Are Nigerians losing hope in APC?

These are not the best of times for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). For a political party that rode on the mantra of change, Nigerians are yet to reap the dividends of democracy since the present administration assumed office on May 29, 2015.

According to the recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the number of unemployed citizens has reached a record high of 4.5million since the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government took over from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last 15 months.

Moreover, the country is struggling to exit economic recession. Experts say the growing band of young, restless population without jobs is a ticking time-bomb waiting to explode. The rising poverty manifests daily across the country with stories of more families going to bed on empty stomach, some eating leaves and lizards to survive and women going into homes to steal pots of soups from their neighbours.

The menace of Boko Haram in the North East, renewed militancy in the Niger Delta and Biafra agitations in the South-East, have not also helped matters.
With allegations of corruption levelled against members of Buhari’s kitchen cabinet, coupled with the astronomical increase in goods and services and the ruling party’s inability to fulfill its campaign promises of stabilisation of the Naira, provision of one free meal daily for public and primary school pupils nationwide, creation of 720,000 jobs in the 36 states of the Federation yearly, payment of allowances to discharged corps members while unemployed, provision of free education to tertiary level for students in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and Education Fields, payment of N5,000 monthly to 25 million poorest Nigerians, creation of 5million new home owners, some analysts claim that if a general elections were conducted today, APC would not retain its position in Aso Rock.

They buttress their argument with the June approval rating conducted by NOI polls, which stood at 39percent drop.

The poll, which asked Nigerians to rate the President on key indicators and results revealed a high level of dissatisfaction of Nigerians.
The result showed that on the performance of the president in the areas of Conflict resolution, only 28 percent of respondents believed he was doing a good job.

President Buhari’s performance in other critical sectors as revealed by the polls: Agriculture and Food Security (21 percent), Health Care (20 percent), Education (18 percent), Economy (15 percent), Job creation (13 percent), Infrastructure (13 percent), and Poverty alleviation (11 percent) as he was rated poorly in these areas.

However, Nigerians expressed satisfaction with his performance in the areas of National Security (48 percent) and Corruption (45 percent).
Despite being the nation’s capital, Abuja has also had its share of the economic crisis. For instance, while the number of beggars has increased in the FCT, some parents are withdrawing their children from private to public schools, others are begging their children’s school management for installment payment, even as some civil servants now skip meals as survival strategy to cope with the economic recession.

What are the reasons for the decline in the President’s rating?

A former governor of the old Kaduna State, Balarabe Musa, believes Buhari’s military background in addressing ethnic agitations in the country was affecting his performance.
Balarabe said the Buhari-led Federal Government had not shown seriousness in using dialogue to resolve agitations from different geopolitical zones of the country.
He urged Buhari to show that he is now a converted democrat by using dialogue to settle crises rocking the country.

The former governor, who described Buhari’s first year in office as a waste, said he doubted whether the President would make the most of the remaining three years of his tenure.
“Buhari has not demonstrated that he is serious about using dialogue to resolve the various ethnic tension. This government does not care about dialogue. The President’s military background and approach are affecting his performance. Former President Musa Yar’Adua understood the importance of dialogue which enabled him to put a halt to militancy in the Niger Delta. But what do we have now? Tension and agitation in different parts of the country.

“Dialogue is the only way to resolve the Biafra agitation in the South-East, the Niger Delta Avengers and the Boko Haram violence. The APC does not deserve a second term. The PDP is not also a better option. We need another credible alternative.”
Balarabe, however, said if the President adopted a revolutionary approach, he could reverse the mistakes he made in his first year in power.
“The solution is the return to  a state-economy rather than a privatised economy which is not helping the country. There is unemployment, poor power supply, tension across the geopolitical zones and poverty. The country needs a better alternative that would restore peace, ensure the rule of law and revive the economy. The APC and the PDP lack the capacity to achieve this,” he said.
Senators have also been offering solutions on how Nigerians can get dividends of democracy in the APC-led government. They spoke on the debate on the state of the economy last week.
For the Senate Chief Whip, the best way is to reduce the cost of governance. The APC lawmaker expressed worry that Nigeria has the highest estacode in the world.
“If we will save Nigeria we must reduce the cost of governance. Nigeria estacode is the highest in the world. We must slash it to 50percent. Obafemi Awolowo campaigned in 1978 that he was going to slash it and it has now grown into five times what it was in those days,” he stated.
Among the short and long-term solutions proffered by senators included power devolution, granting of autonomy to states and local governments, opposition to sale of national assets, renegotiation of agreements with oil majors to free resources for development, confidence building to attract Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs), restructuring of the country, direct engagement of the people by President Buhari as against the town hall meetings being held by ministers, cabinet reshuffle and constitution amendment to empower the Federal Government to save a percentage of the nation’s revenues against raining days.

Other suggestions are diversification of the economy, encouragement of small and medium scale industries to thrive and produce for export, increase spending by government, reduction of interest rates, provision of guarantees to safeguard bank deposits by the Federal Government, creation of new sources of forex earnings, constitution of boards of federal agencies, blocking leakages in the system, ban of some food items that can be locally produced, deployment of recovered funds to finance the 2016 budget, investment in agriculture, revisiting the Treasury Single Accounts (TSA), borrowing on the short-term to stabilise the economy, provision of legal backing for the Sovereign Wealth Fund.

The training and empowerment of youths and women, supply of farm inputs like fertilizers and seeds as a way of encouraging return to the land by the people, addressing multiple taxation, review of the minimum wage and demand of higher productivity from civil servants, improvement in the security situation and care for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), using 10 percent of the national budget to finance agriculture, increasing the petroleum refining capacity of the nation through establishment of modular refineries, reform of health and education sectors to discourage medical and educational tourism, strengthening the rule of law and the justice system, revisiting the cut in the amnesty budget for ex-militants, balancing of imports with local production to grow local businesses, spending on infrastructural development, stoppage in tax increases, boosting local production and proper planning to aid development also formed part of the lawmakers’ submissions.