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Tag: 100 days

  • Adelabu: I will rebuild PHCs, pet schools in 100 days as governor 

    The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State, Adebayo Adelabu, has hinted that he will rebuild primary health centres (PHCs) and public primary schools in his first 100 days if elected on March 9.

    Adelabu, who has intensified his campaign to the grassroots for the third time, said he has been involved in rebuilding schools as a form of giving back to the society, adding that handing him the mandate as governor would empower him to do the work at a larger scale to reach many more schools and PHCs.

    The governorship hopeful told the electorate in Ibadan that PHCs are closest to the people and that their effectiveness will bring healthcare delivery to the masses. He pointed out that a healthy people are a wealthy people, stressing that his administration would take healthcare delivery as one of the major priorities.

    Adelabu also promised to light up Oyo State by embarking on Operation Light Up Oyo in his first 100 days in office. He said major roads in the five zones of the state would enjoy street lights to ease intra-city travels at night and also boost night life in the cities and towns across the state.

    If elected, the APC candidate also pledged to embark on Operation Zero Potholes in the cities and communities, pointing out that he will ensure that most potholes in the major roads across the state will be filled for improved road usage by residents.

    Adelabu (aka Penkelemes) assured voters that he would not let them down in any way, promising to run an inclusive governance system that will address the needs of communities and groups in the society.

    He said Oyo State is among the committee of strategic states in Nigeria which should be governed by somebody who has a rich mix of public and private sector experience in Nigeria.

    He stressed that as an indigene, he has investments in the state which employed over 500 people, confirming that he has a stake in the state and would not do anything to destroy the state. Besides, the former banker said he has a heritage to protect as a grandson of a notable and respected late Ibadan politician, Sir Adegoke Adelabu (aka Peculiar mess).

    He urged the electorate to vote for him and all the APC House of Assembly candidates in the March 9 election, stressing that the APC has achievable programmes for the development of the state.

    Adelabu added that with the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari on February 23, Oyo State will do well to elect APC candidates in the next election to guarantee a perfect relationship with the federal government.

  • Experts hail Akeredolu’s achievements in 100 days

    Experts hail Akeredolu’s achievements in 100 days

    A group of professionals, under the aegis of Ondo State Eminent Group (OSEG), has hailed Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN) for spreading developing across the state in his administration’s first 100 days in office.

    In a statement by a Lagos lawyer, Banji Alabi, OSEG said its position was informed by the governor’s development strides within the period.

    The group noted that despite the challenges the administration inherited, especially a crumbled economy, it deserved to be praised for making progress so far.

    It said though the state had not recovered, the governor had kept his promise to pay outstanding salaries and touch every sector positively.

    The statement said: “OSEG in equally elated that massive infrastructural development is going on across the length and breadth of the state.

    “Even in Akure, where flooding has been a major issue, we are happy that drainage channels have been constructed by the administration to tackle the problem.

  • Obaseki’s 100 days in office

    From virtually every indication, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo State has made quite an impression on the people of the state as he clocked 100 days in office on Monday, February 20. I was not an enthusiast of his while he was campaigning for the election, but then, I was neither enthusiastic about Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu. While his clergyman act was and continues to be fascinating, it did not particularly have any effect on me. Obaseki’s quietness also made me doubt, like every other concerned son of Igodomigodo, whether his regime would really be his and whether he even had any plan for what path his government would take.

    In a hundred days, he has corrected that notion and even made me blush like an errant analyst for harbouring such a notion in the first place.

    His January 1 speech this year was the first sign I perceived of a man of steel.  Without batting an eyelid, he ‘upped and done away’ with manual tax collection in Edo State. Some cynics, quite unsatisfied about the genuineness of his intent with that move, labelled it a political move to curtail the overreaching influence of the All Progressives Congress (APC) youth leader, Comrade Eriyo Osakpanwa.

    I beg to differ. In hundred days, Obaseki has been able to show that he has little time for politics because he has a state to run. To buttress this, he has warned political figures not to come to the Government House in Benin City without prior appointments otherwise, they would not be granted audience.

    Valid reports from dailies and workers at government house prove that he has thus far stuck to his guns with that policy. The Government House has now developed some significant level of decorum, and even loitering around the place could earn an individual some questioning. This, I believe is how a government house should be.

    Still keen not to let politics interfere with his administration, he has delegated the task of political appointments to the various wards and Local Government councils.

    However, while in 100 days he is keeping a level head with political affairs, he has also done commendably well with his interim appointments thus far – he has appointed mostly young fellows and women who know their onions. Yet, he operates without a cabinet or any permanent appointments.

