In many climes, the idea of commemorating hundred days in office, particularly, for leaders of government such as; president of a country or a state governor has become very popular.
Historically, hundred days in office has its origin in France where the concept of Cent Jours (Hundred Days) refers to the period of 1815 between Napoleon Bonaparte’s return to Paris from exile on the island of Elba and his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, after which King Louis XVIII regained the French throne. That is a long story that can wait for another day. It was, however, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States of America who popularized the ideal and made it part of American political culture.
As a scholar would say; “America has a way of shipping its garbage around the world”. The idea of commemorating 100 days in governance has become a worldwide phenomenal.
In Nigeria, we have also copied the idea of rolling out drums in commemoration of 100 days in office. Unfortunately, many people wrongly assumed that the success or failure of an administration can be determined within the first hundred days of a-four year tenure. While one readily agrees that the dawn could foretell the day; the dawn is not equal to a day.
Unfortunately, like everything we have copied, we always copy things without full grasp of their philosophy. We copy the idea of first 100 days without the ideal. Just like the proverbial child who picked an empty shell of a snail and called it a snail, pretending that a shell can be served for dinner. Everyone knows that his dream is on a parallel lane with reality.
Since we have failed to understand the concept of hundred days, Nigerians often judge leaders in terms of bricks and mortar as well as bolts and nuts. The head of government is said to be performing when he could point at a six classroom building, pave a pathway, and inaugurate a medical facility. Yes, these are component of development, and government must strive to provide them, but, this cannot be considered a genuine yardstick to measure an enduring and sustainable performance of a government within the first hundred days in office. Certainly, No. And this is the candid view of the current Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri.
So what is the essence of hundred days in office? Answer to this hides in the premise on which Franklin D. Roosevelt, who nurtured 100 days in office as a governance culture, laid it upon. The 32rd American president used his 100 days in office to introduce policy direction for a government that had to confront with what was christened the Great Recession.
