Buhari: 100 Days into a Journey of Four Years

In the last 100 days, President Muhammadu Buhari has undertaken actions that have proved both constructive and controversial in his effort to transform the country. But he needs to quickly resolve the issue of cabinet appointments to put behind the country a controversy that has seemed to overshadow the events of his first 100 days in office. Vincent Obia writes

It was the 32nd president of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt (January 30, 1882-April 12, 1945), who popularised the concept of the first 100 days in office, when he came to power in March 1933 and set a historic timeframe in which he planned to end the Great Depression. Roosevelt became president at a time of serious economic hardship in America and great expectations from a citizenry that looked up to their leader for succour amid a crisis they believed to be purely politician-made.   

Much like Roosevelt, President Muhammadu Buhari’s rise to power occurred under the shadow of a grave national economic and security dilemma, which many blamed largely on the unbridled corruption of the political class. Amid great expectations from the people, Buhari made promises of a better life at the time of his inauguration on May 29. He did not cast his promises in the mould of a 100-day timetable, but he appreciated the promptness of action that the people desired and pledged to hit the ground running.

“With depleted foreign reserves, falling oil prices, leakages and debts the Nigerian economy is in deep trouble and will require careful management to bring it round and to tackle the immediate challenges confronting us, namely; Boko Haram, the Niger Delta situation, the power shortages and unemployment especially among young people,” Buhari stated in his inaugural speech on May 29.
Buhari’s first 100 days as president is, certainly, not a perfect measure of his administration’s performance. But many see it as a good starting point for reading the government’s roadmap.  

In June, Buhari engaged in active diplomatic activities within the West African sub-region in apparent effort to facilitate the effective operation of the Multinational Joint Tasks Force deployed by member-states of the Lake Chad Basin Commission – Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, and Niger, plus Benin – to combat Boko Haram. The president has ordered the release of $21 million out of the $100 million promised by Nigeria towards the take-off of the MNJTF standing army, which has its operational headquarters in N’Djamena.
Buhari has relocated the command centre for the fight against Boko Haram insurgency from Abuja to Maiduguri in line with the promise he made at his inauguration.

Though, there has been a mounting toll of casualties from Boko Haram attacks on soft targets since Buhari assumed office as president, many are agreed that the country is witnessing a more coordinated approach to the antiterrorism war.
On the Niger Delta situation, Buhari on August 5 last month approved a series of measures meant to accelerate the implementation of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Report on the environmental restoration of Ogoniland, which had been swept under the carpet since 2011. The actions included the amendment of the Official Gazette establishing the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP) to reflect a new governance framework comprising a Governing Council, a Board of Trustees, and Project Management. The UNEP report has been acknowledged as the most comprehensive effort to date to tackle the problem of environmental degradation in the Niger Delta.

In apparent attempt to check fund leakages and block avenues for corruption, the Buhari government has adopted the Treasury Single Account system whereby all revenues due to the federal government from its ministries, departments, and agencies are paid into a single account.
Buhari has, no doubt, taken steps to tackle some of the country’s most critical problems. But the visible effects of the measures have yet to be significantly felt.

A prominent feature of the first 100 days of the Buhari presidency is the slow pace of progress on virtually all fronts of national life. The country has been on a slow motion since Buhari took over. The president says he is slowly and cautiously laying a solid foundation for responsible governance. 
But the president has also taken steps in the controversial direction and these have, ironically, seemed to belie his efforts in the last 100 days.  

Buhari announced the latest set of his appointees penultimate Thursday and provided more fuel for a controversy that appears to define his first 100 days in office. He has appointed about 29 persons into various positions since coming to power on May 29. So far, the appointments have clearly favoured the northern parts, his native region, more than the other parts of the country. And they have set off a storm of criticism that seems to be politically damaging for Nigeria’s first opposition winner of a national election.

The APC national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, and some of the party’s leaders have tried to argue that the bulk of those appointed so far by Buhari are his personal staff. They tend to contend that the president has the prerogative to pick persons he can trust as personal staff. They seem to also stress that it is the later appointments, the ministerial positions, that would call into play the issues of national spread and federal character. That defence has proved too weak to assuage the torrent of reservations.

Buhari must appreciate and quickly address the feelings that have emerged from his first 100 days in office that he is favouring one part of the country at the expense of the other.

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