Buharimetre: Panellists score Buhari low on electoral promises

Panellists and speakers at the second edition of the Buharimetre Citizens’ Town Hall Meeting in Abuja urged President Muhammadu Buhari to change course and deliver his electoral promises, saying citizens did not vote for propaganda and unfulfilled promises.

The meeting, which was first held in 2016, had ‘The State of the Nation’, as its theme for 2017.

It was organised by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), the Department for International Development (DFID) and Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).

The Director of CDD, Idayat Hassan, said President Buhari had spent 881 days as president and yet issues of corruption and insecurity were still rife at the expense of unity and infrastructural development.

“So far so good, while there are some positive developments, challenges remain abound. However, despite milestones recorded in the fight against corruption, there are still genuine concerns over how the war is being prosecuted.

“In particular, the anti-graft war is rife with lack of viable instruments to enforce compliance. It also continues to be prosecuted in an uncoordinated and disjointed manner by several institutions, including the police, EFCC, ICPC, DSS, among others.

“The NIA case, the NNPC case and just last week, the Mainagate scandal, are just a few to mention. Today, we, as a country, are waiting to hear the outcome of these cases from our elected government,” Hassan said.

She, however, commended the administration for its progress in agriculture, social safety, industrialisation and economy, but lamented that little corresponding interventions were seen in sectors like education, health, sports, women and youth empowerment thus concluding that the administration was “performing poorly.”

Also, the President of the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), Professor Ishaq Akintola, said the nation’s military was strong in facing security challenges, but urged them to sit up so as to complete the victory over the Boko Haram insurgency.

He also urged President Muhammadu Buhari to review the cases of some soldiers dismissed over their protest on the Boko Haram operations.

The Country Officer of OSIWA, Jude Ilo, represented by the Programmes Personnel, Ukairo Ezimma, said the event offered the country an opportunity to monitor governance, and that more than two years since the advent of the President Buhari administration, there were many questions that begged for answers.

According to him, it was obvious that the high expectations and excitement that met this government’s inauguration had given way to anger and hopelessness.