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Ahead of the May 29 inauguration, President Muhammadu Buhari will confer national honours on the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Vice President-elect, Kashim Shettima.
Tinubu and Shettima will be conferred with the national honour of the Grand Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (GCFR) and Grand Commander of the Order of Niger (GCOR) respectively.
According to Tolu Ogunlesi, Special Assistant to President Buhari on Digital and New Media, the ceremony will hold on Thursday, May 25, 2023. He announced this in a tweet on Thursday, May 18, 2023.
In an earlier tweet, Ogunlesi said that Buhari would become the second elected President to confer GCFR honour on his successor, after former President Olusegun Obasanjo conferred the honour on his successor, Musa Yar’Adua on May 27, 2007.
Ogunlesi also said during the investiture ceremony next week, there will be an official handover of transition documents to the incoming Administration, adding that this would be the most organized and seamless presidential transition in the history of Nigeria, enabled by executive order 14 signed by President Buhari.
Quoting the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, Ogunlesi stressed that the May 29 inauguration ceremony would take place regardless of the ongoing litigation over the 2023 presidential election.
He wrote, “SGF, Boss Mustapha: Let me say without any fear of contradiction, there will be an Inauguration on 29th of May. We will proceed with the inauguration of @officialABAT, and the litigation will continue. Our Constitution & Electoral Act have dealt with that. Our laws are sacrosanct.
“SGF: The Shagari transitions were litigated, transition went ahead. Obasanjo transitions were litigated in 1999, 2003, Transition went ahead. I stand to be corrected, but the only Presidential election that was not litigated was 2015, when GEJ conceded and called PMB”.
As part of the preparations for the handover ceremony on Monday, May 29, Ogunlesi said there will be an inaugural lecture by Uhuru Kenyatta, former President of Kenya on Saturday, May 27, 2023.