Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, was inaugurated as the Nigerian leader on May 29, 2015, thus effectively ending the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s 16-year rule in the country.
His emergence was seen as a sign of positive change for Nigeria’s democracy, especially given his antecedent of integrity and astute fight against corruption.
Prior to the March 28 presidential election, which he won as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), with the party’s much publicised ‘Change’ mantra, the president made several promises to the electorates.
Ngigie, Okorocha, Buhari and Yemi Osinbajo during one of the presidential campaigns
These promises got the masses excited and he deservedly got their votes after winning their hearts.
However, after spending two full months in office, the president is yet to fulfill many of these campaign promises, and Nigerians have begun to wonder if he is any different from his predecessors.
As the president clocks 60 days in office, Naij.com brings you 5 campaign promises which the former Army general is yet to fulfill.
1. Security
One of the challenges of the immediate past administration was that of insecurity. In fact, some schools of thought were of the opinion that Nigeria’s immediate past leader, Goodluck Jonathan, lost the last presidential election over his inability to stem the incessant attacks of the Boko Haram insurgents in Nigeria’s northeast.
President Buhari, prior to his election, had promised to end insurgency in the country in record time, but the situation has ironically increased since his administration set out to work officially.
2. Public declaration of assets and liabilities
The president, in one of his many campaign promises, vowed to publicly declare his assets on assumption of office, but he has not successfully carried out that promise.
Although president Buhari reportedly declared his assets to the Code of Conduct Bureau, Nigerians are still livid over his refusal to make the declaration public and this is one aspect which the president may not have so much powers as the body has indicated that it has no power to reveal the declared assets.
3. One free meal (to include fruits) daily, for public primary school pupils
This promise of free meals for public primary school pupils, one of the major reasons the masses voted for the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led administration at the federal level, is yet to be implemented by the new administration.
In other APC-led states as well, the policy is yet to be implemented, a sign that the president may have just used those policies as campaign strategies to have people vote for him.
4. Free education at primary, secondary and tertiary institutions for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and Education
Right now, the Nigerian leader has not said anything about the education sector of the country which seems in a lotof disarray.
The president of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Chibuzo Asomugha, had expressed high hopes that the new administration might come to its aid, as the immediate past president was not forthcoming with the tertiary education.
Only recently, the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) slashed the required cut-off required for admission to tertiary institutions, but also created serious discomfort, when it started redistributing some students to schools other than those of their choices.
The free education policy is yet to be implemented by the president after spending 60 days in office.
5. Recruitment and training of at least 100,000 officers into the Nigerian police force and establish a Federal Anti-terrorism Agency
Right now, the Nigerian police have expressed their inability to stop the recruitment of officers because they are reportedly broke.
This is in sharp contrast to the president’s campaign promise of recruiting a minimum of 100,000 officers into the force and also establish a federal anti-terrorism agency, and another thing Nigerians will be keenly watching.
While the Nigerian president has traveled to Cameroon to meet president Paul Biya on how to stem Boko Haram attacks in both countries, Nigerians will be expecting that very soon, terrorism and insurgency will become a thing of the past.
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