New Telegraph 
On January 1, 2022 President Muhammadu Buhari entered his last full year as the president of Nigeria.
Elected first in 2015, Buhari completed his first fouryear tenure in 2019 and began the second part of his two-term tenure on May 29, 2019. He is expected to exit the office on May 29, 2023.
The presidential election for who would succeed Buhari will be held in February 2023. What this means to political watchers and followers is that 2022 is a political year.
It is so because there would be a lot of political activities, where the presidential candidates of the political parties, governorship, senatorial, House of Representatives and members of the state assemblies would be elected. In essence, the political parties will be very busy in 2022 with many around the president having their eyes on either the national level or on their states to have a hold on who becomes what.
For Buhari though, it is different. He has repeatedly stated that he would leave office on May 29, 2023 at the expiration of his eight-year rule.
Last week in Borno, Buhari had stated again that he had 17 months left of his tenure, promising to bequeath a Nigeria, citizens would be proud of. He had two weeks ago stated abroad that he was returning to his farm immediately after leaving Aso Rock. There is no doubt therefore that 2022, being his last full year in office, is very crucial to the Buhari presidency.
When he was elected the president in 2015, Buhari had come in with so much hope from Nigerians. He had failed previously in 2003, 2007 and 2011 in his bid to win the presidency.
He pursued his case up to the Supreme Court at all times but lost differently to former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, the late Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan, whom he eventually defeated in 2015 to become president. In winning the election, Buhari had anchored his campaign on three main points.
He promised to stop insecurity, fight corruption and improve the economy. Nigerians were therefore optimistic that a better future was around the corner, especially considering the vaunted image of Buhari as a no-nonsense, frugal, Spartan and disciplined retired Army General.
The only fear his opponents nursed and voiced out openly was that Buhari, who was Head of State from December 1983 to August 1985, was a dictator, who could not transform into a democrat so fast.
But for sure, nobody doubted his credentials in the area of fighting corruption and dealing with insecurity. Many doubted his ability to fix the economy, knowing well that he was not a businessman Army General.
Six years down the line, the jury is still out on his performance in tackling corruption and security but that of the economy is as contentious as they come.
While the president’s followers and acolytes vow that he has done well on the economic front, the statistics and grim realities before Nigerians do not suggest that he has done well in that area. Yet, the anti-corruption fight and the insecurity issues are not resolved in his favour also.
Government spokesmen have repeatedly beaten their chests to boast that the president has decimated Boko Haram insurgents, which was the major problem before his election. But today, his home state, Katsina, is not spared in the wave of violence that is unleashed by bandits in the North West. Across the country, the security situation has remained scary at the least.
From the North to the South, no region is safe from violence and insecurity, even as the government commits more men and materials daily to arrest the drift. We can say boldly that his anti-corruption fight is left for Nigerians to judge.
We cannot say for sure that he has succeeded; neither can we say that he failed on that. One thing that is clear is that there is the fear now that anybody can be hurled into jail by the courts. We strongly believe that 2022 provides Buhari the last chance to leave the presidency in a blaze of glory.
Although some might argue that it is late in the day to make amends, we believe that the president can still salvage some of the things that have battered his image in the past six years. He promised to deal a deadly blow on insecurity around the country before leaving office; 2022 is the year Nigerians expect him to do so.
Otherwise, by January 2023, he will be busy with the coming elections and thereafter begin to prepare his handover notes to his successor. We firmly believe that the president should finish very strongly to be on the side of positive history. That, he would achieve within 2022, if he is to achieve it.
That is beyond the propaganda of his spokesmen, who believed that Nigeria would have collapsed without the Buhari presidency. We make bold to state that Nigerians see it differently.
For example, not many Nigerians can state emphatically that they are better off economically today than in 2015. While we believe that he may not fulfil that of the economy and the anti-corruption within the short time left, we think that his greatest legacy would be to restore sanity to Nigeria, security wise in 2022. Secondly, he must ensure that going into the election year, 2023, he laid a foundation for a free, fair and proper election of his successor.
Having suffered the fate of rigged elections against him, thrice, Buhari owes Nigeria a duty of presiding over a good election. It does not matter if his party loses the election. We believe that 2022 provides Buhari with the window to write his name in gold; 2023 will not give him the chance. He must end strongly and very well.
