New Telegraph

Buhari: He Came, Saw, But…Unfulfilled promises of Buhari-led APC govt

There is no doubt that President Muhammadu Buhari was ushered into the Aso Rock Villa as the workplace and official residence of Nigeria’s president is known in a cloud of glory and optimism. The euphoria that greeted his administration on May 29, 2015 after 16 years unbroken rule by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was not unexpected. Many had blamed the nation’s woes on what they termed “PDP’s misrule” and it was expected that the Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) administration would turn things around. The then opposition party made a catalogue of promises during the campaigns and there was no doubt among the populace that Buhari, a former military leader, was unaware of the heavy burden he must shoulder to turn the tide given his tortuous road to presidency. His journey to the journey to the Villa began in 2003, when he took the first shot on the platform of the defunct All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP), but was defeated by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo of the PDP. He was back in 2007, also on the platform of the ANPP, but was again defeated by late Umaru Yar’Adua, also of the PDP. In 2010, he left the ANPP to form the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). It was on this platform that he contested the 2011 presidential election against Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, equally of the PDP, but lost for the third time. As fate would have it, Buhari defeated Jonathan in the 2015 polls, thereby making history as the first to defeat an incumbent president in Nigeria’s political history. He also became Nigeria’s second former military ruler after Obasanjo to return to the presidency through the ballot. Raising the hope of most Nigerians, Buhari defined the problems that the nation faced in his first inaugural address on May 29, 2015. First, Nigeria was at war with insurgents ravaging the north eastern part of the country. Second, the economy was badly weakened and businesses shuttered, and thirdly, corruption was fast becoming a way of live. But Buhari promised that he and his party would confront these challenges head on. However, as the President leaves office after serving two terms (2015-2019 and 2019-2023) alongside his vice, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, many say he is leaving the nation in a cloud of disappointment. The belief is that none of the “wars” he inherited – particularly the wars against insurgency and corruption are truly over. While the dissatisfaction and discontent in the polity that compelled most Nigerians to seek for a new beginning in 2015 was not really addressed, insecurity and poverty ravaged Nigeria under Buhari’s watch and the sense of Nigeria’s decline became more palpable than before.

Catalogue of promises

Buhari made several promises in 2015, which he said will bring positive changes to the lives of Nigerians within two years. The promises as contained in his blueprint revolved around three key issues – fight against corruption, insecurity and job creation. Part of his strategies to tackle these issues, particular corruption, which in his words “will kill Nigeria if Nigeria fails to kill it,” was to draw a line to ensure that the cankerworm, which has remained the bane of Nigeria’s development, was dealt with. His words then: “Corruption has assumed such a high proportion. It stands for our culture in Nigeria. I have gone through so much to know this. If we say we are going to look back, we will never move forward. We will try and draw a line. Whoever has misappropriated public resources knows. He should also know how to cough them out because a line will be drawn from May 30 (2015). Henceforth, whoever is trusted with public office and betrays the trust would be dealt with.” On the economy, he said: “We have lined up programmes on how to tackle unemployment. We are going to assemble a team of professionals for wealth creation and employment for our teeming youths. We will also put a mechanism in place to improve on the economy. Our main objective is to make sure that agriculture and other non- oil sectors get priority to create opportunities for Nigerians, so that whether educated or not, they have gainful employment.” He also assured on security, saying: “Whatever we are going to do, we have to secure Nigeria first. What we are witnessing in the North-East, where people are being killed is not acceptable. We know that the Nigerian military is capable of bringing peace and stability to this country. They need to be given the leadership and that is what I promise, if elected.”

