A quick check on the APC campaign promises has revealed that not up to 10% of the 80 lofty premises have been fulfilled till date. For the sake of clarification, nearly all the 80 electoral promises of APC have been hinged on security, improve economy and fight against corruption. Sadly, the Buhari’s government has largely appeared to be without direction in its desired fulfilment of these promises. A cursory look at the document containing the electoral promises of APC confirms that the government has glaringly failed on its promise of national security and defence.
Contrary to the avowed electoral promise of General Muhammadu Buhari to urgently address capacity building mechanism of law enforcement agents in terms of quality and quantity; general insecurity has now enveloped the nation. There has been an upsurge in the heinous activities of Boko Haram terrorists leading to daily massacre of Nigerian soldiers right within their military bases by the so called ragtag terrorist group. Kidnapping and banditry have been on sharp increase across the country and the best the government has consistently offered was the rhetorics of bringing perpetrators of the highly disturbing crimes to book.
APC must be reminded that one of its 80 promises made to Nigerians is to equate N1.00 to $1.00. This government has not only failed to fulfill this promise that was voluntarily made to Nigerians, but it has incompetently watched while the exchange rate of naira to a dollar skyrocketed from N180 to N365. The same APC government promised Nigerians to guarantee a minimum price for all cash crops and facilitate storage of agricultural products to overcome seasonal shortages of selected food crops. It is without doubt that not only has this promise remained unfulfilled; but APC led federal government has also watched while price of basic food items became priced out of the reach of an average Nigerian.
The assurance to generate, transmit and distribute electricity on a 24/7 basis whilst simultaneously ensuring the development of sustainable/renewable energy by 2019 was another electoral promise of the APC. The truthful reality of this promise speaks for itself today. Rather than striving to come close to fulfilling this promise, the Minister in charge has lately engaged in bulk passing. He recently told Nigerians that immediate past government and not the present government should be blamed for poor power supply in the country.
The three major promises made by the APC in the area of oil and gas industry were to stabilize the price of petroleum products, to speedily pass the much delayed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) and to revive and reactivate the minimally performing refineries to optimum capacity. The only truth about these is that the promises have remained a mere mirage till date.
A further glance through the campaign promise document of the APC has also established that the party promised to channel up to 20% of Nigerian annual budget towards education. The truthful reality of this promise in that university and polytechnic lecturers would not have embarked on indefinite strike if this promise has been fulfilled even halfway by the APC led government. More so, visible continuous decline in the quality of Nigerian education has also put a lie to this promise made to Nigerians by the APC.
Femi Adeniyi, Lagos
