New Telegraph

Nigerians speak on what Buhari’ll be remembered for Unfulfilled promises of Buhari-led APC govt

Chekwas Okorie: Buhari did well in terms of critical infrastructure

Chief Okorie is a chieftain of Igbo apex body, Ohanaeze Ndigbo My candid assessment of eight years of Buhari’s administration is that he did well if one is to be charitable considering the challenges that his administration faced, which probably he didn’t anticipate, when he was came onboard and made certain promises. Those challenges have been frequently emphasized and they include massive drop in price of oil and Covid-19, among others. Of course, these are global economic downturn that affected most countries. But as someone from the South- East of Nigeria, I will say that the Buhari administration has done what no other government did for the people of the geopolitical zone no matter what anybody will say. If you are looking at his administration in terms of appointments to key offices, you may say that the South-East fared badly. I have no major attachment to appointments; I have more attachment to critical infrastructure and governments’ intervention in terms of development and this is where Buhari towers over all those who have ruled Nigeria since the civil war ended in 1970. Neither the military nor the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government that ruled for 16 years can point to any project that was started and completed by any of their governments in the South- East. Yes, they started some projects, but they were meant to humour us. Their abandonment of the coastal seaports forced Igbo people, who are known for commerce to migrate to Lagos and other African countries. We are so scattered now that the number of Ndigbo at home is so small that it is being used against us in terms of our impact in elections. The issue of Second Niger Bridge has been there since the Shehu Shagari era but we are now looking at its commissioning under Buhari. People even used it last December. Nobody would have thought that given our economic situation and the way Buhari is perceived as anti-Igbo, he would follow-up on that project with such zeal. Also, we are now looking at Onne Port receiving large vessels to deliver containers. We are equally at Onitsha Port receiving batches from other seaports, so that our people don’t have to clear their goods in Lagos and transport them by road to Onitsha and Aba. The issue of railway is something he held dear to. So, if I am looking at Buhari’s government from the perspective of an Igbo man, I will tell you that we have benefited from his administration more than any other government, and I have been around long enough to assess successive administrations and the deliberate damages they did to us. On electoral reforms, Buhari said there was going to be improved technology in the electoral process and he walked his talk by signing all the relevant laws and provided the needed funds. If the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) failed on the field, no one should blame the President for that.

Garba Shehu: He’ll be better ap- preciated when we look beyond the shores of Nigeria

Shehu is the Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to the President President Buhari inherited a country in 2015 that was split into two; terrorists in the North-East have carved out a separate entity called The Caliphate with their headquarters in Gwoza. A state created out of Nigeria, and they hoisted their flags with their own system of laws: system of administration, systemic taxation. That entity was as big as the present day Belgium in Europe. As it is today, that entity is no longer recognised in the Nigerian map. It has been abolished. The terrorists no longer control any inch of Nigerian territory. Boko Haram is no longer a sustainable threat. It is an occasional threat but even that one is being curtailed. The preoccupation of the government now is to abolish Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps and return all of the people to their native homeland to actively pursue their own livelihoods. If you listen to the governor of Borno State, Prof. Babagana Zulum, today, agriculture has returned to the state. The people are working on their lands which is good for them and good for the country because the IDPs are only being fed and not productive. On the overall, government is engaged in reconstruction of damaged infrastructure, schools, markets, hospitals, churches, mosques, roads, everything. There is a special commission, the North East Development Commission (NEDC) and there is also a Presidential Committee for the return of displaced persons headed by the Vice President. This didn’t just happen by accident. The President has done more than any other leader of this country has done in the reform of the Armed Forces of the country and in the provision of hardware. When we came in, the Nigeria Air force didn’t have five aircraft that were flying. Today, we are talking of about 50 or more, drones, other equipment and Hi-Tech systems of warfare being acquired and deployed and military people are being trained. The economy of Nigeria would be better appreciated when we look beyond the shores of Nigeria Shehu is the Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to the President President Buhari inherited a country in 2015 that was split into two; terrorists in the North-East have carved out a separate entity called The Caliphate with their headquarters in Gwoza. A state created out of Nigeria, and they hoisted their flags with their own system of laws: system of administration, systemic taxation. That entity was as big as the present day Belgium in Europe. As it is today, that entity is no longer recognised in the Nigerian map. It has been abolished. The terrorists no longer control any inch of Nigerian territory. Boko Haram is no longer a sustainable threat. It is an occasional threat but even that one is being curtailed. The preoccupation of the government now is to abolish Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps and return all of the people to their native homeland to actively pursue their own livelihoods. If you listen to the governor of Borno State, Prof. Babagana Zulum, today, agriculture has returned to the state. The people are working on their lands which is good for them and good for the country because the IDPs are only being fed and not productive. On the overall, government is engaged in reconstruction of damaged infrastructure, schools, markets, hospitals, churches, mosques, roads, everything. There is a special commission, the North East Development Commission (NEDC) and there is also a Presidential Committee for the return of displaced persons headed by the Vice President. This didn’t just happen by accident. The President has done more than any other leader of this country has done in the reform of the Armed Forces of the country and in the provision of hardware. When we came in, the Nigeria Air force didn’t have five aircraft that were flying. Today, we are talking of about 50 or more, drones, other equipment and Hi-Tech systems of warfare being acquired and deployed and military people are being trained. The economy of Nigeria would be better appreciated when we look beyond the shores of our country and understand what is going on. Globally, national economies have suffered so much distress in the last few years. From the lockdown that followed the Coronavirus crisis, the shutdown of national borders and the supply chain crises, all the nation’s in the world went into recession and suffered great loss in terms of estimated expected growth. It’s on record that Nigeria was the second country to come out of COVID induced recession all over the world. Under President Buhari, oil prices have fallen to as low as $28 per barrel and we inherited an economy that was recession bound. It eventually happened after a few months he came into the office. Of course, the fall of oil prices also contributed to that. Today, Nigeria is no longer an economy based on crude oil alone. The economy is today diversified. Look at money coming into the country from sources other than oil. Today digital economy contributes over 18 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country and it is still growing.

