The idea of periodically assessing the achievements, actions and or leadership style of executive office holders was conceptualized and popularized in the American political system. Presidents and sometimes governors are assessed after 100 days, 200 days and one year in office, and based on that they are either celebrated or castigated as the case may be.
According to University of Cambridge historian, Anthony Badger, the 100-day mark yardstick for measuring presidential success was conceptualized by the 32nd US president, Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. Roosevelt was faced with the calamity of the great depression of the 1930s and he moved with unprecedented dispatch to address the problem within his first 100 days in office. He pushed 15 major bills through Congress in that time frame.
Buhari, just like Roosevelt, inherited probably the most fragile and unstable country in recent history and most Nigerians are not even patient enough to wait for 100 days before they start seeing concrete results.
The 100-day standard is not a perfect measure, but it is a useful one because it is a period when a president or governor’s goodwill is still at its peak and the leader himself is still fresh and new without the attendant burdens of scandals that are associated with mostly every tenure of public office. The 100 days of a president are too early for any meaningful judgement for a four-year presidency, but they are enough to give a clear direction on where a leader is heading to.
President Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in on 29th May, 2015 and on 6th September, 2015, he will attain 100 full days in office. In Nigeria, the first 100 days are mostly seen by many as an opportunity for political associates to celebrate a leader through exorbitant media adverts. Other Nigerians with high expectations may like to see some visible and tangible achievements (especially infrastructural) that a president will show for his 100 days in power. Unfortunately it’s not always possible to do much within this period.
This is not an attempt to assess Buhari’s achievements, but rather an analysis of events bordering on politics, policies, incidents, expectations, interpretations and speculations over the President’s 100 days in office. There are many things we learnt from Buhari’s 100 days in power. Here are some of them:
