The Muhammadu Buhari magic, which was responsible for the temporary relief experienced early in the life of his administration in some parts of the country, in terms of power supply and availability of petroleum products, appears to have vanished, some observers have said.
Analysts, who spoke with BD SUNDAY, expressed concern over the worsening state of economy under Buhari’s watch, which has negatively affected the quality of life of many Nigerians.
Nearly seven months after the inauguration of the Buhari administration, life has become very brutish and cheap in Nigeria.
Observers quickly point to some of the indices of a poorly run economy under the APC government to include the level of poverty ravaging the country in the midst of plenty; fuel scarcity resulting in long queues at filling stations across the country; the continued menace of the Islamist sect, Boko Haram; inability to rescue the Chibok girls despite the virulent verbal attack the APC mounted against the immediate past administration of Jonathan in this regard; worsening power supply; obvious inability to fight corruption despite verbal claims; heightening crime rate as armed robbers now operate effortlessly, persistent gridlocks occasioned by bad roads and lack of will power to take the bull by the horns.
The current groaning in the land, according to BD SUNDAY checks, cuts across all sectors and social strata: importers have no access to dollar in the interbank market, exporters are handicapped, retailers and wholesalers are running out of business, while many consumers can no longer meet their needs as a result of lack of purchasing power. Many fear that respite appears not in sight with the current administration.
In June 2015, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in an attempt to conserve reserves, announced that importers would no longer be able to secure hard currency on the interbank market to buy items ranging from rice, toothpicks, soap to cement and private jets.
Before the election that brought Buhari to power, his party, the APC, then the major opposition party in the land, claimed it was capable of leading the country to the Promised Land.
Today, as the saying goes that the taste of the pudding is in the eating, critics are of the view that the Buhari magic appears to have waned as Nigerians have grown weary with his promises and goal-shifting.
Reacting to the seemingly absence of governance in the land, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has described the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) as a directionless political party in the art of governance, whose destiny is being in opposition rather than being saddled with the responsibility of leading the country.
Olisa Metuh, the PDP’s national publicity secretary, said in an interview with BD SUNDAY that the current economic hardship many Nigerians are going through was a strong indication that President Muhammadu Buhari was not prepared to lead the country, while boasting that the APC would return to its former status of opposition party after 2019 general elections.
He said: “The suffering of Nigerians has become too numerous since the APC took power at the federal level. There is no power supply, no fuel; traffic situation in most Nigerian states are worsening; the fight against corruption by the current regime is about putting opposition politicians in jail without trial; the economy is dying under the APC. What is paining me most is the suffering of Nigerians as a result of this directionless”.
He said President Buhari should prove him wrong by urgently resuscitating the dying Nigerian economy, rather than continue diverting attention away from the economic mess, adding that imaginary corruption still exists under the current administration.
“Let them unveil the economic programme of this administration. President Buhari at the moment is more concerned with travelling out of the country. The APC likes engaging in propaganda than convincing Nigerians how the party plans to lift millions of Nigerians out of poverty. At the moment, the APC has no economic programme. They are only diverting attention from the real issue. It is obvious that the President and his party are not prepared for this position. But by 2019, they will return to the opposition where they belong,” he said.
Niyi Owolade, former deputy speaker, Osun State House of Assembly (OSHA), and former attorney-general and commissioner for justice, said the economy at the federal level is taking its toll on state governments beyond measure because monthly allocations to states have been drastically reduced because financial institutions from where states borrowed money deduct at source.
Rising from a meeting held at the Old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, last week, under the umbrella of Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), the governors said that dwindling prices of oil had drastically affected their states’ income, and consequently, could no longer pay their respective workers the nationally accepted N18, 000 as minimum wage.
Niyi Owolade said: “Last month (October), Osun State received only N55 million from federal government. The current financial mess is really getting to the state governments. You know states who borrowed money usual have debts deduct at source. By the time the lenders deduct their money at source, there is almost nothing left for the state governments. For now, the Osun State governor cannot be talking about security vote because there is no money in the state for now. Osun State has become a failed state”.
He explained that all economic indexes are showing that Nigeria is worse off now than when the APC assumed leadership at the centre, and challenged the APC to tell Nigerians what better explanation the party has regarding the country’s sorrowing condition.
“Nigerians wanted change and now they have it. But I can assure you this is not the change Nigerians wanted. Before now, power supply was better off; but today, there is no power supply in Osun State. I don’t know about other states. Getting fuel in Nigeria today is not a child’s play; with queue everywhere; things are worse off than when this regime came to power,” he said.
According to him, it is obvious that the President and his party did not believe what happened at the presidential poll was possible, hence, the manifestation of their lack of preparedness that is threatening to throw the country into chaos.
“It is evident that the President was not prepared for this. Take for instance, his cabinet members. These are people he could have announced the very day he assumed office as president. Many Nigerians still can’t understand why it took the President so long to give us this same people. Something is not just right here. Talking about the economy, Nigeria is worse off under President Buhari. May be, there is something we are not seeing. If so, the APC should come out and tell us what it is we are not seeing; because they promised so much during their election campaign,”Owolade further said.
