Buhari: Deconstructing the 100 days in office myth

Nigeria would be a fantastic empirical study in bungling in governance emanating from despicable fads and

contradictions in the actions of elected public office holders. At times perceptive observers would start wondering the type of mental condition of the elected (factually selected by godfathers and over-bearing traditional rulers) political office holders in Nigeria due to inexplicable obsession with basterdizing governance.

  The craze about recording impressive achievements within 100 days in office by the elected presidents, governors and chairmen of local government councils has called for abrogation to restore sanity and transparency in governance. For explain, on the first day in his office, the newly elected governor of Abia state, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu announced the award of fifteen road contracts in Aba and Umuahia urban towns. It has become pertinent to exhort Abia people to reflect on the actions of their former governors and reappraise their perception and activities of political office holders in governance to stop the bungling, hypocritical posturing and outright playing to the gallery. The lamentable privations of the expectant people whose material wellbeing has been far from being met by the past governors that had governed the state namely: Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, Dr Orji Uzor Kalu and Dr TA Orji should not be allowed to continue. The apparent disappointment of Abia state people started with Dr Ogbonnaya Onu when, instead of taking his time by recognizing the strategic and prime position of planning, data gathering and on the spot assessment of the basic needs of the people, before swinging into action on governance, accorded top priority to publicity blitz to his public and public actions and gimmicks.

  The state radio station engaged people with the gift of garb, flippant tongue and melody makers to trumpet every formal and informal steps of the governor. The radio station invented the naïve cliché that Abia state is in the Bible as “God's own state”, even when words akin to Igbo names like Anah, Eri (in Anambra state), Ebe (in Enugu state) are in the old testament of Bible. In one of the news commentary in the state radio station on a deceased man, he was referred to as being 'blessed' with five wives and twenty-four children, even when a man hardly manages one wife with seven children in Igbo land due to  the realities of ever deteriorating economic constraints. Government changed hands with the tenure of Dr Orji Uzor Kalu along with members of his extended family with their bags filled with publicity stunt. Heaven broke loose in terms of publicity blitz far above infrastructural development of the state. Every action of the family was publicized as role models for emulation by Abia people; and at the end of his tenure, the people bemoaned their plight and privation in terms of infrastructural deficit especially the deplorable roads and lack of portable water supply in Aba urban town and other urban and semi-urban communities.

  The not so impressive achievement of the governor was sadly replicated by his successor, Dr TA Orji. The publicity stunt on marginal accomplishments was unequalled to the extent that constructive criticism was viewed as enmity from any quarter. For instance, a cerebral Daily Sun columnist, Ebere Nwagbara who attempted to offer a pragmatic perspective on the happenings in Abia state for the people to judge, was pounced upon by a team of impunity-driven security operatives drafted from Umuahia to pick the journalist from his Lagos residence to Abia state, half naked as he was just out of his bed in the morning hours. During the 2015 electioneering campaigns in Abia state, I predicted that history might repeat itself by the winner of the governorship election. The jibes and innuendoes dished out from the electronic media during the campaigns sign-posted the treading of the beaten-path of the person that would emerge as governor. The two contending parties PDP and APGA accused themselves of trying to “eat each other like dry meat and groundnut and drink water respectively”. No sooner had the poll outcome was announced than the winner of the governorship election, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu went haywire in granting long radio press interviews and up to three pages press interviews in the newspapers, hiring writers to build castles in the air even when he has not been sworn in as governor. Rational conduct would have made him to wait until he was handed over the reins of power, and he ought to settle down and study the realities on ground encapsulated in the hand-over notes from his predecessor. Even if he was a member of the former Executive Council (EXCO), he needs to peruse and analyze the hand-over notes and chart his directions because he could have a different approach to governance. For instance the alleged discrepancies in the Anambra state hand-over notes in 2014 vis-à-vis what was on ground and cash in government bank account was deliberately played down to let the sleeping dogs lie, as it were.

  Common sense or civilized mindset would dictate that president Muhammadu Buhari and governors should take their time to study the normally voluminous hand-over notes of their predecessors and proceed to hold meetings with the cabinet members to brainstorm on the hand-over notes and embark on fact-finding tours (if necessary) to ascertain the realities on ground; and more importantly look at the cash in the bank accounts before prioritizing policies, projects, programmes and activities in line with party manifesto since public governance is a continuum and a very serious business, not for the frivolously minded fellows. The nagging question for the Abia state governor is: on what basis did he unilaterally award the contracts for the reconstruction of fifteen roads in Aba and Umuahia, the capital city to be completed and commissioned within 100 days in the office. This action is patently fraud-driven ostensibly to hypocritically impress the uninformed and gullible people to earn praise-singing because award of road contracts needs the EXCO deliberations based on the submission of Executive Memo by the Hon. Commissioner for works encapsulating Bills Of Quantity (BOQ) and Tender's board costs quotations submitted by competent contractors. Apart from that, public administration has to do with priority setting and scale of preference since financial resources is limited relative to the demands of governed. The fact remains that it is crazy to award road contracts without due processes, transparency and documentations.

  Therefore President Mahummadu Buhari and the newly elected governors should shun the irrational conventional trend or fad by the press men to know their achievements within 100 days in office.

  It is necessary to advise Abia people to reappraise their attitude to their elected public office holders and stop praise-singing, hypocritical gimmicks and wasting of public fund on advertorials, especially by the local government chairmen, secretary to the state government, Hon. Commissioners and head of board, agencies and parastatals. They should call Governor Okezie Ikpeazu to order and advise him to take his time with his cabinet to realistically appraise and prioritize basic needs and infrastructural challenges in Abia state and judiciously deploy the financial resources via due process and transparency.

  The President and Governors should abolish press briefing and press conference to showcase the so called impressive accomplishments within 100 days in office. It is a farce which goads governors to embark on projects that are not well planned and appraised, fraud-driven, lack transparency, due process, lack of priority setting in public policies, projects, programmes and activities. 

by Mathew