CDD releases performance-assessment report of Buhari’s 100 days in office

The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), Abuja, has released a performance-assessment report of President Muhammadu Buhari’s (PMB) 100 days in office. The report is CDD’s third BuhariMetre report and its titled Delivering on Campaign Promises: The First 100 days Report. CDD, founded in 1997 in London at a time when Nigeria was under military rule, is a non-governmental organisation which aims to promote the values of democracy, peace and human rights in Africa, particularly in the West African sub-region. Given that the 100-days marker has become a universal practice to evaluating works of government at the early stage of governance, the 100 days’ report provides a short-term assessment of the performance of PMB and his political party, All Progressives Congress (APC), on the delivery of campaign promises. The report highlighted area of priorities of the government, actions taken by the government to achieving specific promises, key concerns and makes specific recommendations. “The report shows that PMB in his first 100 days has only achieved one out of tracked 222 promises, which constitutes 0.5%. Also, noticeable progress has been made to achieving 24 promises, while no action has been taken so far to achieve 197. These constitute 10.8% and 88.7% respectively,” reads a statement from the organisation. According to the report, oil and gas industry, combating corruption and insecurity in North East Nigeria have been priorities of the government, adding that efforts have been made to improve power supply, agriculture, create employment and forge more coherent regional and global ties. Despite this development, the report expressed concerns about decline in the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and its implication on the economy, depreciation of naira against major foreign currency and military approach adopted by the government in the fight against insurgency. It also documented incremental security challenge posed by the phenomenon of armed banditry and government irresponsiveness to address the social menace. “Within these contexts, the report recommends that PMB should immediately constitute the cabinet to enhance smooth running of the government in tackling challenges confronting the country. It further states that government must unveil its policy direction, articulate a “Marshal plan” to address insecurity, direct efforts to implementing policies and programmes for employment generation and that urgent action should be taken to fulfill unrated 197 promises,” it added.