The President and his government has been in focus in the past one week. Many citizen as well as conventional journalists have called attention to the slow pace of the administration. Some have even hinted that the administration is yet to take off. This is my view, too.
In defence, the President and his men have pointed out that there is a lot to do and it behoves him to look carefully before taking each step. Asiwaju Tinubu told the press while on a visit to the President in the past week that the slow pace was dictated by the level of rot in the system. The President himself acknowledged that He was aware that he is being called “Baba No Regret”.
There is no doubt that only tentative steps could have been taken in 100 days. And, it will be dishonest to say the President did nothing in the period. He introduced the Treasury Single account, for example and has said a lot about corruption, thus sending out signal that whoever wants a place in the government to corner the honey pot should stay away. On the War Against Terrorism, too, the Buhari administration has left no one in doubt that every inch of the Nigerian soil is too precious to be left to hoodlums to control.
However, I insist that the failure to constitute the Executive Council in the period is wrong and indefensible,. I hold on to the belief that it is even unlawful. I refuse to accept that the President needs all of six months to locate men and women qualified to serve Nigeria. More than most of his predecessors, it could be said of him that he means well and would do anything to protect the country’s integrity. Governance is, however, much more than good intentions. It involves more than the intention to plug leakages and loopholes. It requires rigorous analysis and policies. This is also hinged on having a good team to translate the intentions to policies.
What do I expect of the Buhari administration in the next 100 days? Governance. A real first glimpse at the ability and capability of the President would come to the fore when he hopefully unveils the much-awaited team this month. I hope he would not over-centralise, thus bureaucratise governance. It is impossible for one man to run the affairs of a country as complex as Nigeria in the modern age. This is no time for any leader to play the superman. He cannot be a strongman or foreman. He is only one man; has only 24 hours in a day and cannot work round the clock. In knowledge, too, every man is limited; no one is an expert in all things. We want a President Buhari, not a General Buhari.
If 100 days is too short to catch a glimpse of Buhari, the action man, seven months cannot be so regarded. During the next 100 days, I expect that the first Buhari budget would have been presented to the National Assembly. I expect that his ministers would be appearing before the Appropriation Committees of both Houses and thus availing us the direction of things to come. Unfortunately, the heads of the ministry would not have sufficiently worked with the President to know his mind, or even the real philosophy of his government.
In the next 100 days, we expect to have seen the Foreign Policy Blueprint. I also expect that the energy policy would have been unveiled. Would the subsidy on petroleum products be retained or removed?
How would the administration create jobs for the teeming youth population? Does he just intend to give instruction to the MDAs to absorb more into service, or would he rather reflate, reposition, straighten and strengthen the private sector?
I look forward to a second 100 days when the full security blueprint would have been out. All we can say so far for the government is that it is sincere in implementing the same template established by Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, but to which he merely paid lip service.
Beyond the terror challenge in the North East, what is to be done with regards to the resumed spate of kidnapping in the South South and the South East? What about armed robbery in the West? There should be a coordinated plan to secure lives and property in all parts of the country.
A major promise by the All Progressives Congress during the campaign was introduction of a social security scheme. This might not feature in the first year of the administration, in view of the socio-political outlook. But, it would be fraudulent for the President to keep silent till the end of the year.
President Buhari rode into power having triggered a crisis of expectation. The first 200 days would enable us assess his management skills and reassess our expectations. The beauty of the outcome of the 2015 polls is that the electorate now realizes that it reserves the power to install and remove governments.