

“We must therefore put a legal blue print in place to regulate our future transition.

“Section 1 makes provisions for the general purposes of the bill which provides for a stated period after the declaration of the winner of the election within which both the outgoing President and the president-elect shall set up their respective teams to begin review of budgeting expenditure and other documents as may be requested by the president-elect. This will give room for accountability, clarity as to where the government is coming from and projection into the future.

“When the incoming administration is aware of the laid down policies of the outgoing government, contracts awarded, money expended and expected etc., it will help the incoming administration towards a smooth take off without any delay. Before swearing in, the new government would have known what it will continue and what it is dropping.

“This bill in section 4 also makes provision for the Manager and head of the transition process (Administrator general) who shall take inventory of the government estate, protect government estate and ensure that every government property is safely transferred to the next administration. The Administrator-general shall also ensure that government official who misused or stole government properties are prosecuted.

“This bill also criminalizes any act of saboteur of the transition process. This bill is novel in Nigeria and if passed, there will be more transparency and accountability in government. It will make us a more responsible people. It is a very important bill worthy of consideration. I think the states can adopt same,” the Majority Leader submitted on the general purposes of the Bill.

Contributing to the debate, co-sponsor of the Bill, Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama emphasized the need for a framework upon which a smooth transition could be done, adding that this will also allow Nigerians to ask questions about the performance of the outgoing administration as well as set target for the incoming government.

“As it stands, there is no place under the law upon which we can assess former President Jonathan and all that transpired during his administration,” he said, adding that when passed into law, the legislation will also provide a timeframe within which all hand over ceremonies will be concluded to usher in a new administration,” he said.