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Why Yar’Adua is slow - Presidency By Jackson Udom Sunday, December 9, 2007 SPECIAL Adviser on Public Communication to President Umaru Yar’Adua, Mr. Segun Adeniyi, has explained why President Umaru Yar’Adua is slow in implementing certain policy decisions he promised during his electioneering campaign. advertisement Adeniyi, who stated this in a piece he wrote for publication, noted that “the president has adopted an approach which does not lend itself to easy applause; one which outlines a hybrid public/private approach to restructuring our troubled economy.” To achieve the seven points agenda the president set out to achieve during his four-year tenure, Adeniyi said “this requires a lot of planning, something that has been in short supply in our nation in recent times. It also requires putting in place the relevant legislative frame works which also involves painstaking efforts to guard against future pitfalls.” According to the president’s spokesperson, “Having been privileged to work closely with President Yar’Adua, in the past six months, I know the very serious efforts he has been making to create the right environment, establish solid foundation and put the necessary machinery in place for the speedy realisation of the seven points agenda of this administration. I have no doubt in my mind that the President is on the right course. I am also certain that at the end of his four year tenure, President Yar’Adua who believes very much in the power of ideas, will be satisfied that he has impacted positively on Nigeria.” He stressed further that “the emphasis on a planned, systematic approach to governance by President Yar’Adua, reflects an awareness of problems encountered over the years due to haphazard and uncoordinated efforts for which colossal amount of money has been wasted. “The deficits of the disorganised approach to governance under former administration, he noted, is evident in the several abandoned projects that litter the country and that explains why in the 2008 budget, emphasis is on completing ongoing projects rather than starting new ones.” The underlining philosophy behind, what he described as Yar’Aduanomics, “from both macro and micro perspectives is the necessity of increased private/public sectors partnership as the vehicle for the economic re-engineering to which he is committed,” he stated. To achieve the above, Adeniyi noted that, “it requires rigorous planning and attention to details but the goal is simple.” Four years down the line, the president, he stressed, wants Nigerians to be talking about the kilometres of roads his administration has built and not the billions of naira in road contracts he has awarded, the stability of power situation and not megawatts of excuses; the way and manner he has been able to reposition the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to maximise its potentials and eliminate waste and corruption; the efficiency of the mortgage system that is coming and the number of jobs that have been created.” On the Niger Delta planned summit, Adeniyi noted that “the issue simply is; what does the President intend to achieve by the summit? The President’s kind of summit, Adeniyi explained, “is a summit at which concrete agreements will be put on the table and signed by all the stakeholders, followed by the immediate commencement of an implementation plan that will fast-track all efforts towards the development of the region while restoring law and order. He added further that “If a problem has festered for decades, it is not too much to take about a year to restore it if that is what it would take, but with the current state of negotiation, the necessary agreements are likely to be reached within the next two months.”