President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday
disowned two of his campaign documents
containing promises on what he would do in
his first 100 days in office.
A statement from his Senior Special
Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam
Garba Shehu titled: “Understanding Buhari in
100 days” pointedly disowned two campaign
documents which he said emanated from
some of party’s “so many centres of public
communication which, for whatever reason,
were on the loose.”
“There is a certain document tagged “One
Hundred Things Buhari Will Do in 100 Days”
and the other, “My Covenant With Nigerians.”
Both pamphlets bore the authorised party
logo but as the Director of Media and
Communications in that campaign, I did not
fund or authorise any of those. I can equally
bet my last Kobo that Candidate Buhari did
not see or authorise those publications.
“As a consequence of these publications,
expectations have been raised unreasonably,
that as President, Muhammadu Buhari will
wave his hand and all the problems that the
country faces — insecurity, corruption,
unemployment, poor infrastructure would go
away.
“But that notwithstanding, President Buhari
has given the job his best shot and the whole
country is saying that we never had it so
good. He has re-instituted the values of hard
work and administrative efficiency. The
President says times without number that this
country needs to fix governance and that he
won’t tolerate laziness.
“In the area of economic management,
Nigerians are already seeing things happen
that they thought were not possible in so
short a time.
“He didn’t put a Kobo to finance the power
sector. Yet, reading his body language alone
and knowing that there are things you cannot
do and get away with under Buhari,
electricity supply all over the country has
risen to unprecedented heights.
“In this country, appointments and removal
from office are done usually in accordance
with a spoils system.
“A new government sacks officials on the
basis only that it did not appoint them, but
the predecessor-adminstration [did].
“President Buhari has shown that his
government is different. He wants to look at
each case on its own merit and it is clear by
now that he is not ready to surrender the
country to burnt out politicians. Technocrats
will have a big place in his administration.
He has appointed no ministers yet, but the
government is running smoothly.
“In this period of three months, government
certainly deserves a pat on the back for
improved power, reform in the energy sector,
foreign relations, fight against corruption and
insurgency and the fact of Nigerians being at
peace, not only among themselves, but with
their neighbors and the rest of the world,” he
declared, while adding that “President Buhari
will turn out to be a leader in the tradition of
Lee Kuan-Yu and India’s current reform-
minded Prime Minister Modi with strong and
clear emphasis on detail and execution. He
may however differ with them by not micro-
managing things.”
