TheCable

Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says President Muhammadu Buhari can no longer be referred to as “Baba go slow”.

Those who expressed dissatisfaction with the pace of Buhari’s government during his first term had labelled him “Baba Go Slow”.

During one of his trips to Dubai, the president had told the Nigerian community there that he was going slowly because he wanted to survive.

He had said he did not want to make the mistake he made as a military head of state when he landed in prison for being so much in hurry.

“I may be ‘Baba go slow’ but I didn’t loot. So, whoever calls me ‘Baba go slow’, I’m very cautious of historical antecedent. Since I was in a hurry, I was locked up, I’m going slow so that I can survive,” he had said.

But speaking in Abuja on Friday, Oshiomhole said Buhari had done well in his first 100 days in office.

Citing different examples, he said what the president has achieved since he assumed office on May 29 could be clearly seen when compared to how it was in 2015.

“President Buhari can beat his chest to say I have started well, I have started fast. You cannot call him Baba go slow now, this time he is Baba fast,” he said.

“Everything is about comparison. Because in 2015, after a hundred days we did not have a federal cabinet, the president had not appointed ministers. This time in a hundred days, from my interaction with a number of ministers, even the budget for 2020 is already being prepared.

“Ministers have been assigned to their various ministries. They have already started the process of taking over and trying to understand the challenges.

“Government is already effectively on ground. So even that alone shows a remarkable departure if you compare what the president has done in 2019 to what he has done in 2015.

“Even the current issues in South Africa, the prompt manner in which the president reacted and took bold steps and sent a clear message to South Africa that we are not about to accept Nigeria being humiliated in their businesses.

“I think the bold step he has taken is refreshing.”