By Bolaji
Tunji
In two days time,
precisely May 29, the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration of
President Mohammadu Buhari would be a year old in office. Being the tradition
in this clime, it’s a time to take stock, to find out how the administration
has fared in the last one year. Has the administration been able to meet the
hopes and expectation of Nigerians who denied the Peoples Democratic Party
that continued hold on power and placed their hopes on the APC and General
Buhari.
*President Buhari |
That Nigerians had
a lot riding on this administration was not in doubt and they had justifiable
reason for that. APC had promised them what they felt they were not getting
from the PDP government. A new life, a new Nigeria where fuel prices would be
about N40 a litre. Where the mass of the unemployed and the aged would be paid
a certain amount of money every month and school children fed at least
once a day. It was an administration that fed on the hope and the desire of the
people with a promise to ensure that the hopes and aspirations were met. And
the Buhari administration made history, unseating a sitting government.
President Buhari’s victory at the polls marked him as a dogged, consistent
fighter.
He had contested
for the highest office in the land on three different occasions before victory
eventually came. That in itself is historical. I can’t recall any serious
Nigerian politician being that dogged. His tenacity endeared him to many
Nigerians, his victory was thus assured especially when Nigerians had grown
disenchanted with the PDP government . His victory also signaled the end of the
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) dominance of the political landscape. Recall
that the party had boasted, in its heydays that it would rule Nigeria for 60
years. It could only rule for 16 years, losing to the progressive elements
which in itself is equally historical.
Incumbents, with so
much at stake, hardly lose election while the conservative elements have always
aligned to hold the mantle of leadership of this country. It was under this
epoch that President Buhari became the president, a feat that had proved
impossible until a merger of his Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) with the
Action Congress of Nigeria and a faction of the All Progressive Grand Alliance
(APGA) spearheaded by the Imo state governor, Rochas Okorocha. The rest is
history, as it is usually said.