Buhari And His 100 Days Scorecard

As President Muhammadu Buhari marks his first 100 days in office as a democratically elected president on 5 September, there has been so much hullabaloo about his achievements within this timeline. While some Nigerians who expect magic have scored the president low, others have applauded his modest achievements within this short period. Some have even said the time is too short to assess Buhari who inherited a depleted economy owing to the massive corruption that was perpetrated by the administration of former President, Goodluck Jonathan.

Because Buhari has not met some of the expectations of Nigerians within these 100 days, some of the citizens have said he has failed. This uncharitable perception prompted the Presidency on Tuesday to insist that President Buhari never promised Nigerians that he would achieve some specific things within his first 100 days in office. Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity insisted in a chat with journalists that the documents, “One Hundred Things Buhari Will Do in 100 Days” and “My Covenant With Nigerians”, did not originate from the authentic channel of the APC campaign’s media department.

The Presidency was compelled to make this clarification when some Nigerians accused the President of failing to keep the covenant he had with them during his electioneering campaign ahead of the 28 March Presidential election. In the past few days the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the presidency came under hammer after they disowned the two documents which are now being used to judge President Muhammadu Buhari’s 100 days milestone in office.

Shehu asked Nigerians to ignore the claims that the president specifically made promises of achieving certain goals within his 100 days in office, adding that he, Shehu, never authorised or signed any document in this regard in his capacity as the director, media and communications of the Buhari campaign organisation. He quoted Buhari as saying during his lecture at Chatham House in London that he would not commit himself to the 100 Days timeline with regards to any specific achievement, adding that he and his party, the APC, had a deliberate campaign to temper high expectations with some reasonableness on the part of those who are expecting miracles to happen.

Most of those who have commented on Buhari’s 100 Days in office described his performance as laudable and focused. They have praised Buhari’s commitment to anti-corruption and urged him to seek a legislation for a sustainable anti-corruption fight. Nigerians want him to concentrate on revamping the economy and ensuring sustainable development, adding that to assess a president who has not formed his cabinet in just 100 days would be subjective.

If anything, Buhari has restored hope, trust and confidence of Nigerians within 100 days and has demonstrated his capacity to fight corruption and end terrorism in the northeast. Nigerians want Buhari to work more on poverty alleviation, build more refineries and engage less in media propaganda. They want the Buhari’s administration to fulfill its promise of proving free meals for school pupils, free education and create one million jobs. One of the areas Nigerians have found Buhari wanting is his alleged lopsided appointments which they believe favours the north. But his Senior Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, has doused such fears, saying that there are more appointments to be made, more so as the President has not constituted his cabinet yet.

Going forward, we share the view that Buhari should remain focused and pursue with dogged determination policies that would provide jobs for millions of Nigerians, improve electricity supply, ensure local refining of petroleum products for regular supply, fix dilapidated infrastructure, improve education and health facilities, invest massively in agriculture, end insecurity and above all, kill corruption and bring all those involved to book.