Memo To PMB On His Campaign Promises To Nigerians -By Abba Dukawa

15 Min Read
Please accept my warmest greetings and prayers for more sound health, peace, and tranquillity. I am one of the millions of Nigerians that voted you for fifth times two as elected President for first and final term in office and thrice as the unsuccessful presidential candidate of ANPP, ANPP AND CPC  2003_ 2011. I actually intend to remind you of the promises you made to Nigerians before and after 2015 elections which ushered your administration.
Top among more than 81 APC’s campaign promises to electorates are as fellow:  If elected will reduce fuel price to 45naira per litre,  There will be free education at all level,  will pay 23million Nigerians 5,000 monthly. The administration will increase the minimum wage and place every graduate in salary for an extra 1 year after their youth service.
Other are One free meal (to include fruits) daily, for public primary school pupils. will revive all our refinery in my first year in office and build more to produce more for our domestic consumption. If elected he will crush Boko Haram in my first 3 months in office, Three million Jobs per year, PMB will stop the importation of refined products and  Stabilizing the naira.
Baba you have assured us that you would lead from the front and return Nigeria to its leadership role in regional and international efforts to combat terrorism and said that if you are elected president, the world will have no cause to worry about Nigeria as it has had to recently; that Nigeria will return to its stabilising role in West Africa; and that no inch of Nigerian territory will ever be lost to the enemy because we will pay special attention to the welfare of our soldiers in and out of service, we will give them adequate and modern arms and ammunition to work with, we will improve intelligence gathering and border controls to choke Boko Haram’s financial and equipment channels, we will be tough on terrorism and tough on its root causes by initiating a comprehensive economic development plan promoting infrastructural development, job creation, agriculture and industry in the affected areas. We will always act on time and not allow problems to irresponsibly fester, and I, Muhammadu Buhari, will always lead from the front and return Nigeria to its leadership role in regional and international efforts to combat terrorism.
You promised Nigerians to end Boko Haram insurgency in 3 months and there is still no end in sight to the terror attacks from Boko Haram. In the early stage of Buhari’s administration, Boko Haram suffered one loss after another until the authority boldly declared on national television that the militants had been “Technically Defeated”.
That “Technical Victory”, it is apparent, is fast becoming a Pyrrhic Victory with the renewed wave of attacks by the insurgents on soft targets. Are you sure you have fulfilled your promise to us? Initially, the military made some gains, recovering lost territories. But the honeymoon did not last long. Boko Haram regrouped and carried out vicious attacks, overrunning military posts and killing security operatives.
The question remains: what transpired between then and now? President Buhari’s promise was to ensure effective and adequate security of lives and property. Nigerians believed in him  Base on PMB’s status as retire General a position he was not picked from ground and have experience in military conflicts having been at war front during the country civil war in fact PMB is war veteran and also proved his military tactics especially as GOC 3rd Motorized Bridget when Chadian forces invaded Nigeria’s land in the Borno State, Buhari used the forces under his command to drove them backed this is enough for Him to tackle insurgency and high rate of crimes in control.   Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened. It is complete treachery of the role the state should play to its people.
The first order of the state is to protect the lives of citizens and the inability to fulfil this constitutional provision is indeed a saddest of all. Mr President, you have many capable hands around you, sir, listen to them and engage them. Ignore others and keep paying them if only for charity, but please secure us. In a nutshell, you have been doing great in some areas while you have levity hands in some areas.
But whatever the case may be you have not fulfilled your promise to us excellently as we all hopeful. Nobody is perfect, as the saying goes. Leadership, as you are aware is a responsibility bestowed on you by God and as a Muslim, you know that you will account for every deed and activity you engaged in under oath as a president before Almighty Allah.
You may recall ahead of the March presidential poll in 2015 elections there are key promises to Nigerians if elected that your administration would improve Nation’s  Economy where Naira would be equal to the dollar in value if voted into office, It is sad that the value of the naira has dropped to more than N360 to one dollar; this does not speak well for the nation’s economy.
 You assured us that if elected your administration will fight corruption totally as ” there will be no confusion as to where I stand. Corruption will have no place and the corrupt will not be appointed into my administration. First and foremost, we will plug the holes in the budgetary process. Revenue producing entities such as NNPC and Customs and Excise will have one set of books only.
