CNN Report | Nigerians Unimpressed With Buhari’s First 100 Days

By Christian Purefoy, CNN
Despite Buhari’s declaration, some Nigerians have not been
impressed with his first 100 days. At newspaper stands and beer
joints around Lagos, you can hear the nickname “Baba Go-Slow”
— on account of the perceived slow pace of Buhari’s promised
changes.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari says his assets include $150,000, two
mud houses, livestock and an orchard, and a plot of land the exact location of
which he has yet to trace.
The asset declaration, which Buhari’s spokesman described as “Spartan,” comes
as the President reaches 100 days in office.
“President Buhari had no foreign account, no factory and no enterprises. He also
had no registered company and no oil wells,” reads the statement released by
the spokesman, Garba Shehu.
Public declarations are seen as crucial in fighting the corruption that plagues
Nigeria. They are a means of ensuring that, when the time comes to leave office,
government officials will not have used their positions to enrich themselves.
Other assets declared by Buhari — who formerly headed the nation’s petroleum
ministry — include five homes in addition to the two mud houses, farms, an
orchard and a ranch:
“The total number of his holdings in the farm include 270 heads of cattle, 25
sheep, five horses, a variety of birds and a number of economic trees,” the
official statement reads.
Buhari’s declared assets — if accurate — would make him quite wealthy by the
standards of ordinary Nigerians. But his holdings would be on a small scale
against the riches — a total of $28.25 billion — the APC has claimed were
“looted” by public officials under the administration of his predecessor, Goodluck
Jonathan. The APC contends that most of that money was siphoned from
Nigeria’s oil industry.
Jonathan’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has strongly denied the
accusations.
Given the fierce exchanges between the rival parties and the nation’s history with
official corruption, Nigerians generally accept that transparency may be too much
to expect from its leaders.
Jonathan notoriously said “I don’t give a damn” when asked why he would not
publicly declare his assets, and most elected officials in Buhari’s own All
Progressives Congress party (APC), still have not declared theirs.
Baba Go Slow
Despite Buhari’s declaration, some Nigerians have not been impressed with
his first 100 days. At newspaper stands and beer joints around Lagos, you
can hear the nickname “Baba Go-Slow” — on account of the perceived slow
pace of Buhari’s promised changes.
“Buhari is just making statements and press conferences, which I really don’t
understand,” says Emmanuela Mutumi, a makeup artist in Lagos. “He needs to
focus on what the people need.”
Buhari, 72, was elected President in March after campaigning on promises to
fight corruption and beat the terrorist group Boko Haram in northeastern
Nigeria. After his election he said he intended to “plug holes” in the “corruption
infrastructure” in the country.
Buhari himself was the nation’s commissioner for petroleum resources in the late
1970s.
Many Nigerians still believe in his integrity in the fight against the corruption
and Boko Haram, but there are concerns that after three months, no ministers
have been named to his Cabinet.
Buhari has argued that he inherited from the previous administration a mess so
large that it will take time to fix.
“One hundred days is too small,” says Paul Audifferen, an engineer in Lagos.
“You have to give him time. Nigeria will take decades to repair because the
corruption has been there for a very long time. So you don’t expect him to just
come from out of the blue, snap his fingers and say these are the glorious
days.”
Source: CNN