    Based on how well Obaseki listens to the people’s voice, he seems like he already understands that the people of Edo whisper in the streets that it is about time he appointed his cabinet so that people will know who is who in the state.

    However, he is a careful man. He takes his time and plans exceedingly well before implementing any decisions. What will it profit him if he allows himself to be carried along in haste by people’s whispering and then he appoints the wrong people who may even end up sabotaging his government? It is better to take a shot once and hit the target than to misfire severally.

    Having excluded politics from the equation in his administration, Obaseki has shown genuine concern for the people, for though he may have a heart of steel, this heart beats, and it beats with emotion and care for the people.

    He understood pretty well the power women have when given the chance to excel; he has accordingly appointed what has come to be known as lady mechanics to fix the broken vehicles at The Government House in Benin City.

    In addition, he hosted religious leaders at a breakfast in the Government House where he discussed, among things, how to sort out the issue of street children. They talked at length with the religious leaders proffering solutions on how to handle the issue.

    To that end, Governor Obaseki is set to get the educational sector functioning at its optimum capacity so that even when the children have been lifted off the streets, they will be grafted into a functional educational system.

    Meanwhile, his economic policies also seem to have developed a pattern in tandem with his 2017 budget philosophy. The idea of the budget philosophy was to “develop a modern and progressive Edo State, where every citizen is empowered with opportunity to live life in its fullness”. These were modelled along the following pillars; Economic Revolution, Infrastructural Expansion, Institutional Reform, Social Welfare Enhancement, Culture and Tourism and Environmental Sustainability.

    He has since held a strategic dialogue with stakeholders in the production industry, and has started working to make sure that technical colleges around the state are what they are meant to be. He has also held an agribusiness conference, and he has put plans in place to make Tayo Akpata University of Education in Ekiadolor an excellent tertiary institution. The essence of these moves is to groom talents locally in the state.

    The truth is that highlighting Governor Obaseki’s achievements in 100 days would take a small book. He has however indicated enough zeal towards executing his mandate that we, the people of Edo, can rest easy in the knowledge that we have not shopped in error for a governor, despite what misgivings we may have initially harboured.

    Still, the good governor must neither relent nor rest on his oars. His conduct thus far has revealed a tendency for extra-meticulousness in his affairs. That is a commendable trait and people need to come to the realisation that if every leader Nigeria has witnessed had been this careful, perhaps we would not be as bafflingly backward as we are in our affairs as a country. It is only just 100 days, and time’s winged chariot has not yet found reason to hurry Mr. Obaseki along. He is so far on the right track, and in the next 100 days, there is some hope people will start seeing action.

     

    • Dr. Oviosun, a public affairs analyst is based in Benin City, Edo State.

  • Content Development Board chief takes stock after 100 days in office 

    The Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) is no longer the same. It wears a new look not in physical structure but in managerial reorganisation to meet up with the goals, objectives and mission of the board in line with the change agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari.

    The change in orientations and work ethics of the board were attested to recently by stakeholders who gathered in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, to mark the 100 days in office of the Executive Secretary of the Board, Simbi Wabote.

    Wabote, who hails from Bayelsa State, is indeed, the best man for the job. He was appointed the Executive Secretary by the President on September 26th, 2016, after a long career in the Shell Group of companies in Nigeria and abroad.

    Having spent over 26 years in the oil gas sector in various departments of engineering services, contracting and procurement, local content management, external affairs and community affairs, Wabote, no doubt, gathered enough experience to move the board forward.

    Workers, stakeholders and even some media executives poured encomiums on Wabote for his managerial style and desire to quickly realise the constitutional requirements of the board within 100 days. According to different speakers, Wabote hit the ground running. He gave the board a focus.

    But to the executive secretary, marking the 100 days was only to give him the opportunity of taking stocks to honestly assess where he took off from, where he is and where he would like the board to be in five years.

    Already, he has developed a five-year strategic road map for the board whose major functions are to regulate, monitor and supervise activities of players in the oil and gas sector to ensure participation of indigenous companies in the sector.

    Wabote, who spoke in Yenagoa, said the road map was in line with the Federal Government’s policies captured in the Petroleum Industry Roadmap (PIR) and other change initiatives of the current administration.

    He said the initiative would guide the new wave of Nigerian content development and implementation. He recalled that  President Buhari launched the PIR on the 27th October, 2016 to revitalize the oil and gas industry.

    He said: “A key component of the Petroleum Industry Roadmap is to deploy 30 per cent of business opportunities from operating companies to communities.

    “The board’s community content guideline sets out strategies to realize this target.

