When the report card of the second tenure of the All Progressive Congress Party (APC) is presented, the result would look thus: loans sourced in billions (distinction); the amount of loan utilized (o %) Energy dispensed sourcing for the loan (excellent); energy dispensed putting sourced loan to work (O %); overall result for work done: O%! This is likely to be how the APC administration would be rated by the end of 2023. Never before has a people witnessed so much lethargy and disappointment like this APC regime that came with the mantra to deliver “change” but instead has thrown Nigerians into so much hubris. “Honestly, these are not the best of times for the 61 years old nation”, said Alhaji Ibrahim Usman, an Abuja based public analyst. “We expected better things when this administration came to power, but with what is on the ground, we can’t believe it”, Usman lamented. Taking a general look at the environment, Alhaji Usman dismissed the assurances of public officials as mere lip service and deceptive. He said the greatest disappointment is the National Assembly that ought to act as check and balances but is surprisingly a lame-duck establishment. He wondered why the leaders would prefer to sell out without conscience of what would happen to Nigerians yet unborn. “They just go on and on as if nothing is happening, but here we are going back to where we started from”, he stated, asking: “what tangible achievement can we point to?” According to him, the roads are not there, new ones are not built, bad ones are not fixed, there are still blackouts, no portable water in many villages and towns, so what are we talking about”, he asked. “Yet the government continues to borrow staggering sums without anyone seeing the outcome”, he disclosed. Alhaji Usman revealed that a tour of most parts of the capital would expose glaring underperformance. “Apo Dutse that is supposed to be expanded to ease traffic in Shoprite area is still a headache till this day; the Mararaba-Nyanya highway remains a pandemic to motorists”, he stated wondering why the adjourning hills are not opened up by the government as it is done in China to create many exit routes. “Our officials just sit in the office and wait for borrowed loans to land for them to swallow not knowing what to do with it”, he further stated. Looking back to the years of Nasir El-Rufai, onetime FCT Minister, Alhaji Usman pointed out that he created exit routes in the hills adjourning Asokoro and even down to remote Karshi and explained that he was on the verge of doing more when his tenure ended. “By now El0Rufai would have opened up the Mararaba Hills and linked the road to Command and State House Clinic area making it possible for motorists to access the kubwa expressway without getting to AYA junction. “That’s how to be creative”, he stressed. “This is the second tenure of Muhammed Bello and what have we seen? Complete deterioration of infrastructure!” Alhaji Usman said that leaders like El-Rufai would have known what to do with these borrowed funds, unlike the present FCT Minister who is never seen in public. He then called on the senator Ahmed Lawan led National Assembly to remember that power is transient and they will someday give an account of their stewardship whether they like it or not. “They can’t sit there and be sharing money; there is a lot more than that they can get if they do their job of checkmating the executive”, he added.