Security situation 8yrs after

Evidently, the Buhari administration made progress in the war against terror in the North-East. As the government put it at a time: “Boko Haram remains decimated despite pockets of attacks.” While this this claim cannot be disputed because the Federal Government succeeded in galvanizing Nigeria’s immediate neighbours and the global community, including major powers against the insurgents. The success recorded in the insurgency war spurred the international community to partner with the Federal Government in rebuilding the devastated geopolitical zone. The World Bank at a time announced that it earmarked $800 million to support the rebuilding of infrastructure destroyed in the North-East by Boko Haram. While kudos should go to the Buhari government for restoring peace to the troubled zone and embarking its reconstruction, banditry and kidnapping in the North-West, farmers/herders clash in the North Central, oil theft in the South- South and agitation for self-determination in the South-East and South-West at a time, whittled the gains of the war against insurgency. These existential threats portrayed Nigeria as a nation at war with itself. And besides claiming thousands of lives and property worth billions of naira destroyed, the security challenges turned millions of Nigerians to refugees in their own country. Across most northern states and even neigbouring Chad, Niger Republic and Cameroon, are camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), while economic activities in affected states have been brought to a halt, The scary security situation at a time prompted some individuals to call on Nigerians to bear arms and defend themselves as the Federal Government has failed to perform its core function of protection of lives and property. Some stakeholders, who warned against the dangers of such measure, recalled how several non-state actors emerged across the country in the name of protecting their respective zones from attacks but later transformed to self-determination agitators. Poverty challenge Besides insecurity, Nigeria is also being ravaged by poverty. Under Buhari, the country is said to have more poor people than any other country. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the number of Nigerians living in poverty stands at over 133 million. The figure represents 63 per cent of the nation’s population of about 200 million. The NBS, which disclosed this in its “Nigeria Multidimensional Poverty Index’’ released in November 2022, said over half of the population, who are poor cook with dung, wood or charcoal, rather than cleaner energy. The survey was a collaborative effort between the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the National Social Safety-Nets Coordinating Office (NASSCO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI). It sampled over 56,000 households across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory between

Corruption persists

Perhaps, the last time Nigerians witnessed a major probe of an administration by a succeeding one was in 1984, after the fall of the Second Republic. Interestingly, it was a Buhari- led military regime that arrested and put to trial, key actors in that dispensation. Some of those tried bagged jail terms running into hundreds of years. It is against this backdrop that many did not express surprise when three decades after, Buhari probed the Jonathan administration, which he succeeded. In what seemed a break from the past, where a president comes to power and overlooks the actions and inactions of his predecessor, Buhari insisted on probing his predecessor “to ensure a proper take- off of his government.” He gave a hint of the probe, when he told Nigerians in Diaspora during a visit to the United States shortly after his inauguration that his administration had begun receiving documents to prosecute Jonathan’s ministers and other government officials who stole “mind- boggling” oil funds. He also appealed to the then United States President, President Barack Obama, to help Nigeria recover and repatriate about $150 billion allegedly stolen by past government officials. The Buhari administration marched its promise with action, when the National Economic Council (NEC) chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo set up a four-member committee to scrutinize the accounts of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Excess Crude Account (ECA) under the Jonathan administration. The probe was meant to unravel an alleged N3.8 trillion that was not remitted to the Federation Account by the NNPC between 2012 and May 2015 as well as $2.1bn said to have been deducted from the ECA without approval. What manifested was shocking, especially over how $2.1 billion meant for the purchase of arms to fight the Boko Haram insurgency was misappropriated by the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki. Consequently, some officials of the PDP administration as well as former military top brass were quizzed to render account of their stewardship. Jonathan’s wife and some ministers, who served in his administration, were not left out. Sadly, allegations of corruption equally rocked the Buhari administration. The most alarming was an alleged N109 billion fraud against Ahmed Idris, who was served as Accountant General of the Federation between 2015 and 2022. While a lot of convictions were recorded under Buhari’s anti-graft war, issues were raised over its politicisation by the opposition political parties. Also, the suspension of Ibrahim Magu, a former acting head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on corruption charges further cast doubt on the anti-corruption battle. These, perhaps, explains why Nigeria ranked 150 out of 180 countries in the 2022 Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI).

Tardy beginning

It is indisputable that Buhari’s quest for the presidency after three unsuccessful attempts was fired by the zeal to bring about positive changes in the lives of Nigerians, but some say the way his administration took off didn’t show that he was prepared for the job. For example, it took the President 166 days, before he constituted his cabinet of 36 ministers during his first term in office. While the ministers were named in two batches between September and October 2015, they were sworn in and assigned portfolios on November 11 – six months after the President’s inauguration. The delay in the appointment of ministers made Buhari, Nigeria’s only president to take such an extensive period to constitute a cabinet since 1999. His predecessors – Obasanjo, Yar’adua and Jonathan spent less time in doing that. Obasanjo was sworn in as president in May 1999 and he chose almost all members of his cabinet the following month. In his second term as President in 2003, the cabinet was announced two months after his inauguration. For Yar’adua, who was sworn in as president in May 2007, he announced his cabinet in July, just two months after his inauguration, while Jonathan, who succeeded him, followed the footsteps of his predecessors by announcing his cabinet in July after winning the 2011 election. Expectedly, Buhari received knocks for the delayed take-off of his government but he linked it to Jonathan and the PDP’s unpreparedness for the outcome of the 2015 presidential election, saying they didn’t put in place structures that will make the transition seamless. He maintained that had a system been in place, real-time information would have been available to assist him to quickly settle down, form cabinet and go about the business of governance. He also insisted that the inadequacy of the handover notes from the immediate past administration contributed in no small measure to the delay in constituting his cabinet, stressing that he needed to have a clear idea of what his administration was inheriting. The president also added that it took him much longer than expected before making ministerial appointments as he did background checks to ensure his first cabinet would reflect his central message of “change” and integrity. However, not every appointment was a new face or completely without blemish. A majority of those who made the cabinet were known names, especially former governors with little space for technocrats.

