Several Nigerians blasted The Presidency and the ruling All Progressives Congress for saying that President Muhammadu Buhari never promised Nigerians that he would achieve specific things within his first 100 days in office.
Nigerians on social media expressed disappointment at the party and Presidency’s excuses.
The protest on Twitter, which was titled, #100dayspromise, was directed at the APC and the Presidency for being insincere with Nigerians during the electioneering.
The National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mr. Lai Mohammed, said during an interview on Channels TV on Monday that Buhari never promised to do anything within his first 100 days in office.
Mohammed said, “Buhari never promised to do anything in 100 days, that’s the honest truth. You see, when you are running a campaign, all kinds of literature will emerge from all sorts of groups but there are only two documents that you can judge a party with: That is the constitution of the party and the manifesto of the party.
“Those are the only two documents that are registered with the Independent National Electoral Commission; you can go to court or hold a party accountable for them.”
Similarly, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu, distanced Buhari from the many promises that were made during the electioneering.
Shehu, who was the Director of Media of the APC Presidential Campaign Organisation, denied the authenticity of a document titled, “My Covenant with Nigerians”, which was purportedly signed by Buhari and posted on the APC’s website in March.
He also denied the authenticity of another list of promises titled, “One hundred things Buhari will do in 100 days.”
However, Kayode Ogundamisi, a social commentator, said on his official Twitter handle that it was hypocritical of the APC, having allowed the said documents detailing Buhari’s promises to be flying around on the Internet throughout the electioneering, only to rubbish the documents when it was time for reckoning.
He said, “The APC and President Buhari are telling us that they never saw the ‘100-day promise’ document; failing the integrity test so soon?
“Prof Yemi Osinbajo mentioned free meals as contained in the 100-day document during his US tour; is he also a loose organ?”
Another Twitter user, Okezie Moses, said, “If the 100-day promises are now ‘unrealistic’, it means votes were obtained by false pretences.”
Abdulrahman Muazu also wrote on Twitter, “The APC made a lot of unrealistic promises and all of us heard it directly or indirectly, so denying it now won’t work.”
Similarly, Obiogumu F. tweeted, “Buhari, APC and Lai Mohammed’s denials confirm lack of policy direction and a propaganda-based government.”
Nwachukwu Oluchukwu posted on his Twitter handle, “When will the APC and the Presidency stop lying? This is becoming childish.”
In the same vein, Akhehicols said, “Rather than deny the 100-day promises, Garba Shehu and Femi Adesina should focus on highlighting the achievements so far.”
A commentator on an online news website, The Cable, wondered why the APC did not deny the authenticity of the documents before the elections.
The commentator, Yasin, said, “You did not disown those so called publications then because they suited your agenda. Now all we get from you is persistent use of the Peoples Domocratic Party as an excuse to cover your gross incompetence. We are not fooled.
“The PDP left a mess; an ex-minister stole $6bn, etc. When will you stop distracting the masses and sit down to govern? Has PDP/Goodluck Jonathan prevented you from naming any ministers?
“Your first 100 days will pass without any significant achievement to show, not even the quick wins recommended by (Ahmed) Joda committee. Your present press release and others to come are aimed at dampening expectations. How can you achieve anything significant without ministers, without policies? This is not the change we voted for”
A member of the APC Situation Room, Gbenga Olorunpomi, who was one of those in charge of issuing press statements and other Internet materials on behalf of the party, had in March, sent emails to news rooms.
One of the emails had the document titled ‘My Covenant with Nigerians’. Efforts to reach Olorunpomi, who also live tweeted APC’s activities during electioneering, on Monday failed as his phone was switched off.
Earlier, he had sent an email containing an article from Shehu.
The article contained the denial of Buhari’s ‘covenant’ document.
Shehu, in the piece said he had no knowledge of the two campaign documents, which reportedly emanated from the party’s “many centres of public communication which, for whatever reason, were on the loose.”
Shehu stated, “Both pamphlets bore the authorised party logo but as the Director of Media and Communications in that campaign, I did not fund or authorise any of those. I can equally bet my last kobo that candidate Buhari did not see or authorise those publications.
