My elementary knowledge in building taught me that the foundation of a house determines what its height above the sea level would be. For instance, the foundation for a building with 150 floors would be different from say a six bedroom duplex. In my honest opinion, I think what Buhari and Osinbajo have done in the past 100 days in office is simply to put the foundation of a new Nigeria together, in which the evidence is going to be visible for all to see soon. It is of a truth that what this administration inherited was a huge time bomb ready to explode, had it not been the timely intervention of a formidable opposition. Nigeria, before May 29, 2015 was at the point of being submerged by terrorism, corruption and any other thing that could be imagined as being ‘wrong’, was wrong with Nigeria.

Virtually nothing seems to be working, except that terrorism was thriving in the Northeast, corruption was on the increase and the future of the nation seems uncertain. The motto of Nigeria - Unity and faith, peace and progress was under serious threat. Nigeria was in dare need of a rescuer, like the character of Jack Bauer in the seasonal film 24 Hours, who knows what to do and with the right precision and a touch of professionalism. Before the general elections that swept PDP off their feet, it was obvious that Nigeria needed a breath of fresh air. The opposition- a coalition of four different political parties saw this and decided to unite against the then ruling party, and the rest was history.

Let us get the record straight at this point. Buhari may not have turned water to wine in the last 100 days of his administration, or fed five thousand people with five loaves and two fishes like Jesus, but I tell you, so many things have been set in motion that would catapult this nation to be a force to be reckoned with among the committee of nations. While those in the present opposition are shying away from these realities of a gradual emergence of a better Nigeria under Muahammadu Buhari in the last 100 days, those of us who have made it a point of duty to watch as things unfold under this administration can actually testify to these facts. What has happened in the last 100days of Buhari/Osinbajo in office is what I titled as a laying the foundation for a better Nigeria. Like I said, a wise master builder cannot build a great building on a weak foundation. You must have a solid foundation if you are going to have a strong superstructure.

Some would argue that this administration has witnessed over 2000 people massacred by Boko Haram in the last 100 days. But the truth also is that this administration has seen the Nigerian Military being restructured and better motivated to end the insurgency. The military in the last administration was a toothless bulldog that could not bite. The military was used as a cheap tool by political office holder for their own selfish agenda rather than given them the proper morale to fight Boko Haram. No weapons, the welfare of soldiers was nothing to write home about. These actually affected the Morales of soldiers under the last administration. Some of the boys even rebelled by refusing to fight the terror group without being properly armed. Since Muhammadu Buhari took office in the last 100 days, the military has been restructured with new service chiefs in charge. In fact, on a number of occasions, the chief of army staff has been seeing on the battle field with his soldiers fighting the insurgent. Unlike the previous service chiefs that sits in their office in Abuja looting the money meant for the military, these new ones have actually shown that it would not be business as usual, and In no time from now, Boko Haram would be a thing of the past.

Also, while key ministers are yet to be appointed to Mann different ministries, everything still seems to go as planned by this administration. In fact, it appears that Nigeria can even move on without Federal ministers anyway- though not possible because the constitution does not give room for that. The reason for the delay is simply because this new administration is trying to reduce the number of ministries, and see how some of them could be merged together thereby reducing the cost of governance. Nigeria does not need plenty ministers to achieve greatness. Few of them that are dedicated and competent can drive this nation forward. With the number of ministerial positions that existed before now, the nation did not make much progress. The functions of some of these ministries do overlap thereby leading to excessive government-spending. The Presidents’ transition committee led by Ahmed Joda recommended that these ministries be pruned down to about 19 ministries. By slashing some and merging the others, the plan is simply to save cost and make the remaining departments more effective and responsive to the needs of Nigerians.

Nigeria’s foreign relations have improved tremendously since this administration took over some few months ago. The President had embarked on quite a number of trips abroad to strengthen the country’s bilateral relationship with her counterparts. The visit to the United States White House on the invitation of Barack Obama was a good omen. Nigeria and US had some differences in the previous administration over Nigerian security service’s human rights violations in the fight against Boko Haram as reported by transparency international, and partly because of the fierce criticism that the United States is not doing enough to help Nigeria in ending the insurgency that has ravaged the Northeastern part of the country, resulting in millions of people being displaced and lives and properties being lost in the process. As a result of this, there was a temporary setback in the Nigeria/US relations under President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. But with the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari in a free and fair election adjudged to be credible by all and sundry, the country regained the United States trust once again. Also, the relationships with neighboring nations like Chad, Cameroun and the likes have also increased. There has been renewed commitment by the countries to end Boko Haram in a matter of days.

Corruption in Nigeria is endemic. It has eaten deep into the fabric of our nation. It is one fundamental reason Nigeria has remained on the same spot over the years. This administration’s effort to see an end to corruption in Nigeria has been greeted with so much enthusiasm by all. As a matter of fact, three international development partners who are the Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation and Open Society Foundation jointly established Anti-corruption and Criminal Justice reform Fund to support this administration’s fight against corruption. The fund, a sum of $5million dollars was released to assist the implementation of key components of the action plan and the work of the Presidential Advisory committee headed by Professor Itse Sagay. The President severally stressed the need to end corruption in Nigeria unless, corruption will end Nigeria. With this effort by the President in the last 100days of his administration, corruption would soon become a thing of the past.

Also in the last 100 days of this administration, there has been noticeable improvement in our infrastructure. Noticeable among them is the Nigeria refineries that has bounced back to life and commenced refining crude oil. The Port Harcourt and Warri plant started operating after a nine-month rehabilitation process. Although, this effort started under the previous administration of President Ebele Jonathan, a lot of kudos should also be given to the current administration that ensured that the success of the refineries coming back to life was cemented. There are also reports that electricity distribution have improved greatly since this new administration came on board.

Now, it would be unfair to look at some of these efforts so far by the Buhari/Osinbajo 100 days in office and conclude that nothing has been done or achieved as some claimed. While a lot may not have happened physically for all to see, like creating one million jobs in ten days and all of that, I can say categorically that the foundation have been put in place and in a short while from now, Nigerians would begin to see the dividends of democracy. Long live Buhari/Osinbajo and long live the Federal republic of Nigeria.

Thank you for reading.