A chieftain of Nigeria’s governing All Progressives Congress (APC) Daniel Bwala has described the slow-paced leadership style of the country’s President Muhammadu Buhari as a weakness.
Mr Bwala was a guest on ARISE News and insisted that although the president is advanced in age and sometimes has medical conditions which may have weighed on his style of leadership, “it’s still a weakness”.
“With the greatest respect, I do not share the view that slow-pace styled leadership is a style, I feel it is a weakness. I can understand that the president has some two things that distinguish him from every other person.
“Number one he is advanced in age and number two sometimes he has a medical condition so maybe these two things may have weighed, but it is not a style,” Bawala told ARISE News.
He stated further that “your ability to be a step ahead of the enemy is your comparative advantage in warfare and therefore acts of government must be timeous, acts of government must be fast, now why do you think that the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria prescribed a time period for everything.
“Why do you think people made a choice of President Buhari over Jonathan in 2015, because people were not comfortable with the way and style things were moved and so when I hear his image handlers saying we have to cope up with this and this is the management style of the president, it is not a style, it is a weakness because if you are outsmarted by the opponent because you are unable to act smart, do you call that a style?
“So, I am of the view that the president has to act fast in 2021. The way things are unfolding, I do not think the same approach we have given it over the years we’ll be able to cope with that. The president has to engage and engage timeously.
“If there is information on social media that is posted and which is negative to the government, in the 24-hours there must be a robust response from the media manager.
“The idea that fake news will last for three to four days, damage the public opinion before people will come out and begin to discountenance or even put pressure on security operatives to begin to clamp down on rights and that is why I also talk about the president ensuring that those who advise him are probably checked.”
By Abel Ejikeme