By John Ikani
The minority caucus in the House of Representatives, on Friday, said it had taken stock of the performance of the administration of the APC-led Federal Government, describing it as a failure.
The lawmakers assessment of the Buhari led administration came just hours after the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, on Friday, released a 45-page document of what he described as the government’s giant strides.
In an accompanying statement titled ‘The Buhari administration at 6: Counting the blessings one by one,’ the presidential spokesman claimed that the administration was recording giant strides enough to make Nigerians proud, adding that only those who were “dispassionate and fair-minded, not beclouded by political partisanship and undue cynicism” would see the giant strides.
Adesina boasted that by the time the regime would end, the applause would be resounding “even from the worst of sceptics.”
What the statement said about Buhari’s administration’s ‘giant strides’:
“The Muhammadu Buhari administration clocks six years May 29, 2021. This milestone affords the opportunity to reflect and recount the impact that has been made (and is being made) on different sectors of national life.
“From infrastructure, to finance, education, health care, sport, anti-corruption, human development, housing, oil and gas, foreign relations, and many others, the administration is recording giant strides, enough to make Nigerians proud.
“That is, those who are dispassionate and fair-minded, not beclouded by political partisanship and undue cynicism.
“Some people claim: ‘we don’t see what they are doing. We don’t hear about it.’ Well, here it is. A fact sheet, a report card on the Buhari administration, just a bit of the successes, as the milestone of six years is attained.
“As it is said, the past is but a story told. The future may yet be written in gold. When the administration breasts the tape in another two years, by the grace of God, the applause will be resounding, even from the worst of sceptics. Facts are undeniable and always remain so. They are stubborn things.”
On infrastructure, Adesina listed the establishment in 2020 of the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund with more than $1bn in funding so far; the launch of the Nigeria Innovation Fund to address investment opportunities in the domestic technology sector; the 156km Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge Rail nearing completion; and the 327km Itakpe-Warri Standard Gauge Rail completed and inaugurated 33 years after construction began as some of the regime’s achievements.
On roads, he mentioned the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund investing over $1bn in three flagship projects: Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Second Niger Bridge, Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Expressway, and the Executive Order 7 mobilising private investment into the development of key roads and bridges like Bodo-Bonny in Rivers and Apapa-Oshodi-Oworonshoki-Ojota in Lagos.
On social investment and poverty alleviation, Adesina said in 2016, Buhari launched the National Social Investment Programme, currently the largest of such programme in Africa and one of the largest in the world.
“Currently, the National Social Register of poor and vulnerable Nigerians has 32.6 million persons from more than seven million poor and vulnerable households, identified across 708 local government areas, 8,723 wards and 86,610 communities across the 36 states of the country and the FCT.
“From this number, 1.6 million poor and vulnerable households (comprising more than eight million individuals, in 45,744 communities from 5,483 wards of 557 LGAs in 35 states and the FCT, are currently benefiting from the Conditional Cash Transfer programme, which pays a bimonthly stipend of N10,000 per household,” he said.
On education and health, Adesina said since assuming office, the Buhari regime has committed more than N1.7tn of capital intervention to Nigeria’s tertiary institutions, through various means, including TETFund – with the universities taking the lion’s share of the total amount.
He added, “The Federal Government has disbursed more than N170bn in UBE matching grants to states and the FCT since 2015, N8bn in special education grant to states and private providers of special education, and N34bn from the Teachers Professional Development Fund to states and the FCT.”
Other areas highlighted are creative industry and sports; fiscal, trade, monetary and investment reforms; presidential assent to legislative bills; executive orders; support to states; anti-corruption and transparency; security and justice system; diplomacy and international relations; and coronavirus response among others.
Reps minority caucus react
However, the reps minority caucus stated that the APC administration had failed on all fronts in the last six years, with its failure to “check the worsening insecurity and mass killing of citizens; its intrinsic corruption, mismanagement of our national economy, as well as the unrelenting assault on our national diversity.”
The caucus gave the verdict in a statement by the Minority Leader of the House, Ndudi Elumelu.
The statement by the minority caucus partly read, “As lawmakers, our caucus is worried that exclusionist tendencies, trade restrictions, nepotism in government appointments, disregard to rule law, the relegation of constitutional order and principles of separation of powers; abuse of human rights, electoral malpractices, harassment of opposition and arrogant insensitivity to the sensibilities of the Nigerian people by the APC administration have occasioned instability, economic crisis and avoidable acrimony that are threatening our corporate existence as a country.
“Poor policies by the APC administration have stifled the economy and put the nation in dire straits with a disturbing 33.3 per cent unemployment rate, a scary 18.12 per cent inflation rate, over N32.9tn accumulated debt burden, a progressively devalued currency and collapsed infrastructure.
“Failure of the government to address escalated insecurity challenges has crippled the agricultural sector and disorganised commercial activities leading to imminent food crisis with the cost of food and other necessities of life skyrocketing beyond the reach of Nigerians.
“Nigeria, under the APC administration, has now become the poverty capital of the world, ranking 98th out of 107 in Global Hunger Index, with 22.95 food inflation rate and increasing morbidity and mortality rates.”
It urged the Federal Government to buckle down and use the occasion of May 29 to address the failures of the APC administration by taking urgent steps to tackle insecurity and other problems.
The opposition lawmakers added, “As representatives of the people, the minority caucus is worried that our nation is heading towards a failed state. We, therefore, urge President Muhammadu Buhari to buckle down and use the occasion of May 29 to address the failures of his administration by taking urgent steps to tackle insecurity, ensure respect for rule of law, end corruption in his government, adopt a more inclusive approach to governance and engage better hands to manage our economy.”
Significance of May 29
May 29 was initially the official democracy day in Nigeria, marking when the newly elected Olusegun Obasanjo took office as the President of Nigeria in 1999, ending multiple decades of military rule that began in 1966 and had been interrupted only by a brief period of democracy from 1979 to 1983.
On June 6, 2018, eight days after May 29, 2018 had been celebrated as Democracy Day, the President Buhari-led Federal Government of Nigeria declared June 12 to be the new Democracy Day.
However, the President was sworn into office in May 29, 2015 and his administration has been religious with releasing scorecards every May 29.
