Former member of the House of Representatives, Nze Chidi Duru, in this chat assesses the performance of President Muhammadu Buhari in the last four months and scores him high marks. However, he says that Buhari’s failure to appoint any body from the South-East into his government so far reinforces the perception that he is more of a northern president than a Nigerian president.

By Ben Agande

His take on President Buhari’s performance so far

In terms of achievements, I think what one could credit to this government is in stemming the  drift that this country has witnessed particularly in the last months of the Jonathan era, in particular the issue of the insurgency in the North-East.

There has been a lot more structure and much more strategic thrust in bringing to a closure in a believable manner the spate of unrest in that part of Nigeria.

Arrangement has been made between Nigeria and our neighbouring countries like Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Benin Republic. And of course the G7 has come to a clearer understanding that the impact of the insurgency of the Boko Haram in the North is not just a Nigerian question but also an international question.

So, that in a sense has also been internalized to the point that we are now beginning to receive sympathy and support from the international community. That for me is a major achievement that would rob off on Nigeria in the coming months and years ahead.

Measure of attention

And on the mantra of corruption, whereas we cannot say that a strategy around it has evolved or has developed but one can begin to see some measures of attention in that area. And I want to believe that soon there will be some government policy of what needs to be done.

Nze Chidi Duru

It is glad to hear that the president has made a pronouncement that he would strengthen the law enforcement agencies. He will also streamline the way they work and my wish is to see a strategic, coordinated platform for combating corruption and law enforcement in Nigeria to see how he would bring that trust that would bring the police, the EFCC, the ICPC in a manner that they work in a coordinated platform.

It is also glad to hear and also to see the attempt to streamline the various MDA’s in Nigeria; the ministries, the department and agencies of government. If it does happen, I believe that this government would have in a way achieved something that is very vital for the development of our country.

We’ve had so many MDA’s and various ministries duplicating its functions, not being able to coordinate, not being able to take responsibility on who does what, when and how. So with this streamlining it would serve the best interest of Nigeria.

I am also happy to see the Treasury Single Account that has also been implemented. Of course the credit goes down the line in the time of Obasanjo’s government and then of course Goodluck Jonathan fully evolved a policy around it. But the full impact or the implementation of that TSA was fully implemented by the Buhari’s administration.

There are hiccups, there are challenges around it, and that I have always said is the immediate term. When people get used to it, and the ministries, the department and the agencies of government get used to it, then the impact, the benefit of that will begin to cascade down.

And the difficulties that are being experienced as a result of that policy implementation will begin to be seen over a period. I know that difficulties have also evolved to such an extent that a number of the banks had began to lend money at a very exorbitant rate because they are not seeing those loose funds or cash flow in their banking system. I think that it is something, that I believe government should be able to impact on that.

So in a nutshell, has he done very well in the last 100 days in office. I would want to give him a pass mark. Could he have done better? I believe so. I believed in the sense that if he had a full compliment of his government in place, I think that the measure of achievement would have been far greater than what we are currently experiencing.

The recent appointment of some critical office holders has elicited a cry of marginalization especially from the south east, which does not seem to have representation. What do you think of such allegations against this government?

I am not one that debate in the context of where one comes from, or in terms of ethnic agenda. I have always been minded that we need to get the right person to man a particular office. I believe the president has the right to appoint who he wants to appoint to man the offices that he has so far appointed. My only point of intervention is that, to the extent that there has been a perception before now that Mr President is in cast of a particular philosophy that people mirror him from the point of view that he is north and an Islamic irredentist.