Count Down to May 29th: Thirteen Campaign Promises Buhari Must Fulfill
By Ogbuefi Ndigbo
LAGOS MAY 19TH (URHOBOTODAY)-Exactly 10 days from today, General Muhamadu Buhari will be sworn in as President and Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria Armed Forces. He has directed that, once sworn in on May 29, he would simply be addressed as Muhammadu Buhari, and no longer as General Buhari.
No problem with that.
The problem is that as a People, we have a duty to keep reminding him of all his promises. It is now a different song; that He Is Not A Magician and all that, but below are are 13 of the top promises Buhari made to Nigerians while campaigning:
1. Reduce Fuel price to N45.00 per litre
2 N5000 per month for every unemployed youths.
3. Create 3,000,000 jobs per annum
4. Provide free meal for all elementary/primary/almajiri schools
5. 1 year allowance for Youth Corpers post NYSC
6. Free and qualitative education up to SSS3
7. 2 million houses yearly for next 4 years
8. Generate 48,000 megawatts of electricity within 4 years.
9. Zero tolerance for corruption, wipe out corruption by the force of his personal example.
10. Ban medical tourism by our politicians from May 29, 2015.
11. Annihilate Boko Haram within two months.
12. Equate N1.00 to $1.00
13. Stabilise oil price
Yesterday Nigeria’s Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar asked Nigerians not to expect miracles from the incoming government of the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari.
Why should Nigerians not expect miracles from General Buhari? The expectation of miracles, molded in the mythologies of the old dictator was the great wind that drove him into the presidency.
Buhari and his APC should immediately put their house in order, gear up for action instead of trying to shift blames or lower expectations.
In the words of Olisa Metuh, “What should be of more concern to an in-coming government like APC is the negative signals and the rising worries by Nigerians over its flip-flops and apparent nervousness of its President-elect who has started reneging on his campaign promises.
“Nigerians were bewildered when they heard General Buhari renege on his messianic posture and told them in clear terms not to expect him to rapidly fix the problems of nation as he had promised during the campaign.
“The same President-elect who boldly stated in his campaign manifesto that ‘I, Muhammadu Buhari have resolved that the task ahead of me is that of securing our nation and prospering our people, not looking backward to the failed policies and promises’ had on May 5, 2015 in a meeting with a meeting with APC governor-elects reneged and announced that he has “started nervously to explain to people that Rome was not built in a day”.
“Furthermore while the APC in a statement on April 3, 2015 denied that the President-elect pledged to end insurgency in two months of being sworn in, the video clip of his interview with Christiane Amanpour on CNN on April 2, 2015 is clear on the promise made by Buhari.
“General Buhari in answering a question on how to deal with the divisions in the country said ‘the actual division which is worth bordering about, I think in terms of social instability, that is insecurity in the north east and in the delta area, which I think they have been with the country long enough that we know how they started and what stage they are now, therefore we are confident that we will rapidly give attention to security in the country and I believe we will effectively deal with them in two months when we get into office.
“When asked how he would achieve this, General Buhari said ‘I think firstly we have to register the cooperation of the neigbouring countries, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, although some efforts where made by this administration but it was not good enough and it was too late’. The full interview can be watched on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhWVqte25bM.
“Instead of engaging in shadow-chasing and dwelling on insults and unnecessary display of arrogance, the APC leaders should be worried that Nigerians are increasingly becoming apprehensive that their party has already started going back on the promises it made to them.
“Nigerians are not in a hurry to forget that the APC promised to rapidly fix the economy, generate, transmit and distribute electricity on a 24/7 basis, pay N5,000 monthly to 25 million poor Nigerians; provide allowances to the discharged but unemployed Youth Corps members for Twelve (12) months, create additional 4 million new homes, provide free education and meals for school children and bring naira to the same value with the dollar”, the statement said.
Please help me tell Buhari that Nigerians would not accept any excuse for failure especially given that the outgoing administration has laid very strong foundation for rapid economic growth in addition to the successes recorded in the fight against boko haram in the north east.
If I were Buhari, I will immediately halt all these congratulatory messages and pilgrimages by ‘all manner of people including those who are claiming to be trekking for the President elect (even though they may not have voted for the General), interlopers, intruders, scavengers, supporters of any government in power (SAGIP), Defectors from PDP, professional congratulators, food is ready professionals, Five Minutes to greatness vagabonds and cheats have not allowed the President elect to have a breathing space at Defence House, since March 28 2015 when General Buhari made unforgettable history in our political landscape.’
As far as discerning Nigerians are concerned, his time starts counting from May 29 2015….we will hold him accountable to his promises…we will hold his feet to the fire!!!
Ogbuefi Ndigbo +447460770987