Nigerians would expect Buhari to retire as an elder statesman who would someday have the presence of mind to acknowledge his faults, apologise to Nigerians and move on to mentor the young on how to become the conscience of society!
No thanks to failing on the three cardinal points of his administration - the economy, security and corruption - the erstwhile "sheriff in town" and "no-nonsense general" would leave office as the most criticised president. Before we go our separate ways, it is crucial to state that Nigerians are sad because he is leaving the country in a very bad shape - less united, burdened by foreign debts, swarming with an army of unemployed youths, pervaded by a general sense of insecurity, aggrieved unpaid workers and a nation at its lowest ebb in its 62 years' history.
Introduction
Muhammadu Buhari, a two-time president of Nigeria, Africa's largest producer of oil, has few weeks to leave office as the 25th of February presidential polls are underway. Since legacies matter, the world is looking at "the beneficiary of peaceful transition" to see how he would return the favour by handing over power peacefully and going back to his Daura homestead. History will be kind to him that he signed the "Not too young to run" and the Electoral Amendment bills into law. Little wonder, Buhari recently disclosed that the "sustenance of democracy and rule of law should be a 'norm' in ECOWAS member nations", while opening session of the 2022 second ordinary session of the ECOWAS parliament in Abuja. The world is watching to see if he would keep to his words.
However, critics have accused his administration of nepotism, giving religious overtones to issues of national interests and the Lekki-Lagos tollgate shootings. Opposition to restructuring the country and creation of state police by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), as well as a poor handling of the nation's economy, general insecurity in the land and economic malaise, have heightened criticisms of Buhari's eight years in office. Those who accuse him of contempt for the rule of law would rather have him called, "General" and his administration "a regime." In a recent editorial, The PUNCH newspapers revealed that part of its new editorial policy is "to address President Muhammadu Buhari as Major General in his official title and refer to his government as a regime instead of administration." This piece x-rays Buhari's administration based on his two-term pledge of improving the economy, tackling insecurity and fighting corruption.
Economic Somersault
Between 2014 and early 2015, CNNMoney named Nigeria, with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 2.7%, as the third fastest growing economy in the world behind China and Qata,r with 7.3% and 7.1% growth respectively. The country's GDP from various sectors was - agriculture, 18%; services, 55%; manufacturing, 16% and oil 8%. In that same year, Nigeria overtook South Africa as Africa's largest economy, ranking 26th in the world in terms of GDP. Experts projected that by 2020, Nigeria's economy would become one of the 20 largest in the world.
Eight years later, the World Bank downgraded the nation's growth by 0.3 percentage point to 2.9% from its previous projection of 3.2% in its global economic prospects for 2023. The apex financial institution cited challenges in oil production, the rise in insecurity and flooding as factors responsible for the slide. While in 2015 the average exchange rate of the naira to the dollar was ₦197.8763 per dollar, it is now trading at ₦752/$1 in the black market. Just as Nigeria became the world poverty capital in 2018, according to the Brookings Institution, by October 2019, it overtook India as the world defecation capital. According to Nigeria's Debt Management Office, due to new borrowings by the federal government, partly to finance the deficit in the 2022 Appropriation Act, the country was indebted to the tune of N42.84 trillion ($103.31 billion) as at 30 June, 2022.
While the United Nation's Human Rights' Council stated that there were 1.3 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the country, 56% of who were children, as at July, 2015, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre disclosed that a record of 59.1 million people were internally displaced in Nigeria due to conflict, violence and disasters in December 2021.
Grave Security Concerns
In its 2016 report, the Global Terrorism Index (GTI), which monitored and measured the impact of terrorism in 163 countries, covering 99.7% of the world's population, ranked Nigeria third, behind Iraq and Afghanistan, among countries that have been worst hit by terror attacks globally. In 2014, the oil rich nation was ranked fourth on the same list. In 2018, it rated Nigeria as the third most terrorised country in the world. It reported that deaths from terrorism in Nigeria rose to 2,040 in 2018 - a 33% increase, which makes Nigeria the most terrorised nation in Africa. With killer herdsmen as the fourth deadliest terror group in the world, Nigeria is now the eighth least peaceful country in Africa and one of the most dangerous places in the world to give birth.
