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President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday said he never expected that former President Goodluck Jonathan would concede defeat so easily after the March 2015 Presidential election.

In his words, "This is where I pay my respect to former President Goodluck Jonathan. This is actually privileged information for you.

"He called me at a quarter-past-five in the evening. He said, �Good evening, Your Excellency, sir' and I said, �Good evening.' He said, �I have called to congratulate you that I have conceded defeat.'

"Of course, there was dead silence on my end because I did not expect it. I was shocked.

"I did not expect it because after 16 years; the man was a deputy governor, governor, vice-president and was president for six years.

"For him to have conceded defeat even before the result was announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, I think it was quite generous and gracious of him.

"Gen. Abdulsalami recognised the generosity of Jonathan to concede defeat and said we should go and thank him immediately and that was the first time I came here."�

The President again lamented the rot he inherited from "16 years of PDP"� in the country, saying the situation he met upon assumption of office was way beyond his imagination, adding that this made his first year in the Presidential Villa "tumultuous"�.

He said that contending with the bureaucracy was another great difficulty because the senior civil servants were too used to doing things the old way which was at variance with his party's campaign promises.

According to him: "I underrated the influence of the PDP for 16 years, watching from the outside as eight consecutive governments (went by).

"The experience of the members of staff, their commitment and zeal is different from what it is now. 16 years of development in the life of a developing nation is a long time.

"When we came, there were 42 ministries and we cut them to 24. We found out that the government could not continue with 42 ministers and the paraphernalia of office, so we cut them to 24.

"We had to cut down half the number of permanent sec�retaries and then do some cross postings. The permanent sec�retaries that were there for the past five to seven years, the only thing that they know is how things were done in the previous years.

"Whatever we did in the campaign, in fact, we were saying rubbish and that made it very difficult for us. Things were even more difficult during the budget which you all know about.

"For somebody like me, for the first time I heard what is called budget padding. I think we will recover by the fourth quarter of the year.
"There were very serious developments which I never knew about. So, really it was a nasty experience for us."