The incoming administration of the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, has bee urged to make good his promises contained his document entitled “My Covenant With Nigerians”.
General Buhari had made several promises in the document, ranging from fight against corruption, insecurity, power supply to jobs for Nigeria’s unemployed.
A Nigerian lawyer, Mr Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, on Friday said the administration of General Buhari is expected to set up a campaign team against corruption in his first 100 days in office.
He said that Nigeria would experience a leap in terms of development if the leakages would be blocked.
“Once we can stop the leakages, the interest of the common man will be taken care of. The major thing that Nigerians want from General Buhari is to stop the leakages,” he said, emphasising that corruption had stalled the growth of the different sectors of the economy.
“The second area Nigerians will expect to see change is the power sector. In the manifesto of the All Progressives Congress, through the covenant of 100 days, we knew that Nigeria generates barely 5,000 megawatts. And they promised that in the next few years it would be increased to 20,000 additional megawatts. Every sector in Nigeria runs on Generator.
“If we tackle that, we can take the funds spent on power generation by individuals back to the country’s system. Between now and December 2016, Nigerians should have at least 18 hours of power,” Mr Adegboruwa said.
The lawyer further stressed that what was needed to actualise the promises was a willpower to implement the policies.
“The law and the will by the leaders to be able to implement it is what is affecting the sector.
“The law is blind. When you apply it to ‘A’ it must be applicable to all.
“The agenda for that administration in fighting corruption is for Professor Osinbajo to implement the template used in reducing corruption in Lagos justice system.
“They should search for credible technocrats and people of integrity to run the government.”
He emphasised that all the promises made by General Buhari during his campaign were realistic.
Realistic Expectations
General Buhari had among other things promised to create a minimum of one million jobs and two million housing units every year.
“Nigerians are waiting and we want to give time for the APC to settle and we will begin to approach the issues as the time goes by.
“It is realistic that 35 per cent of appointment will go to women. The Land Use Act review, as promised is realistic. Every promise made by the APC are realistic and we expect them to deliver and we will demand that they be met even in court.
“There is a lot of goodwill that he has inherit because of the promise he made to the people. He should use the manifesto to take us forward.
“Nigerians cannot wait beyond December 2015 before we begin to see dividend of democracy running across the land.
“He (Buhari) said the economy would be diversified. He had told us that he will go through alternative means of strengthening the agriculture sector and exploration of other minerals.
“The government should leave by the expectations of the people in line with the fulfilment of the manifesto.
“There is no reason for us not to expect that something should be done,” he stressed.
A member of the APC and the Youth Leader of the party, Ismael Ahmed, expressed optimism that the General Buhari’s administration would live up to the ‘realistic part’ of the expectations.
“Many things have gone wrong and the expectations are quite high.
“The dollar coming back to one Naira is something that will go through a long process. We never promised that dollar will be equivalent to one Naira immediately we take over and that expectation is unrealistic.
“The president-elect has been in power before even though it was under a military administration.
“A lot of things have changed but there are realistic parts of the expectations and we will be meeting the realistic parts of the expectations.
“The absolute concentration of the incoming government is on the electorate and not on those in government,” he said.
“Power has always been an issue in Nigeria. Power is one of the cardinal issues that General Buhari will focus on. We are appreciative that what we will need to start up with that is good and that can be built upon, would be built upon and what needs to be changed will be looked at by experts and the right changes would be made.
“By December of 2015 Nigerians will begin to feel the change that the incoming administration has promised already.
“If there is any promise that the incoming administration has made, we will make sure that we keep to those promises.
“In terms of security, he said the administration of General Buhari would make an immediate effort to see if the Chibok girls would be rescued,” Mr Ahmed said.
He further said that the cabinet of the incoming administration would have people that would give Nigerians confident that the government meant business.
“You will see discipline in the lives of the people that will be in the government.
“One thing is very certain; change is here and people will see change in this country in the way and manner that the government will relate with the citizens and how the citizens will relate with the Government,” the APC Youth Leader said.
