Nigerians, everywhere, have expressed disappointment in the disappointing outing of the new government led by President Muhammadu Buhari. Central in this apparent loss of goodwill for the Buhari government is its failure to meet any of the promises the campaign made in the weeks leading up to the March elections and after.
In an move to spin the narrative and give Buhari some wiggle room, his spokesman, Garba Shehu took to the media in an opinion editorial and he denied all of Buhari’s campaign promises specifically, the one that widely circulated by the APC, “My Covenant with Nigerians”. Shehu, who is Senior Special Advisor to the President on Media and Publicity said that Buhari never endorsed or released the document.
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Shehu, who also served as the Director of Media and Publicity of the APC Presidential Campaign Organistion, said, “In the course of electioneering, the presidential campaign had so many centres of public communication which, for whatever reason, were on the loose.
“There is a certain document tagged ‘One Hundred Things Buhari Will Do in 100 Days’ and the other, ‘My Covenant With Nigerians’. Both pamphlets bore the authorized party logo but as the Director of Media and Communications in that campaign, I did not fund or authorize any of those. I can equally bet my last kobo that candidate Buhari did not see or authorize those publications.
“As a consequence of these publications, expectations have been raised unreasonably, that as President, Muhammadu Buhari will wave his hand and all the problems that the country faces- insecurity, corruption, unemployment, poor infrastructure – would go away.”
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Facts Uncovered
Shehu’s declaration has been met with outrage. Premium Times, a known APC-leaning online newspaper, Tuesday, September 1, 2015, published a scathing ‘Fact Check’, in which it confirmed that indeed, the widely publicised document “My Covenant With Nigerians” which was a major campaign document of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the run up to the 2015 presidential election, actually emanated from the camp of the APC, as against contrary claims by the Presidency.
The said document was widely circulated about two weeks prior the Saturday, March 28, 2015 Presidential election and highlights key sections of the APC manifesto which Buhari pledged to tackle head-long in his first days in office.
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Checks show that the document was repeatedly sent via email by members of staff of the APC presidential campaign organization, chief of which is Gbenga Olorunpomi, a media aide to the national leader of the APC, Bola Tinubu. The Trent received this document from him by email, several times in the week of March 16, 2015.
The document, which appears as “My blueprint to confront corruption, insecurity and infrastructure decay – Buhari“, was published on the APC website on Tuesday, March 17, 2015 and widely circulated in newspapers and online media.
https://twitter.com/APCNigeria/status/577521377919545344
Digging Deeper, Pattern of Deceit
To make matters worse, the national publicity secretary for the APC, Lai Mohammed, on Monday, August 31, 2015 towed Shehu’s line when he was interviewed on Channels Television. “Buhari never promised to do anything in 100 days, that’s the honest truth,” Mohammed, known for flip-flopping said. “You see, when you are running a campaign, all kinds of literature will emerge from all sorts of groups but there are only two documents that you can judge a party with: That is the constitution of the party and the manifesto of the party.
“Those are the only two documents that are registered with the Independent National Electoral Commission; you can go to court or hold a party accountable for them.”
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This is not the first time the Presidency has attempted to deny knowledge of previously made promises as the Special Adviser to the President on media and Publicity, Femi Adesina had done the same when Nigerians sought to know why the President had not publicly declared his assets as he promised in the aforementioned document.
An APC political activist, Babatunde Rosanwo, apparently disturbed by the blatant attempts to disown Buhari’s promises and laying the blame on the party, took to Twitter to present snapshots of the 8-page printed version of the “My Covenant With Nigerians” by President Buhari.
How Buhari’s “Covenant With Nigerians” Was Created
Further investigation by Premium Times reveals that the document in fact was the brainchild of the policy and research directorate of the APC presidential campaign, headed by former Governor Kayode Fayemi. The paper reports:
When reached for comments, he could not be reached as his aides said he was in Cote D’ivoire with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. The document, after it was sanctioned by the Fayemi-led team was signed off by Buhari before it was mailed to media houses.
According to the report, Egghead Odewale, who worked at the headquarters of the presidential campaign in Abuja, sent a PDF version of the document them on Thursday, March 12, 2015 but as the document failed to get enough publicity, it was resent on Monday, August 16, 2015.
To further authenticate the document, the then Lagos governor, Babatunde Fashola, who was in charge of fundraising for the campaign, while speaking at a campaign speech at a meeting of APC Governors at the Banquet Hall of the Imo State Government House, Owerri on Monday, March 23, 2015 made reference to the document when he said: “The APC is proud to have as its flag-bearer, a patriot with the public stature and integrity of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, who has unreservedly committed to this vision and mission as reflected in his Covenant with Nigerians and campaigns promises.
“It is not by accident that teeming millions of Nigerians are showing their support effusively for Gen. Buhari.”
Parts of “The Covenant With Nigerians” document was also mentioned by the Ahmed Joda-led Transition Committee in its 800-page report.
This calls to question the said integrity of the President as Shehu on Tuesday, September 1, 2015 denied knowledge of the document saying the president would not engage in deception and would not be tagged in a document he knows nothing about.
