By Our Correspondent
Cross River State governor, Senator Ben Ayade, today, dismissed insinuations in some quarters that the present leadership at the center, led by President Muhammadu Buhari appears rather slow on critical national issues.
Faulting claims of critics who said the President is yet to hit the ground running, Governor Ayade said the body language of the President so far has shown that he is a strategist and skillful planner who would like to take his time to plan rather than take rash decisions that would lead to unpleasant consequences for the country and the citizenry.
According to Ayade, “those who want the President to embark on hasty policy decisions have a poor reading of who Buhari is,” adding that “they do not really understand him. “Any attempt by the President to hurriedly hit the ground running without any strategic thinking and planning will ultimately lead to loss of steam with exactly four years to go.”
Ayade said President Buhari has so far shown maturity and understanding of issues besetting the country, and he is prepared to tackle them headlong.
His words: “For me, the President has demonstrated a good grasp of the issues on ground. The way he has gone about galvanizing needed support to tackle the Boko Haram conundrum shows him as a master strategist on crisis management and containment. It is only a good war strategist who could take the decision he has taken by relocating the military command to the epicenter of Boko haram insurgency.
“Also, as a former Head of State, he had been there before and he knows exactly the challenges of governance. That is why he does not appear to be overwhelmed by them.”
On tackling corruption, Governor Ayade said: “The President’s critics expect him to use might to fight corruption, but that is not the way. That approach had failed in the past. So, he is going to be more tactical in his approach to fighting the scourge by applying the sagacity of Solomon and the prudence of a jurist. And that is the hallmark of an astute administrator.”
While lauding Buhari as a democrat, Ayade noted that the event that unfolded last week at the National Assembly and the President’s reaction to the outcome bears eloquent testimony that he has indeed evolved as a democrat. Some other Presidents would have insisted on tele-guiding the outcome of the process. His declaration that he is going to be President for all has started manifesting.”
Governor Ayade who also commended the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, said the events of the few past days have shown that the PDP was ready and willing to be the opposition party to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). “It is gratifying to note that the pain and disappointment that attended the loss of the presidential election to the APC is gradually being overcome. We have decided to forge ahead as a party and allow reason to prevail in the overall interest of the country.”
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