A former Governor of Kwara State, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, has asked Nigerians to scrutinize the credentials, backgrounds and mental alertness of those who make campaign promises before they part with their mandates.
He said Nigerians must not be blown-away by what he described as “sugar coated campaign promises” adding that the quality, capacity, mental alertness and suitability of the campaigner should be verified.
Ahmed spoke in Abuja at a one-day dialogue organised by the NPO Reports
He said for campaign promises to be easily implemented, it must conform with the contents of the national and state budgets.
“Most critically, what is the quality of those that make campaign promises? Do we check their capacity, do we check their suitability, do we check their mental alertness. These are areas that are also relevant in making choices,” Ahmed demanded.
He said budgeting should not be treated as an academic exercise, saying “we must all be involved in budgeting, we must begin to recognise that those promises that were told are traced to the budget. Once they are traced to the budget they can now be reduced to measurable deliverables.
“And on that note, we will begin to see whether performance has been done or not and don’t forget, for every elected officer, there is a tenured time: at local government that is probably three years, at the state and federal level, it’s four years.
“So, we have an opportunity to assess what has been done and what has not been done, vis a vis the budget has been created based on campaign promises. So, in a nutshell, campaign promises are measurable if you take the instrumentalities of the institution that are available to us, we will be able to get it there.”
Panelists who had earlier dissected a paper presented by former National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof Lai Olurode had proffered various ideas on how best to track campaign promises.
READ ALSO:
- Politicians, Experts Set to Seek Strategies to Track Campaign Promises as NPO Reports Holds Dialogue
- Campaign Promises: Fayemi Says Synergy Between Politicians, Civil Society Matters
- We Must Track Citizens’ Productivity Before Campaign Promises; Aregbesola Says at NPO Reports’ Dialogue
Panelists included former Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative NIEITI and Executive Director, Agora Policy, Waziri Adio; CEO of Connected Development, Hamzat Lawal, CEO of Omalicha Radio and former Editor at OPEC News, Angela Agoawike.
The session was moderated by the Senior Vice Chairman of Leadership Media Group, Mr. Azuibuike Ishiekwene.
Others at the event were the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, former President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki who was represented by his Adviser, Mr. Ilemona Onoja; Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, who was represented by his Commissioner for Information, Mr. Kingsley Fanwo; former Postmaster General of the Federation, Dr. Ismail Adebayo Adewusi, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who was represented by Mr. Bukky Ponle, the Managing Director of News Agency of Nigeria.