100 days: APC Promised Change, Won, Change Promise

Never before in Nigeria has an opposition party beat an incumbent government in an election. And never before has a party made as much bogus promises as APC did in the 2015 presidential elections. They promised everything they could possibly disgorge and we swallowed up everything with deliberate naivete. It is true we were desperate for change. APC promised change. The problem is that they won the elections on their promise of change, but now, they have reasons to be denying promises credited to them.

On Monday, September 31, the National Publicity Secretary for the APC, Lai Mohammed, contributed his own dose of denials. Speaking in an interview with Channels TV, the man said President Buhari and the party had nothing to do with any other campaign materials apart from the APC manifesto and constitution.

“Buhari never promised to do anything in 100 days, that’s the honest truth,” said Mr. Mohammed. “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.”

Denying the document at the threshold of being in government for 100 days only draws suspicion. In the first place, the APC website had published the document. How come they are dissociating themselves from it now?

 

 This is not to mention the sign off by their Presidential candidate in the 16 page document:

 “This covenant is to outline my agenda for Nigeria and provide a bird’s eye view of how we intend to bring about the change that our country needs and deserves. The covenant is derived from the manifesto of my party, the All Progressives Congress. It however represents my pledge to you all when I become your president.”

This about-face imitates fraud in high places. It now appears APC promised; won the elections and, realizing their errors, have summoned courage to deny the promises. Bad news is the fact that New Media, which they utilized so effectively to launch blackmail against Goodluck Jonathan, is available to Nigerians, who can easily access archives of their campaign promises.