Skewed appointments

There is also no denying the fact that most of Buhari’s appointments were skewed in favour of the North against South. This further eroded the goodwill earned by his party from across the country upon coming to power. Out of the 30 major appointments he made in his first term, 23 were from the North, while seven were from the South and it was not different during his second term. Ordinarily, where the appointees comes from would not have been an issue, but because the various ethnic nationalities that make up Nigeria view each other with suspicion, critics of the president reasoned that his mode of appointments, not only negates the Federal Character Principle but runs contrary of his oath office to serve as president to all Nigerians. Others went to the extreme by accusing him of promoting a Northern agenda aimed at Islamising Nigeria even when he promised to run an all-inclusive government during his inauguration. The president said then: “I intend to keep my oath and serve as President to all Nigerians. I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody.” However, members of another political school who said then that they were not surprised with Buhari’s mode of appointments made reference to a statement credited to him during a question and answer session with journalists in the United States on July 22, 2015. He was quoted to have said: “Going by election results, constituencies that gave me 95 per cent cannot in all honesty be treated, on some issues, with constituencies that gave me five per cent. I think these are political realities. While, certainly there will be justice for everybody but the people who voted, and made their votes count, they must feel the government has appreciated the effort they put in putting the government in place.”

Not all gloom

Despite the myriads of challenges Nigerians faced under the Buhari administration, there is no doubt that his government made some appreciable progress in the area of infrastructural development. Critical infrastructure, particularly roads, was accorded utmost priority. In 2015, such critical infrastructure as the Second Niger Bridge, Lagos-Ibadan expressway, Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano expressway were either totally non- existent or in deteriorated state but the Buhari administration demonstrated the needed political will to break the jinx on these historically most difficult projects. The railway system also received a boost. The 156 kilometre Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge Rail was completed; the 186 kilometre Abuja-Kaduna Standard Gauge Rail Line was also completed likewise the 327 kilometre Itakpe- Warri Standard Gauge Rail Line was completed and commissioned, 33 years after construction began by other governments. Also, the Abuja light rail was completed in 2018, while work has commenced on the Kaduna-Kano Standard Gauge Rail Line and Port Harcourt-Maiduguri Narrow Gauge Rail. Aside from other completed projects, there have been many productive capacity development programmes in the sector. The nation’s airports and seaports also recorded some highs under the Buhari administration. Some of the most remarkable ones include the completion of new terminals for international airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt. Also completed are new runways for the Abuja and Enugu International Airports. The Lekki Deep Seaport, the first new seaport in Nigeria in decades, has been completed and commissioned. In the area of agriculture, the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) of the Central Bank, launched by President Buhari in 2015, was able to disburse hundreds of billions of naira to more than four million smallholder farmers of 23 different commodities. The government has also created numerous initiatives to boost the sector, such as Presidential Fertiliser Initiative, Special Agro Industrial Processing Zones, Agriculture for Food and Jobs Programme, National Livestock Transformation Programme and The Green Imperative, among others. Most significantly, under the Buhari, Nigeria against all odds, remained a united entity despite several existential threats.

President rates self

Despite claims of poor performance by his critics, President Buhari, in what could be described as self-assessment, is of the view that he will be remembered positively for his achievements while in office. “I have done my best and I hope history will be kind to me,” he said January during a working visit to his home state, Katsina. The President had before then said he will not miss the Aso Rock Villa much due to constant harassment from some Nigerians, who have belittled his efforts to make the country better. Buhari, who spoke in Washington, United States, late last year at the Abu Dhabi Forum, said: “We are big in size and population, facing many challenges, but in many areas, we are trying. In seven-and-a- half years, I have done my best.”

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