    We have also already aligned our capacity development initiatives to support the delivery of the aspirations encapsulated in the Petroleum Industry Roadmap.”

    Wabote said developing the guidelines in line with the PIR was one of the achievements of the board within 100 days.

    “The guideline provides pragmatic steps for incorporating and engaging community contractors as a critical delivery point for Nigerian content development.

    “This guideline was borne out of the necessity to boost peace and security in the Niger-Delta and address the lingering squabbles between host communities and operating and service companies over participation in oil and gas activities.

    “Sections 25, 26, 27 and 28 (1) & (2) of the Nigerian Content Act provides for the operator to maintain a level of presence in communities where projects are located.

    “The sections also mandate participation of community entrepreneurs in activities of operations throughout projects life cycle.”

    One the first thing he did when he assumed office, he said: “When I assumed office I took on the lingering issue of protracted contracting cycle in the industry.

    Wabote expressed happiness that one of the board’s legacy projects, the Polaku Pipemill, would soon take off in Bayelsa. He said the board was about finalizing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Titan Steel, the new investors for the project.

    He said the construction of an access road to the site had exceeded 45 percent, adding that the board had also conducted public hearing on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the project as required by law.

    Wabote said the board was also developing an oil and gas parks in Ogbia, Bayelsa State; Oguta in Imo State; Okoyong in Cross Rivers State and Ikwe-Odio in Akwa Ibom.

    He further said the board was planning  to organise a  Nigerian Content Opportunities Fair in March to showcase opportunities in upstream, midstream and downstream sectors.

  • 100 days: Minister promises better governance

    The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has reiterated its plan and determination to make life better for residents of the Territory through  programmes that will fast-track the development.

    Making the reassurance during a media parley to mark the 100 days of Muhammad Musa Bello in office as the 16th Minister of the FCT, the communication management team of the FCTA comprising the Director, Information and Communications FCTA, Mrs. Stella Ojeme, Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Media, Abubakar Sani, the Chief Press Secretary to the Minister, Muhammad Sule, and Head Call Centre, Mrs. Jumai Ahmadu, said the administration has prioritised people-oriented programmes.

    According to the team, as part of efforts to encourage hygienic environment and the well-being of the residents, the Minister flagged off an intensive community and neighbourhood environmental sanitation scheme across the six area councils of the FCT.

    To maintain the cleanliness of the city however, the FCTA said it intends to reactivate its environmental mobile courts place to deal with offenders under the purview of the law.

    On the nasty traffic gridlock on the Nyanya-Mararaba axis, the administration said that the construction of the prolonged Karshi-Apo-Ara Road would soon start, as funds have been made available and approved for the projects, aimed at ease the traffic congestion.

    Meanwhile, the FCTA expressed deep concern over the huge work force in the area councils, especially those engaged in Local Education Authority (LEA), disclosing plans to conduct biometrics exercise, to ascertain the actual number of staff in the councils especially teachers, who are about 4,000 in numbers.

    Also, the administration insisted that the ban on okada and tricycle riders’ activities within the city centre still stands as violators will not only be arrested, but henceforth prosecuted accordingly in special mobile courts.

    Abuja Review recalled that Bello took over the mantle of leadership of the FCT as the 16th FCT on November, 11 2015, with a promise to build on his predecessors’ achievements.

    Concerned by the plight of workers at the Area Councils in the FCT, the FCT Administration has revealed it has concluded plans to provide financial bail out to the Councils to enable them pay staff salary arrears.

    Area Council staff are owed three months salary arrears and their cries have been heard by the FCT Minister, Mallam Muhammad Musa Bello who has promised that his Administration would bail them out by paying two months, while the Councils should pay the remaining one month salary arrears.

     

  • ‘Buhari’s 100 days promising’

    A lecturer at the department of Political Science in Bayero University, Kano (BUK), Dr Sa’idu Ahmad Dukawa has observed that significant milestones reached in the first 100 days of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari indicate a brighter future for the country.

    Delivering a paper at the 4th Annual Symposium of the Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria (MSN), B-Zone held at the auditorium of Osun State University, Osogbo, Dukawa noted that Buhari is on the right path with the steps he has taken so far.

    He explained that the president’s track record and his dogged fight against corruption are promising signs of progress, especially in retrieving stolen wealth and putting the mechanism in place to check stealing.

    He said: “Within the first one hundred days of Buhari in office, significant progress is noticeable. The security situation and power supply have improved. Petroleum products are found in filling stations and at regulated prices.”

