- Mid-term report: Buhari administration yet to effect fundamental changes
Today is Democracy Day, two years into the Buhari administration and since mid-term assessment of the performance of a government has become a convention, it is a safe point to look into the performance of the government. When the administration came into power by the votes of the vast majority of voters in 2015, it held out so much promise. President Muhammadu Buhari who was the symbol of the struggle that uprooted the then incumbent had pledged during the electioneering campaign to change the face of the country within a short period. s
The then opposition political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), that was hurriedly coupled as an agglomeration of forces, politicians and disparate political associations resolved to remove an administration that had become discredited and promised to ensure that Nigerians get the dividends of democracy faster than ever before. Nigerians bought the message, believing that, as a man of integrity, President Buhari would live up to his promise.
Besides, his years in the wilderness as he adroitly struggled to mount the saddle, were believed to have prepared him for the task ahead. Nigerians knew the machinery of governance had become rusty and rickety, but they trusted their fortunes to the Spartan former general who had been a state governor, Minister of Petroleum, military Head of State and chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF).
He rode into office mainly on a three-pronged agenda – security, economic recovery and cleansing the Aegean Stable through a fierce war against corruption. Half way through his tenure that expires on May 29, 2019, how has the administration fared?
Regarding the Boko Haram insurgency as number one priority, hardly had the Buhari administration assumed power than it swung into action. The process and personnel used by his predecessor were reviewed and changes effected. Whereas the United States of America, a traditional ally, had refused to partner with the country in combating the miscreants who had taking over as many as 20 local government areas under the Jonathan administration, President Buhari succeeded in smoothening relations with the global superpower. It was no surprise that hardware whose sale to Nigeria had been forbidden were quickly supplied and the insurgents were flushed out of their strongholds. In the last two years, successes have been recorded. While we do not agree that the war is won, the backbone of the fundamentalists appear to have been broken and many of those who fled their homes have returned.
Other forms of security challenges have, however, emerged. Whereas kidnapping was mainly experienced in the South South and the South East, it has become a national malaise. The kidnappers have become more emboldened, operating in cities and towns, including the commercial nerve-centre, Lagos. Schools have been routinely violated, children kidnapped and traditional rulers in the South West abducted. Serving military officers and former ministers have fallen prey in Kaduna. In almost all cases, relations had to pay ransom for the release of their loved ones. This is worrying. Armed robbery, too, has been on an upward spiral in the South West, especially.
Perhaps the most shocking is the ease with which Fulani herdsmen operate, attacking innocent citizens, raping women and despoiling farms in all parts of the country – North, South, East and West. The inability of the government to take action against them appears a tacit support for their criminal actions. This is even more so when it is realised that the President was a patron of the Fulani herdsmen prior to his assumption of office. Where some have been apprehended, it has been done reluctantly.
For months, it was mum from the presidency, especially following the massacre of the Agatu in Benue State. In Southern Kaduna where the Fulani went on the rampage, it took an outcry by the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU), the media and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) for the Kaduna State government to take any meaningful step to curb the bloodletting. It was much later that the Federal Government felt compelled by the outcry to order military presence for security of lives and property.
The economy remains sluggish. Under the watch of the government, the economy slid into a recession and very little has been done to ensure recovery. While it could be said that some actions were taken to give agriculture priority in a bid to diversify the economy, other sectors have remained largely as comatose as they were. Beyond rhetoric and intangibles, not much has been forthcoming from the solid mineral sector. The structure of the economy remains as it has always been. Impunity in terms of the governance structure and operation of revenue-yielding institutions like the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), among others, remains the same. Their budgets are never declared, and their accounts, as exposed by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), are not audited.
Many compatriots are groaning. Projects meant to reflate the economy, generate employment and feed the poor are executed in the breach. The feeding scheme for school children is yet to take off in most states of the federation; the N-Power scheme to absorb many unemployed graduates is wobbling. Those already engaged are hardly paid by month end, while institutions to support the ministry of agriculture in raising modern farmers are not yet in place. We, however, commend the agriculture ministry for the steps it has taken in boosting rice production, but more should be done if the country is to be self sufficient and save foreign exchange being frittered away on importation of rice.
While we equally commend the government for steps taken to launch schemes to invite foreign direct capital by making the environment more conducive, especially by the executive orders just signed by the Acting President, we need a bolder policy framework to guide all operators in the economy.
Despite the tiff between the executive and the legislature on confirmation of the executive chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the war against corruption is one area much success has been recorded. The searchlight has been beamed on judges, legislators and past members of the executive council. It seems, though, that diligent prosecution has not been a strong point of the EFCC, while agencies like the Department of State Services have been thrown into the fray, leading to inter-agency rivalry and confusion. This has to be curbed if the pests who bled the economy are to be brought to book and made to vomit what they illegally swallowed.
In all, the government has taken some steps expected to reorder things, but they came too late and remain too little. Bold structural reforms are expected, to pull the country out of recession, lift the downtrodden and punish the corrupt. Nigeria must rise again, but, for this administration to be remembered as one that effected the fundamental changes expected, it has to exhibit more determination and increase the pace of work.
In another 20 months, the electorate would be called upon to give a verdict on the government and decide if it is deserving of another term. The government must redouble its efforts to get re-election when that time comes.
