From Magnus Eze, Abuja

More reactions have continued to trail last Sunday’s Democracy Day speech by President Muhammadu Buhari where he gave his stewardship in his first year in office.
In his reaction, former governor of Imo State, Chief Ikedi Ohakim urged Nigerians to bear with the president in their expectation of him to fulfill his campaign promises.
Ohakim, who was guest on Focus Nigeria, an African Independent Television (AIT) breakfast programme monitored in Abuja, yesterday,  described Buhari as a late starter as witnessed in the slowness of his administration.
He said Buhari’s snail-speed style first manifested in the constitution of the cabinet which came six months after assuming power on May 29 last year, noting that the nation is facing economic war that requires definitive actions.
Ohakim said: “Even in family, you have late starters and early starters. Some people can begin a race so well and collapse midway; some people can start slowly and hit the ground running at the middle of the race. All I am thinking is Mr President may be a late starter. From his inaugural speech, I had expected that he will hit the ground running, but he didn’t do that. It took him six months to constitute executive council; he was trying to be careful.
“Today, things are very dynamic; society does not wait for anybody. The economy does not wait for anybody. Agreed, he has lost the time, but, there is still time for him to regain momentum and finish the race. There are certain things he was supposed to have done initially which he didn’t do, like the appointment of ministers; like the turbulence that we are experiencing in the oil and gas industry, one would have expected that Mr President would constitute the board of NNPC immediately before taking certain actions; that did not happen.”
He also said Buhari should have appointed ambassadors for the country’s missions abroad before embarking on his frequent foreign trips, saying the envoys, like branch managers of a company, would have concretised the likely gains of the trips.
Also reviewing the president’s one year in office, Deputy Director-General of the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Campaign Organisation 2015 in Ogun State, Segun Sowunmi said the Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) federal government has failed to deliver on the party’s electoral campaign promises.
Sowunmi said: “I think, after all said and done, we cannot reasonably score the Buhari administration high. In fact, we must say, without mincing words, that the government has performed abysmally low.
“It would have been tolerable had the party and its presidential candidate not promised heaven and paradise during campaign, only to serve out excuses upon excuses. There are far more creative ways to run the nation than this clueless and rudderless effort of theirs.
“They are taking Nigerians for a ride, thereby, losing a great deal of goodwill in just one year because of the high cost of living, the recent hike in price of petrol, the confusion with the foreign exchange policy, lopsided appointments and needless hounding of PDP members.
“The hypocrisy of the Buhari administration is legendary and their ability to blame others for their incompetence is second to none. Nigerians should just endure, soon, the opportunity to vote them out will present itself. We must say never again to a party that elevates lies and propaganda.”