Some observers also refused to buy the idea that it is too late to assess the current administration.
Leonard Umunna, a cleric and general overseer of Bible Life Church, told BD SUNDAY that the President has already lost a lot of ground.
“I disagree with those who say it is too early to assess the President’s performance. People should not say such a thing. The morning shows the day. It is said that ‘prior proper preparation prevents poor performance’. Look, if the President had made a prior preparation for the job he was coming to take up, he would have gone very far. He had sufficient time to make adequate preparation, but he blew it. He would have hit the ground running long ago. He has over-delayed. Nigerians needed sharp change; a surprise. Surprise is element of victory. For me, I think the best thing to tell him now is, Baba, wake up; you have slept so much,” Umunna said.
On the insinuation that the President appears overwhelmed by the anti-graft war and no longer committed to fighting it.
Umunna said: “APC as a party started badly after election and I don’t know where all this will lead. As for the President, his body language is not speaking again. You can see what is happening now, petrol scarcity is back, there’s complaint everywhere. People are getting worried that the acclaimed war against corruption will not be possibly prosecuted, let alone won, not with the Buhari’s style. Not when they are taking action against your friend, you say, ‘No, don’t go there’. The anti-graft agencies must be given free hand to operate. But we are not seeing that yet.”
A public affairs commentator and a legal practitioner, who simply gave his name as Nurudeen, said: “I know some people who did not vote for him because they told me that he would not be able to fight corruption since his campaign was sponsored with public funds. Don’t forget that some of the then state governors mobilised public funds to bankroll his campaign; so where does he have the moral fibre to fight corruption? Don’t also forget that he was able to fight corruption as a military head of state because he ruled with decree; now that he is following the constitution and the rule of law, it may be pretty difficult for him to score a bull’s eye on that front.”
According to Nurudeen, “I was skeptical when there was ecstasy all over the place that power supply has become constant and that there are no more queues at the filling stations. I asked them why the sudden change? There were no specific reasons. I said, unless there’s concrete infrastructural upgrade in that regard, the euphoria will die as soon as it began. I have since been vindicated. I have since discovered that there was a game somehow to, perhaps, hoodwink the populace. There must be cause and effect. If you do not put anything into the soil, you can’t reap anything. All we need is a lasting solution, not pulling the wool over the eyes of Nigerians.”
He also drew attention to what he described as a huge “contradiction” in the current government.
He said: “It is shocking that the APC that claimed it had the capacity to pay N5,000 monthly stipend to all unemployed youths in Nigeria, has governors that cannot pay monthly salaries to their workers. Sadly also, it was the APC governors that began the agitation that they can no longer sustain the N18,000 minimum wage. Where are they leading the country to?
Funmi Adedeji, a Lagos-based educationist, who scoffed at the claim by the APC that Buhari has the power to tame corruption, said: “I laugh whenever people say President Buhari has come to fight corruption. Can he actually fight corruption in Nigeria? He that goes to equity must come with clean hands. If in the last six months he cannot find solution to the biting petrol scarcity as the minister of Petroleum that should tell you he has nothing to offer more than mere talk. All they are doing is trial and error. Does Buhari have any moral justification to breathe down on any minister who does not perform, since he, himself has already failed as petroleum minister? For me, the man has simply come to ‘chop’ not to work.”
Buhari began to smoke against corruption even before he was elected president in March. He had told Nigerians that his government would not tolerate corrupt persons in his government and would step on big toes.
Observers are worried that close to seven months after his inauguration, the President has yet to secure conviction of any treasury looter, let alone committing any into prison.
Shortly after he won the Presidential election, the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) in the days of Ibrahim Lamorde, arose from slumber, going after perceived looters of public funds. Up till now, the Commission has not gone farther than mere naming without shaming the people.
Recently, Buhari confessed his handicap to fighting corruption. His utterances in this wise may have put to question government’s commitment to end corruption in the country.
The President had said that compared to his first coming as a military Head of State in 1984 when he could order the arrest of alleged corrupt individuals and put them in protective custody to prove their innocence, dictates of the Rule of Law and due process have slowed him down in prosecuting corrupt official now.
He spoke in Teheran, Iran Republic at a forum with the Nigerian community. He told his audience that treasury looters in the Jonathan administration have started returning stolen funds.
Buhari said those accused of corruption would have been prosecuted by now, but for the need to thoroughly investigate them with a view to gathering enough evidence to facilitate their prosecution.
“On corruption; yes, they are still innocent. But, we are collecting documents and some of them have started voluntarily returning something. But we want all…”
A pundit said: “A government that claims it is serious with checking the orgy of corruption in the country which has brought Nigeria into opprobrium cannot be dealing with the issue with kid gloves. The way Buhari is hammering on corruption, corruption, one would have thought that by now he would have jailed over 12 corrupt persons. We expect him to name and shame those corrupt persons, but from what we are seeing now, there’s no significant difference between what he is doing now and what Jonathan did. I think all that braggadocio about government’s going hard on corrupt persons was just a make belief. The more you look the less you see. Nollywood!”
ZEBULON AGOMUO & NATHANIEL AKHIGBE
