After marching to electoral victory in a resounding anthem of change, Nigeria’s incoming President, Muhammadu Buhari, says he is now trying to manage the wild expectations of Nigerians. But his, and his party’s statements, look more like a minimisation exercise.
Last week, Nigeria’s President-elect Muhammadu Buhari said his party’s manifesto were not words from the Quran or the Bible, and thus, subject to modification. “Whatever we said in our manifesto, people must accept the fact that we have to modify certain things according to the law and the constitution of the country,” the former Army General told local TV station, Television Continental (TVC). Buhari also distanced himself from the pre-election statement of his close associate and petroleum minister during his military rule, Professor Tam David-West, that the pump price of petrol should be around N40 per litre. This is, in the least, a shift in rhetoric for President-elect and party, given that they won the presidential election on the weight of their manifesto and the personal integrity of their flag bearer.
The same week Buhari told Nigerians to expect modifications to his party’s manifesto, his party released a statement to highlight its chief economic programmes, but its main election campaign points were either missing, watered down or abstracted.
The statement said the chief signature programmes of the incoming government “include plans to curb poverty by creating jobs and setting up social welfare schemes that cater to the poorest Nigerians.” it lists the scheme’s thus: the “Conditional Cash Transfer” which will pay N5000 – N7500 monthly to 25 Million of the poorest Nigerians over the next four years as long as they send their children to school and get them immunized; the provision of free meals to children in primary schools nationwide, the stimulation of the Agricultural sector and the institution of a National Health Insurance Scheme that provides healthcare cover for poor people for just N500-N1000 yearly contribution. So, how does this measure up with the APC’s campaign promises?
The most glaring difference between the APC’s statement and its campaign promises is the silence on tackling corruption. While the party littered its manifesto with heavy anti-corruption rhetoric, neither that word nor their vigorous fight against it made it into the party’s programme list.
Instead the party settled for a lighter synonym “mismanagement,” and appealed for patience in their handling of it. This is in stark contrast with the sense of urgency that the party had sold to the populace during the campaign.
Another obvious dissimilarity between the APC’s press release and its campaign manifesto is the omission of, or silence on, the creation of 3 million new jobs annually. In its statement, the party says it will create jobs to curb poverty, but avoids giving a number or timeline. But that number was crucial to their candidate’s victory at the polls; it was what adorned their billboards, posters and jingles. It was also what convinced Nigerians–long plagued by massive unemployment–to believe in the APC’s gospel of change.
With an annual job creation of 3 million, the incoming government would half Nigeria’s unemployment rate by the end of its mandate in 2019. The party and its flagbearer cannot now grow silent on a number that was not only instrumental in their victory but is also key for the materialization of their message of change.
While the APC’s statement reconfirms its pre-election promise to pay at least N5000 to the 25 million of the poorest Nigerians, it exempts another very crucial part of that pledge- the payment of allowances to discharged but unemployed Youth Corps members for a year. The party also promised to empower the youths in skills and entrepreneurial development programmes during the course of that year. Neither of both promises make it into the APC’s chief social programmes, despite the fact that Nigeria’s youth unemployment stands at an abysmal 38 percent, figures the party regularly reeled out during its campaigns.
Given that the incoming president and his party rode on the back of youth disaffection to victory, their non-mention in the statement leaves an impression of an incoming government trying to reduce the weight of the promises it made to the largest segment of the Nigerian society.
On the one year anniversary of the kidnap of the Chibok schoolgirls, Buhari wrote in the New York Times that he could not guarantee the rescue of the girls. The tone departs from the APC’s pre-election insistence that the schoolgirls must be found. “We believe the government should do whatever it takes to secure the safe release of the girls,” the party said to the outgoing government in September 2014. “We believe nothing is too much to do to get the girls back home safely and bring the much-needed relief to their parents and families.” Buhari said his expression of doubt over the possible release of the Chibok schoolgirls was based facing reality. That reality also includes what looks like a growing realization that he and his party may not be able to redeem all their promises to Nigerians.
The APC says the incoming President is managing the expectations of Nigerians, but his and his party’s statements look more as if they are trying to minimise what they what they told Nigerians to expect. Because, while the incoming government’s word is neither of the Quran nor the Bible, it is their bond. Indicating that there will be modifications to their manifesto, after it has won them the election creates the scepticism that they might be changing the change that voted them in. Nigeria’s politics is surfeit with unfulfilled promises by elected officials, and Buhari and his party’s “expectation management” exercise is raising fears of more of the same.
