FROM PROMISES TO PERFORMANCE

FROM PROMISES TO PERFORMANCE

OPENING SHOT: Dear fellow-citizens, welcome to this issue of THE MANDATE MONITOR, Nigeria’s soar away political news story platform gauging the standard of political conduct, actions and inactions of those in political leadership. If you are politically elected or appointed, you are under our radar.

WHAT-A-GUAN APC? As the new administration settles down to business, we have been monitoring the brewing crisis within the All Progressives Congress over the choice of candidates for the speakership and the Senate presidency of the 8th National Assembly.  The gulf deepened on Sunday as Yakubu Dogara (House of Representatives) and Bukola Saraki (Senate) intensified lobbying of the Peoples Democratic Party incoming lawmakers and vowing to contest the elections on Tuesday despite not being endorsed by the APC leadership. 

It is politics and for us here, they are on the right track politicking, let us watch and see politics take its natural course. 

Keen supporters of the APC in NASS are apprehensive and are wondering to what extent this crisis will affect the unity within the party. APC aready weathered many crises and most likely will weather this one. Recall that the choice of its presidential candidate was so intense forcing the PDP to say that the party will falter. APC also scaled through the challenge of picking a Vice Presidential candidate.

Till date, nothing and none of the above issues tested the will and resolve of APC as a party like the present crisis. The leadership will be concerned with maintaining not just “party unity” but also “party discipline” and our hope is that they scale through this one.

WE DON’T HAVE PATIENCE MR. PRESIDENT! It is now a notorious fact that President Jonathan was the most criticized President globally, but with the way Nigerians are watching the Buhari Presidency, this government may end up toppling Jonathan in this regard. Monitoring traditional news platforms and the social media, one cannot but see the frustration of a people wearied by a burden of high expectations from their leaders.  

Presently, there is a raging social media confrontation between those who argue that Mr. President is taking his time to articulate and consolidate his presidency on the one hand and others who argue that after 12 years of persistent quest for the Presidency, President Buhari ought by now to have gotten his acts together and faster too by hitting the ground running. One thing is clear, though the presidency is asking for patience but it seems patience is one article Nigerians do not have at a time as this.

How much time would Mr. President be needing to appoint His Ministers, Secretary to the Federal Government, make his assets public, combat Boko Haram and abolish the officer of the first lady? Mr. President came riding on the wings of change, promises were made and based on this promises Nigerians voted, it’s a deal and Mr. President must begin to move from promises to performance.

WAS OSIBANJO BARRED FROM SENSITIVE SECURITY MEETING? Now, we have all heard the speculations, that the VP was barred from a security meeting that the President had with service Chiefs even when persons without any form of confirmed official designations (Colonel Hameed Ali (rtd) and General Danbazau (rtd) attended. While claiming mischief on the part of Anti-Buhari groups, the pro-Buhari groups claim the VP was in far away Sudan at the material time and thus could not have been locked out. Whichever way, THE MANDATE MONITOR is worried that till date, no official word is coming from the office the VP on the true picture of the situation because the truth of the speculation has dire implications. 

The presidency must answer the question, “was Osibanjo locked out of a sensitive security meeting?”

GENERAL ABDULRAHMAN BELLO DAMBAZAU (RTD) Following the victory of Gen. Buhari at the last presidential elections, and the promise of Mr. President to tackle Nigeria’s security situation headlong, we have watched with keen interest the personality and movement of Lieutenant General Abdulrahman Bello Dambazau (Rtd). We know that the position of NSA is usually considered the exclusive preserve of the President and the appointment of a new NSA by the President himself a retired Army-General may be the exact portfolio for Gen Dambazau. We must recall that Gen Dambazau had security clearance and indeed attended a sensitive security meeting Mr. President had with service chiefs; this was the same meeting Prof. Osibanjo was allegedly barred from attending.

Again, Gen. Dambazau is presently in Germany as part of Mr. President’s entourage. So, at least Nigerians now have an idea of who will be marshalling the nation’s confrontation with Boko Haram as Mr. President obviously will be depending on this former Army Chief who during the elections satisfactorily marshaled the Security Directorate of the APC Presidential Campaign Council.

In this new dispensation, Gen. Dambazau will be a personality to watch.

MAIN REPORT

FROM PROMISES TO PERFORMANCE: Having regards to the iron grips of the PDP on Nigeria’s power structure in the past 16 years, the APC thought, and quite rightly too that only a determined, sustained campaign strategy will have the capacity to topple and loosen the grips of PDP on power. The then Gen. Buhari and his APC party leadership during the presidential electioneering campaigns made several ground swelling promises to Nigerians as a strategy to whet their appetite, diminish  their confidence in the incumbent and ride on to power. 

Foremost amongst APC campaign promises were the following:

1.    President will declare his assets publicly

2.   Corrupt leaders will not have a part in government

3.   Immediate defeat of Boko Haram

4.   Petrol will sell at N40 per liter

Based on these and many more, and coupled with the frustrations of Nigerians with President Jonathan’s leadership style, the people at the grassroot level railroaded Gen. Buhari into power. The Buhari presidency is riding on a crest popular support which inadvertently may become its undoing having considering the gamut of expectations. In fact and indeed, realizing the quantum of expectations, the managers of Buhari and APC as a party commenced a gradual but systematic attempt to extinguish the people’s expectation.

It is said that a bad workman always quarrels with his tools, the burden to lead in this attempt fell on the then President-elect, Gen Buhari who declared “I will be coming into power at the wrong time” and the then Vice President-elect who declared “we will be inheriting a nation in crisis”. THE MANDATE MONITOR analysts have questioned the implications of such statements coming from the nation’s torch bearers. 

Gen. Buhari’s quest for the presidency of Nigeria has spanned a period well over 12 years, so ordinarily speaking Gen. Buhari ought to be Nigeria’s only president that was prepared for the presidency. If this argument is correct, then and in our opinion, now President Buhari might just be playing a game of irresponsibility with Nigerians. So, why would now be a wrong time for Buhari to be Nigeria’s president? Why didn’t Buhari tell Nigerians this before the elections? What is the challenge about – health or age? It should be noted at this point that 10 clear days after his inauguration, the president is yet to settle down talk less of hitting the ground and running.

Again and more importantly, why would the Vice President tell us that APC will be inheriting a nation in crisis? Of course we all knew the country was in crisis hence our choice of the duo for the president and vice-president positions. Prof. Osibanjo and Gen. Buhari both knew what the challenges were before presenting themselves for these leadership positions. THE MANDATE MONITOR is greatly appalled to say the least that after winning elections, our leaders are at sea as to what to do and have resorted to giving excuses.

They should know that at a time as this, Nigerians are expecting them to begin moving from promises to performance. Performance, yes performance in the sense of getting started, Mr. President must get started. The new regime is 11 days old and Mr. President has been away for 9 days. He must come home, sit down and lead our quest to combat corruption head on.

For us at THE MANDATE MONITOR, it is not that Nigerians are too impatient, but that the leadership is yet to settle down to face the act of governance, they must not waste the people’s goodwill.

OBUESI PHILLIPS 

2014 Dream Prize Winner