Their revenues will be publicly disclosed and regularly audited. The institutions of state dedicated to fighting corruption will be given independence and prosecutorial authority without political interference. But you must emphasise that any war waged on corruption should not be misconstrued as settling old scores or a witch-hunt.
You are running for President to lead Nigeria to prosperity and not adversity. In reforming the economy, we will use savings that arise from blocking these leakages and the proceeds recovered from corruption to fund our party’s social investments programmes in education, health, and safety nets such as free school meals for children, emergency public works for unemployed youth and pensions for the elderly.
A gaskiya am not regional or ethnic bigotry but not happy by the way  Mr President aides insulted peoples with genuine passions or expressing their views on sundry issues affecting Nigerians and the country at large with all sorts of names. Mr president you may recall that Northern votes secured your first and second term,  northerners raise voices in their demands that your administration needs to secure the region.   Your popularity and massive support behind you has been badly ruptured going market shops and stalls one will hear and see the pains peoples going through because peoples believe that the administration appeared helpless in finding solutions to insecurity as well as poverty in the North.
Just recently  Northern Elders Forum raise voices that the administration of President Buhari appeared helpless in finding solutions to insecurity as well as poverty in the country.  Your  Special Adviser To The President On Media And Publicity insulting them for expressing northerners suffering but to many Nigerians never heard him insulting Southwest elders but now have the audacity in insulting peoples and left and centres simple he for drunk with the power you. Mr president let you remember that your own peoples are those that will receive and accommodate the President when done with power; and are the ones to be with you long after those in the palace today have deserted you for new greener pastures.
If Mr President and other Nigerians reflect on his 12 million poor masses and now repentance supporters and some other elite likes of Prof Ango, Dr  Hakeem Baba Ahmed and many more in the NEF were PMB’s loyal troops through thick and thin and have never abandoned him even in defeat. These are PMB’s supporters since he joined politics 2002  from the All Peoples Party, the All Nigerians Peoples Party, the Congress for Progressive Change to the All Progressive Congress, When he unsuccessfully ran for the office of president of Nigeria in 2003, 2007, and 2011 general elections.
Let Mr president understand that the issues they raised are real and each and every Nigerian except those are within the power share these concerns, even you as our Commander in Chief claimed not to be aware of our insecurity situation until the likes of NEF raised the red alarm.  Find people who are good, honest and knowledgeable enough to represent your vision, and who can be trusted with huge responsibilities. You need to trust more.
Sir,  you have to keep trusted people under closer watch. You have to be tougher on security threats and those who fail to exercise responsibility to protect citizens. You have to be tougher on corruption, on insecurity, on secretive employments, poor health facilities etc which may require that you isolate this debilitating scourge from politics. Believe me, what you do from now on as leader will determine whether this nation will be strong enough to deal with challenges of the future, or it will go under because its cumulative problems have been left unattended by its leaders.  Mr President, you said your second term will be harsh. I understand that you softened your language later. To be honest, I wish you had stuck with tough because tough is what you have to be. Nigerians need PMB exhibits anticipating hard on yourself and those around you.
Let me remind you concluded your speech at Chatham House UK by saying you cannot change the past. But you can change the present and the future. So before you is a former military ruler and a converted democrat who is ready to operate under democratic norms and is subjecting himself to the rigours of democratic elections for the fourth time. You may ask: why is he doing this? This is a question I ask myself all the time too. And here is my humble answer: because the work of making Nigeria great is not yet done, because I still believe that change is possible, this time through the ballot, and most importantly, because I still have the capacity and the passion to dream and work for a Nigeria that will be respected again in the comity of nations and that all Nigerians will be proud of. One of the most important qualities of a  leader includes integrity, accountability, empathy, humility, resilience, vision, influence, and positivity.  While management is about persuading people to do things they do not want to do, while leadership is about inspiring people to do things they never thought they could.
As a matter of fact, no matter how your admirers want the administration to succeed in its first term in office almost every day there are stories that make them shiver with the way the administration is handling critical issues that affect Nigerians.  For President Buhari to achieve desirable goals there is need for him to ditch some of his service chiefs,  inner aides and other members  that are promoting their selfish interest above the administration’s interest. The actions and conduct of this invisible cabal within the corridors of power are only projecting a negative image for your war at home and abroad.  In reality Nigerians are alienated, angry and fed up with the way things going on in the  administration as there is not much convincing pointers supporting the once fearful GMB.

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