Modestus Umenzekwe: Nigerians’ll miss him

Umenzekwe is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and member, Federal Housing Authority (FHA). There is no way Nigerians are not going to miss President Buhari. We are going to miss his calmness, his ability to hold Nigeria as one these turbulent years, the Covid-19 pandemic, the #EndSARS imbroglio, the global economic downturn. Remember that he exited Nigeria from recession twice, which is not easy. Criticism is cheap, but when you get there, you will discover that governance is not a tea party. Yes, Nigerians will surely miss President Buhari, however the succour lies in the fact that it is the same APC that will still be at the helm of the affairs of the country.

Martin Onovo: Buhari’s govt is a cata- strophic failure

Onovo is the 2015 presidential candidate of the National Conscience Party (NCP) I agreed with Dr. Femi Aribisala in 2016, when he concluded that the Buhari regime is the worst in the history of Nigeria. The regime has left Nigeria much worse than it met it. Insecurity is much worse. The economy is completely ruined. National unity and cohesion is being subverted. The rule of law is disregarded. Education has been severely constrained and the level of corruption is unprecedented. The Buhari regime is a catastrophic failure.

Mashood Erubami: He delivered in major areas of his project models

Erubami is the President and Convener of Coalition for Democracy In Nigeria (CODIN) Honestly, President Buhari tried his best and delivered in areas of development except that his achievements are not well publicised. Only the negatives were publicly presented by his enemies. Look at how many news publications, radios and cable televisions have been against the government, presenting what they considered the bad, the worse and the worst of the government without official cautionary measures. Notwithstanding, he delivered in major areas of his project models – security, social assistance, infrastructural facilities and anti-corruption battle. Before him, no government has carried anti-corruption war to the armed forces and the judiciary, succeeding in other known areas of impunities in politics and civil services. President Buhari will be living good legacies of the railways, a national carrier will be joining soon and of course the Second Niger Bridge will soon be finally opened. Pitiably, the initial attacks on his health and the dwindling of revenues from oil against expectation slowed down his achievements in other areas of economic recovery. He was nonetheless never a total failure in this area.

Femi Aborisade: Poor Nigerians’ll remember Buhari for unprecedented poverty, insecurity

Aborisade, a lawyer and human rights activist, is the founding National Secretary of National Conscience Party (NCP) President Buhari may go down in history as the worst President Nigeria has been unfortunate to have. Ordinary Nigerians would not forget the life annihilating policies of the twin crises of currency scarcity and fuel scarcity with unprecedented hike in fuel price. These two crises constituted unbearable existential challenges. Lives were lost on account of inability of poor people to access money kept in banks. In the past, courts would grant prayers of any litigant who complained of banks dishonoring cheques where the issuer had money in the banks. But under PMB, the poor who had money in the banks could not access their funds. But politicians had easy access to their funds. So, poor Nigerians will remember Buhari and APC for unprecedented poverty, unprecedented insecurity, unprecedented pains and pangs.

Shehu Sani: Buhari failed to secure

Nigeria Sani, a former senator, is a human rights activist About twenty Billion dollars was budgeted for Defence in the eight years of this administration and over sixty- three thousand people were killed in the same period going by the financial figures from Macrotrends and casualty figures from Council on Foreign relations. The Buhari regime wasted more money and failed to secure the lives of Nigerians. November 2021 and February 2022, and it provided multidimensional poverty estimates at the senatorial district level. The report showed that high deprivations are also apparent in sanitation, time to healthcare, food insecurity, and housing. It also noted that multidimensional poverty is higher in rural areas, where 72 per cent of people are poor, compared to 42 per cent of people in urban areas. Approximately, the bureau said, 70 per cent of Nigeria’s population live in rural areas, yet these areas are home to 80 per cent of poor people.The report, the first poverty index survey published by the statistics bureau since 2010, added that 65 per cent of the poor (86 million people) live in the North, while 35 per cent (nearly 47 million) live in the South.

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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