The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, CACOL has said that the issue of whether or not Buhari’s 100 days in office should be treated as a tradition for performance score-card, in its view, shouldn’t be a subject of contention at all. This came on the heels of a response to questions about a report on documents titled “One Hundred Things Buhari will do in 100 Days” and “My Covenant with Nigerians” which was contained in statement made available by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu, that President Muhammadu Buhari did not promise Nigerians that he would achieve specific things within his first 100 days in office.
The Executive Chairman of CACOL, Debo Adeniran, speaking on behalf of the coalition stressed that “having read and listened to the spate of contentious positions taken by those we want to describe as pro and anti Buhari’s voices, we would want to ask President Buhari to remember the prevailing political atmosphere under which he was voted in by Nigerians, as the man competent and trusted to confront the country’s enormous, yet multi-faceted problems.
Electorates believed that he has the required courage and guts to perform and achieve the desired result, hence he should avoid, in every way possible, being eroded into adopting or formulating policies that could be seeing to be anti-people.” However, Nigerians voted for change and that simply means that they were dissatisfied with the ways the country was being run then and had yearned for a shift from the status quo. “That President Buhari has been in the saddle for 100 days is a fact; that certain promises were made either directly by him or by his party, the APC, during his electioneering campaign, is also a fact. Justifiably so, Nigerians reserve the moral right to demand that he delivers on those promises. Speaking further, Adeniran said “It therefore behoves who promised to either begin to deliver on the promises right-away or at least, begin to say something to these same people, about his mode of operation or measures through which he intends to address pressing issues. He could even open up with his blue-print on action plans on certain aspects of his programme. And if he believes that he has, within this relatively little time, put in place certain things, whether conclusively or in process, we do not see anything wrong in coming out to brandish his score-card for all to see”. The group further said, “Proactive effort is one thing, result is another; but whichever way it comes, would certainly be better than a disturbing silence that could only open the door for unnecessary bickering, presumptions and insinuations among contending interest groups. Granted that Buhari never hinged his pre-election promises on a specified time-frame, as the APC is trying to remind the people, the fact still remains that promises such as: Public declaration of assets; A free meal per day for school pupils; iii. N5, 000 monthly allowance for the unemployed; and so on, were made. “The party, APC was alive and active when those speaking for the party were making pronouncement on the now contentious issue of 100 days during electioneering campaigns, and neither was any disclaimer issued nor any counter-statement made by the party then, so, why now? APC cannot claim ignorance of the age-long tradition of 100-days-in-office assessment of performance of top political office holders; it’s been with us for quite a while now. The Coalition has been consistent in its position on some of these promises that President Buhari or the APC does not necessarily need to make it a political issue before acting on them. For instance; issues like that of public declaration of assets, could have just been done by Buhari and his vice without much ado as it would only translate into a clear evidence of seriousness and sincerity on their part, in their quest to fighting and eradicating corruption from our land. Whilst the group appreciates the recent public declaration of assets by the President and his vice, it should be acknowledged as a right step in the right direction as this will go a long way in strengthening the confidence that the Nigerian public has in them and further underscore the exemplary posture of the duo. This singular gesture which we wish would constitute a benchmark for successive regimes, we want to believe, would implicitly serve as a window-opener to series of ‘change’ that are to trail the life of this administration. However, we want to further call on President Buhari and his party not to relent at ensuring that every other aspect of their promises is fulfilled without much ado. The Coalition further advised that, “rather than making unnecessary issue out of the credibility of the source that spoke on behalf of the party, APC or Buhari should just go ahead to tell Nigerians what he’s been able to do so far. Well, for whatever it is worth, “we want to believe that for the past 100 days in office, President Buhari couldn’t have been idle, he certainly must have been doing some things; let him tell his people now”, Debo Adeniran inferred. Source: Universal Reporters.
Source: Universal Reporters.
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