“As a consequence of these publications, expectations have been raised unreasonably, that as President, Muhammadu Buhari will wave his hand and all the problems that the country faces – insecurity, corruption, unemployment, and poor infrastructure – would go away.
“That notwithstanding, President Buhari has given the job his best shot and the whole country is saying that we never had it so good. He has re-established the values of hard work and administrative efficiency. The President says times without number that this country needs to fix governance and that he won’t tolerate laziness.
“In the area of economic management, Nigerians are already seeing things happening that they thought were not possible in so short a time.”
It will be recalled that the Senior Special Adviser to the President, Mr. Femi Adesina, had also warned Nigerians not to confuse Buhari’s promises with those of his party, the APC.
Adesina, while speaking with Ogundamisi, two weeks ago, said Buhari could not be stampeded into declaring his assets publicly when it was the APC and not him that made the promise.
He said, “You need to get his words right. Go and check all that the President said during the campaign. In no place would you see it attributed to him as a person.
“But then there is a document by his party, the APC, saying he would declare publicly. So, we need to set that right; it was a declaration by his party. The law requires public officers to declare their assets and he has done that.”
Apart from Twitter, Nigerians also lambasted the APC and the Presidency on different websites.
For instance, on Nairaland, a commentator, Kakameks, wrote, “We are in for it. The way this government is going is really mind blowing. Campaigns are over now, the reality of the work ahead is gradually setting in and the goal post is continually being shifted.”
Amazondepth also wrote, “It is really troubling to see the APC failing the integrity test so soon. In fairness to PMB, he has a monumental load of work on his hands but the promises hoodwinked the gullible masses and coming to deny that is shameful to say the least.”
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This people should apply wisdom, Buhari promised us a lot but he never said in 100 days. It will be a miracle to achieve so much in 100 days with the monumental mess that was created in 16 years with Jonadaft being the worst. People should criticize constructively and not make themselves look stupid. I believe in Buhari.
ReplyDeleteOk, even if he denies any of his promises, let him state what he has achieved in 100 days. And people like u and him should stop distracting people continuously with the attention of PDP mess and probing. That was not what they were voted for, Nigerians are wiser with their distraction and that all they ve achieved in 100days. They shd get work
DeleteYea...pls tell dis la,cuz d dude is just blabbing....all we hear is jonadaft...pdp mess...who is deceiving who...
DeleteHonestly, I cannot blame Nigerians for their restiveness and bogus expectations. Most of the problems we are facing now is as a result of the huge reliance on information in social media. APC would have denied all the information before the election but it will be tantamount to shooting themselves on the legs because of the enormous hate campaign against GMB as he was then, by FFKs, Fayoses and their likes. Do you know that members of another political parties can come up with such bogus promises in order to have a basis of criticism for whoever wins the election. These are political games to smear each other. My take is that we should exercise patience as we did from 2011 to 2015 and the score card determines the next line of action. Long live Nigeria.
ReplyDeletePatience is GEJ's wife. He has given the presidency to buhari; there is no way he will alsi give buhari his wife.
DeletePlease let us call a spade a spade and stop making excuses for failure. the so called hate campaign you are talking about was started by APC. we read all shit about GEJ in the social media. let's even forget the campaign for now but what has PMB achieved or which project is in the pipeline. highlight his achievement and stop telling us about 16 yrs PDP mess and nonsense
ReplyDeleteIt defies logical explanation that electricity earlier switched off was switched on immediately after the new president came to power.
ReplyDeleteIf those responsible for denying Nigerian light for political gain are not identified, they will do so again as soon as the new president falls out of favour with them!!!!!
Why is most us this gullible, PMB promise to wipe out Boko Haram is 3months, that's 90day, so will still that change of 10days. Is this not 100days in office promise. Nigerians are wiser now. 2019 is not far.
ReplyDeleteHahahahahahaaha You call people different names and point accusing fingers to Past government when the ball is in the court of the present government, we clamour for anti corruption we want the president to probe some set and leave the other. been bias will not bring the good out this government yes we want change but we need to be real we don't have any anti corruption court yet, currently no body has been probed all probe are only on paper and social media wake up brothers and sister and see beyond your nose. Hahahahahahahah
ReplyDelete