    In another paper delivered during the MSSN symposium, a lecturer from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, (FUNAB), Professor Abdul-Lateef Oladimeji Sanni said a new Nigeria dream cannot be realised unless there is a shift in the way things were done in the past, urging the citizenry to support Buhari’s anti-corruption efforts.

    Earlier in his address, the National President of MSSN, Malam Muhammad Jameel Muhammad urged the government at the centre to cut cost of governance, diversify the economy, tackle unemployment and encourage local industrialisation so that Nigeria can achieve its dream of being one of the 20 leading economies of the world.

  • 100 days assessments

    The euphoria that marked 100 days in office of previous administrations especially with the change of leadership at the centre was certainly lacking in the one that has just passed by. This is without prejudice to the various assessments in the media of the first 100 days of the Buhari regime and other highlights by some state governments. It is not clear, the chain of events that brought about the low morale in the celebration of that event.

    But, there is a widely held belief that it was not unconnected with the imprecise stance of the Buhari administration on what that days held for the nation. Before then, controversy had arisen regarding the promises the president was purported to have made in his first 100 days. To this, his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu was quick to add that the president never made such promises when the question was put to him at Chatham House.

    For him, “we prefer to talk about milestones instead of achievements; whether the milestones represent achievements or not is left for the people to judge”. Though a few state governments still went ahead to showcase what they considered their achievements, it was palpable that a new thinking had been given to that event especially given the flurry of activities that marked it in the past.

    It is now obvious that a new perspective has been given to an event which before now, easily passed as a veritable yardstick for measuring the success of new leaders. It was then thought that the tone and direction of a new government can be successfully set within the first 100 days and those who showed high promises within that timeframe are more likely to perform well during the rest of their tenure.

    That had been the reason for the mad rush to execute and commission projects within the first 100 days by our governments especially at the state levels. The same reason accounts for the high level of public interest in such occasions. Whether the assumptions that underline these conclusions are borne out of empirical evidence or mere conjecture is a different ball game altogether. But one thing that stands out clearly, is that it will no longer be business as usual in the way such events were in the past, seen in this clime. There is beginning to evolve a new thinking on the heuristic value of the first 100 days; and whether the copycatting and stereo-typing we had been used to were adding real value. These are the issues now before the public domain.  We shall return to them shortly.

    The history of some world leaders accounting for their stewardship after 100 days in office is traceable to President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States of America (US). He was reputed to have introduced the concept in 1933 at the height of the great depression to instil hope in the American people. Conceived this way, the concept would aptly be seen as a child of circumstance. It evolved during a crisis situation and was meant to address the exigencies of the period.

    Americans needed to be given hope; they needed quick-fixes. And Roosevelt had to evolve that concept to keep hope alive. He needed to come out with sundry legislations and policies to reaffirm confidence in the capacity of that country’s survival. It was a child of serious emergency that drew justification from the exigencies of the emergency situation.

    But the concept has since undergone some metamorphosis and is generally used for direction setting, highlighting accomplishments and setting the tone for moving forward. It is now applied as a parameter for a clearer picture of an administration’s policies and programmes. The extent to which this direction setting and showcasing of hurried accomplishments within 100 days can go in determining the eventual success of governments remains largely a moot issue.

    In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, historian David Greenberg summed his argument on the first 100 days thus: “the first 100 days is really important but in a better world, it wouldn’t be”. For him, it is better world leaders are not judged so much on their early accomplishments. They should be given time to make mistakes and learn, they could focus on long term vision and do not have to worry about tactical manoeuvring.

    Unfortunately Greenberg lamented, new leaders have to live in the world they inherit. And it is in this context that what new leaders do in their early days has a disproportionate impact on all that follows.

    The above brings to the fore the inherent dissonance in the value of the first 100 days in office by leaders. Greenberg did not say explicitly what constitutes a better world. But when that construct is paired with his other idea that new leaders living in the world they inherit must be conscious of what they do in their early days, he can be better understood. He may have had in mind a more developed and more structured country; where there exist more organized ways of statecraft as against one still is in a state of flux.

    This is more so given the coincidence in the evolution of the concept with the great depression in the US. It would therefore seem justifiable why such agenda setting and benchmarking is relevant in a country like Nigeria. Because there are yet to be well established and ordered ways of conducting government affairs leading to monumental corruption, it may not be out of place for leaders to drive a solution in their first 100 days in office. But that is definitely not all there is to it. There is no guarantee that a government that seemingly started well within the first 100 days, may not totally derail thereafter.

    Beyond this however, is the larger danger in the way the event has been applied on these shores. The theory of incremental change derives its strength from the principle that there is really no new policy; as every policy is an addition to an existing one.