While the United Nation's Human Rights' Council stated that there were 1.3 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the country, 56% of who were children, as at July, 2015, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre disclosed that a record of 59.1 million people were internally displaced in Nigeria due to conflict, violence and disasters in December 2021. We can recall that in 2020, the West African nation had 2.7 million IDPs according to Statista, making Nigeria the third highest country with displaced people in Africa.
The data released by the International Organisation for Migration on 23 December 2022 is worrisome - 1,222,977 persons were displaced, which comprises 1,110,369 IDPs (91% of the displaced population), 15,177 former IDP Returnees (1%) and 97,431 Refugees (8% of the displaced population). According to the organisation, about 89% of the displaced population (1,087,875 individuals) were domiciled in Nigeria, while 11% (135,102 individuals) lived in Niger Republic.
Failed War On Corruption
On the 2014 Corruption Perception Index, Nigeria ranked 136 out of 176 countries, with a score of 27 out of 100 as at May of that year. In a story titled, "Nigeria's corruption challenge," Transparency International disclosed that in a survey it conducted, 85% of Nigerians believed that corruption increased in the country between 2011 and 2013. However, in a August 2022 editorial titled, "Buhari: A Regime That Fuels Corruption," PREMIUM TIMES underscored that: "Tragically, cronyism and nepotism in Buhari's key appointments have conflated with the working of government agencies at cross-purposes to fuel corruption."
... as Buhari prepares to return to his cattle in Daura, it is hoped that he would use this time to sincerely reflect deeply on all the empty promises his party made to Nigerians. I am optimistic that the president's sense of equanimity would afford him the courage to heal from the mistakes of the past. If anything, Nigerians would expect Buhari to retire as an elder statesman who would someday have the presence of mind to acknowledge his faults, apologise to Nigerians...
The newspaper noted that the promotion of former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, to the rank of assistant inspector-general of Police (AIG) amid allegations of abuse of office; allowing a former Comptroller of Nigeria Customs Service accused of carting away N40 billion to merely refund N1.5 billion through plea bargain; watching the Ministers of Finance and of Budget and National Planning recover only N53.5 billion, as at April 2022 (in 18-months), out of N5.2 trillion of public funds in the custody of ten Departments and Agencies (MDAs); and servicing debts with N1.9 trillion in the first four months of the administration - exceeding the N1.3 trillion accrued as revenue within the same time frame - makes Buhari's fight against corruption a farce.
Nigerians will not forget in hurry how President Buhari suspended and removed the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, unilaterally on frivolous grounds. On 1 September 2018, SaturdayPUNCH disclosed that "at least eight out of the politicians working for the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari in the February 2019 election have pending corruption cases worth N232bn pending before security agencies, especially the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission." Under the Daura-born president, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) was on strike for eight months, and lecturers are yet to receive the backlog of these salaries.
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Conclusion
No thanks to failing on the three cardinal points of his administration - the economy, security and corruption - the erstwhile "sheriff in town" and "no-nonsense general" would leave office as the most criticised president. Before we go our separate ways, it is crucial to state that Nigerians are sad because he is leaving the country in a very bad shape - less united, burdened by foreign debts, swarming with an army of unemployed youths, pervaded by a general sense of insecurity, aggrieved unpaid workers and a nation at its lowest ebb in its 62 years' history.
The saying goes, "uneasy lies the head that wears the crown." As such, as Buhari prepares to return to his cattle in Daura, it is hoped that he would use this time to sincerely reflect deeply on all the empty promises his party made to Nigerians. I am optimistic that the president's sense of equanimity would afford him the courage to heal from the mistakes of the past. If anything, Nigerians would expect Buhari to retire as an elder statesman who would someday have the presence of mind to acknowledge his faults, apologise to Nigerians and move on to mentor the young on how to become the conscience of society!
Justine John Dyikuk, a Catholic priest, is a lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication, University of Jos, Nigeria, a Senior Fellow, International Religious Freedom Policy, Religious Freedom Institute (RFI), Washington DC and PhD Candidate, University of Strathclyde Glasgow, United Kingdom.
