The Presidency insisted on Tuesday that President
Muhammadu Buhari did not promise Nigerians that
he would achieve specific things within his first 100
days in office.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on
Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu, stated this
while responding to questions about reports on
documents titled, “One Hundred Things Buhari Will
Do in 100 Days” and “My Covenant with Nigerians.”

Shehu said the documents did not emanate from the
official channel of Buhari’s campaign media
department.

Some citizens had berated the Presidency and the All
Progressives Congress for denying that specific
promises were made during electioneering as to
envisaged achievements in the first 100 days in office.

Shehu urged Nigerians to ignore the claims that
Buhari specifically made promises of achievements
within his 100 days in office.

Shehu said he neither authorised nor signed such a
document in his capacity as the Director, Media and
Communications of the Buhari Campaign
Organisation.

He said the Presidency rather be talking about
milestones reached since Buhari assumed office.

He said, “We prefer to talk about milestones instead
of achievements; whether the milestones represent
achievements or not, that is left for the people to
decide. Milestones have been achieved, which is
important for the country.”

Explaining what Buhari said during a lecture at the
Chatham House in London, the presidential
spokesman said, “The President never promised
anything to anyone. It is on record in that lecture at
Chatham House; they asked him a question relating
to expectations and what he specifically would do in
relation to certain documents that were flying
around, committing him to this thing or that thing
within 100 days.”

He said Buhari disowned the documents, saying they
contained falsehood.

Shehu said, “My point is that as the Director, Media
and Communications of that campaign, I was
responsible for internal and external
communications and these so-called documents that
were being flown around didn’t have my signature.

“I didn’t fund them and I didn’t authorise them. From
what President Buhari said at Chatham House, he
had no iota or knowledge of those documents. So,
people cannot hold him to account on something to
which he did not commit himself”.

Responding to the question that the APC had posted
the documents on its website, Shehu explained that
the party had many centres of communication, some
of which were on the loose.

“APC had a campaign in which there were so many
centres of public communication and unfortunately
there were some among those centres that were
more or less on the loose. Yes, it was possible that
things were being done without the knowledge or the
usage of the proper channel of communication,” he
said.

Referring to the President’s response to a question
posed to him in London, Shehu recalled that Buhari
categorically stated that he would remove the idea of
‘100 days’ because it was fraudulent.

Sheu quoted Buhari as saying, “The second one, high
expectations and what to do with the first 100 days.
Yes, I respect that question because quietly I was
thinking about these high expectations. Those who
are following the trail of our campaigns can see how
people are turning out, some becoming emotional
and crying.

“I am really getting scared that if I get there they will
expect miracles within the next week or months. It
would be very dicey handling that one. I think we
have to have a deliberate campaign to temper high
expectations with some reasonableness on the part
of those who are expecting miracles to happen.

“Just to go first to the ‘first 100 days’, some of it is
fraudulent and I don’t want to participate in any fraud
in any form. Nigerians know that we are in trouble as
a people and as a country. When we get there we will
quickly get correct intelligence of what is on the
ground and inform Nigerians.

“We will make sure that the misappropriation and
misapplication of public resources will not be
allowed. You would be surprised by how much
savings we will realise. That saving will be ploughed
back into development and this is what I can
promise. But I would remove that ‘100 days’”.