Buhari could have achieved more by monitoring appointees, others – IPAC

By Adeyemi Adeleye

The Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC)  said that President Muhammadu Buhari could  have achieved more in his administration  if he had been following up on his appointees and monitoring people he gave responsibilities to.

Assessing the President’s eight year-tenure expected to end on May 29, 2023, Mr Olusegun Mobolaji, the Lagos State IPAC Chairman, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the president, however, got some things right.

Mobolaji said that President Buhari  gave too much free hands to appointees to operate without looking back to check on them and fire the under-performing ones.

He said some of the President’s appointees never shared same ideals and philosophies with him in terms of economy and anti-corruption fight.

“ Buhari could have achieved more if he had been following up on his appointees and monitoring people he gave responsibilities too.

“Once you appoint someone into an office and give responsibility as leaders, you must follow up and check back on them to ensure things are doing well.

“You don’t leave appointees to operate without regular assessment. This is not a good quality of a leader.

“President Buhari didn’t monitor some of his appointees very well to make sure they keep track with his ideals and philosophies, for seeking the highest office in the land.

“Our President gave appointees to much free hands to operate without looking back, this is not good enough,” he said.

Mobolaji applauded President Muhammadu Buhari for improving democracy and electoral processes, especially during the last general elections.

According to him, the President’s assent to the 2022 New Electoral Laws brought a lot of positive things to Nigeria’s democracy and elections.

“The President got some things right. We can commend the President for not meddling with most of the politics issues prior the last general elections.

“He (Buhari) allowed democracy to play out. He allowed the rule of law, he didn’t influence anything as far as it has to do with general democracy.

“He made us to enjoy democracy as it is supposed to be this time around unlike before when Presidents will want to meddle with democracy and influence election to his own path and party,” the IPAC boss said.

According to him, the President also tried a little in the area of fighting corruption as well as security.

Mobolaji said: “Though we cannot say corruption did not still thrive under him, we can see that some corrupt persons were docked in this government while some people paid for some of the atrocities they committed.

“The President tried his bit even though we still have a lot of corruption going on in the system. Some people were brought to book one way or the order.

“Not that the President has not done anything at all, it is just that things that are really affecting us as a nation negatively are making it to look as if he has done nothing.”

Similarly, the IPAC boss said that too many loans taken by the outgoing government were yet to reflect in the living conditions of Nigerians.

“We don’t still understand the impact of many of the loans taken.

“To us stakeholders, with all the loans, we should be boasting of at least a single refinery to face challenges we have in the oil and gas and economy sectors.

“What would the future have looked like if Alhaji Aliko Dangote had not built the refinery newly inaugurated by the president government. It is a challenge that is impoverishing our nation and should have been addressed headlong.

“We are supposed to have had one or two refineries fully functional to ease the economy tension importation of petroleum products has been causing us as a nation.

“This would have also had impact on electricity and jobs creations for teeming unemployed,” he said.

(NAN)