    What we have seen overtime in the application of the first 100 days concept has been the jettisoning of some well thought out policies and programmes by new leaders for make-shift and impressionistic ones. The issue of continuity is thrown overboard as all that appear to count is the imperative of the 100 days’ show. Not surprisingly, questionable and ill-conceived projects have been randomly embarked upon to satisfy the spur of the moment. But as soon as the event is over, nobody cares to ask the overall impact and value of such hurried projects in the final performance rating of governments (federal or state). That is the real issue we have to contend with in our peculiar situation. Buhari appeared to have set the right tone (irrespective of extant controversy) on the way we should look at the first 100 days celebrations. The direction of his government on corruption and insurgency in the north-east are not in doubt; though issues of the economy are still largely hazy.

    But it will be inherently foolhardy to nurse the feeling that all it takes to know a good government is what it does within the first 100 days. A government should be allowed time to stumble and possibly recover from it even as success in its early days is equally relevant in enhancing the outcome of its final rating. So, we need to take a new perspective of the type of value we ascribe to the performance of leaders within the first 100 days.

  • 100 days celebration unnecessary

    The concept of celebrating 100 days in office is unnecessary and uncalled for, in view of the lessons we have learnt from the activities of some of our past leaders.

    I am pretty convinced there are many more sycophants and praise singers than those who genuinely want the president or governors to perform. In fact, these praise singers and sycophants are doing their usual work of seeking political appointments or contracts.

    President Muhammadu Buhari should understand that a majority of Nigerians voted for him because of their conviction that the president is not corrupt.  A corrupt person cannot fight against corruption. It has been established that the war against corruption has always failed because the very people who are corrupt are the ones designing the framework and the institution to fight corruption.

    Communities, churches and mosques give chieftaincy titles to corrupt public officials in Nigeria today.

    In conclusion, President Muhammadu Buhari should ensure that himself and governors should not be allowed to celebrate 100 days in office.

    • ATULUKU, AMOS ABU

  • ‘100 days not enough to assess Buhari, others’

    One hundred days are not enough to rate the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and other elected officials, a member of the House of Representatives, Timothy Golu has said.

    The lawmaker, who represents Pankshin, Kanam, Kanke in Plateau State while reacting on the assessment of President Buhari added that conversely, in spite of the short period the President had brought stability to the country.

    His words: “one hundred days  are not enough to measure the capacity or assess the preparedness of any government performance.  Nigerians should be fair to those given responsibilities to perform and therefore should not forced or hasten them into confusion.

    “The 100 days phenomenon is just a political slogan for unnecessary political yardstick to compel office holders to rush their work”

    According to him,  “President Muhamadu Buhari  and all our Governors should not allow politicians to cow or rush them to impress anybody. They should take their time and work within their plans for quality and holistic assessment of what they have in focus”

    Golu said Buhari has achieved within the short period he took over as president and that though the time is too short to assess any leader or government in power, “he has stabilised the polity by creating a healthy psychology of competition among those who are seeking for political offices.”

    He further stated: “Those who are not qualified by whatever factor know and those who are ready to serve also know what is expected of them. Nigerians should give them time to work and not expect them to perfom magic.”

  • 100 days: Amosun preaches hope

    100 days: Amosun preaches hope

    Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun has urged indigenes and residents to be hopeful, noting that the challenges are a passing phase.

    He supported the policies and programmes of President Muhammadu Buhari, saying: “They will bring within our reach and attainment, the dreams of our people for a happy and a prosperous nation.”

    In a statement by the Secretary to the State Government, Taiwo Adeoluwa, the governor thanked the people for their faith in his administration.

    He said: “Challenges are human phenomena. Great countries had at one time or the other been confronted with challenges, which they surmounted. Your support saw us through the first term. I have no doubt that your solidarity will make us to even surpass expectations in our second tenure.”

    Amosun went on: “We have spent the last 100 days restructuring our finances, following the sudden economic downturn in the country. We participated in the Federal Government’s bailout programme with the support of our House of Assembly. The Treasury Single Account (TSA), which we introduced in 2011 and has now got a nationwide acceptance, has enabled us to block leakages. We look into the future with confidence.

    “As we reform our governance in line with the present realities, we have paid attention to our environment. We are engaging local and foreign investors with tangible results in the number of companies berthing in Ogun. We are taking stock, looking into new initiatives to raise our Internally-Generated Revenue and consolidate our achievements through the completion of projects. We are laying a strong economic base for the future. We have hopes of a better tomorrow.

    “We will remain focused and continue to work harder to make Ogun State better than we met it.”