President Muhammadu Buhari appears seriously concerned about the legacies he will leave behind for his successor and for Nigeria. Last week, he said he would bequeath a diversified, home-grown economy, stable democracy and revamped security forces to Nigeria in May 2023. According to him, he will spend his final year in office consolidating on the achievements of the past seven years and leaving a legacy for a united, peaceful and prosperous Nigeria.
The President had met with service chiefs in Abuja last year and vowed not to exit government as a failure. When he visited Imo State last year, too, he said he would want to be remembered as the President who stabilized the country with regard to security, economic prosperity and triumph over corruption. On assumption of office in 2015, he made a similar pledge to tackle corruption, fight insecurity and fix our economy. Has the President fulfilled any of these promises?
The verdict of history is there for all to see. Let’s start with his home-grown economy. When you visit any Nigerian market today, you will be shocked at the level of inflation in the country. A bottle of groundnut that used to sell for N500 is now between N800 and N1,000 or more. Is it bag of rice? We were told to patronize local rice. Foreign ones were actually banned. But from about N10,000, which a bag of 50kg rice sold before Buhari took over in 2015, the price now hovers between N28,000 and N30,000. When you ask the traders, all you hear are lamentations about how the prices skyrocket almost every day. Is this the home-grown economy our President wants to bequeath to us?
The World Bank, in its latest edition of ‘Nigeria Development Update Report, 2021,’ noted that “double-digit inflation rates are depressing economic activity and exacerbating poverty. Rising food prices are eroding household purchasing power, and we estimate that during 2020 and 2021, the ‘inflation shock’ alone pushed about eight million more Nigerians below the poverty line.” The bank said the Federal Government did not take any concerted action towards curbing inflation in 2021 and that Nigeria might have one of the highest inflation rates globally in 2022.
Beyond inflation, unemployment and poverty have dealt a terrible blow to many Nigerians. The statistics are not salutary. Last year, the National Bureau of Statistics estimated that the unemployment rate in Nigeria was 33.3 per cent, which translates into 23.2 million people. This is said to be the second highest rate in the world.
Besides, it is common knowledge that we have retained the gold medal for the poverty capital of the world for some years now. As at 2018 when we won that medal in poverty, about 87 million Nigerians were living in extreme poverty. This year, it has been estimated that the number of extremely poor people will reach 100 million.
This is why there is a high rate of insecurity in the country. Before now, we contended majorly with Boko Haram. Today, bandits and sundry terrorists have joined the fray. They kill Nigerians with recklessness and drive millions of others into self-exile in internally displaced persons camps. Thousands of travellers and schoolchildren have been abducted and sometimes killed in recent times. Ironically, Buhari has promised to bequeath revamped security forces to the nation.
How is this possible with the current trend of events? What magic will he deploy to revamp our security in about one year remaining for him? Why didn’t he use this magic throughout the seven years he has been in power?
Katsina State governor, Aminu Bello Masari, understands the danger we have found ourselves in when he asked his people to take up arms and defend themselves against bandits. Our national security system, in the estimation of Arewa Consultative Forum, is running on reverse gear.
For over six consecutive years now, the Global Terrorism Index has ranked Nigeria the third most terrorized nation in the world.
Even Buhari himself knows that the engine of our security system has knocked. In his address to mark last year’s Democracy Day on June 12, he admitted that he had failed security-wise. He said then that the past two years had seen challenges that would have destroyed other nations, especially relating to our collective security.
As for corruption, the 2021 Corruption Perception Index released recently by Transparency International, says it all. In the index, Nigeria came 154 out of 180 countries.
Thus, it dropped five places from its position in the previous year when it ranked 149 out of 180 countries. This makes it the second most corrupt country in West Africa. At 150, Guinea occupies the first position. In 2019, Nigeria scored 26 out of 100 points.
In 2020, it scored 25 points. In 2021, it scored 24 points. This is a clear indication that corruption has progressively worsened in Nigeria despite claims to the contrary by officials of the government.
Our President also talked about stable democracy. I laugh. Has our democracy not been stable since 1999? Did he not inherit a stable democracy in 2015? Did former President Goodluck Jonathan not conduct a more credible election than what we are seeing today? For the first time in Nigeria’s modern history, an incumbent President (Jonathan) admitted losing in an election and bowed out honourably. Would Buhari have done that?
The President should stop behaving like the proverbial lizard that fell from a tree, nodded his head and said since nobody was praising him, he would praise himself. Nigerians are the ones to give their verdict after his tenure. And it is left for them to either praise or condemn him.
In a recent survey, the African Polling Institute (API) reported that only one in 10 Nigerians (eight per cent) were happy with the state of affairs under Buhari.
According to the report, about 78 per cent said they were either sad or extremely sad about the current state of affairs in Nigeria. One major reason the respondents gave for their unhappiness is the heightened insecurity in the country. For 34 per cent of Nigerians, the inability to meet basic needs is the challenge, while 20 per cent sees unemployment as their biggest challenge.
As the Financial Times of London recently put it, “Buhari has overseen two terms of economic slump, rising debt and a calamitous increase in kidnapping and banditry – the one thing you might have thought a former general could control…Campaigning has already begun for presidential elections that in February 2023 will draw the curtain on eight years of the administration of Muhammadu Buhari, on whose somnolent watch Nigeria has sleepwalked closer to disaster.”
It is good that the President is worried about the legacies he will leave behind. Nigerians may forgive his past woeful performances, if he begins now to make amends, to instill good governance anchored on justice, equity and fairness. There should be credible efforts to match his words with action.
The major litmus test will be the 2023 elections. If he rises above partisan politics to bequeath free, fair and credible election to Nigerians, people may not reckon much with his failures anymore. He should begin now to etch his name in gold before it becomes too late.
Re: Tears for Hanifa
Casmir, what could be more heinous than what Tanko did to Hanifa? This is bestiality at the worst level. The gentle soul of Hanifa will continue to protest until the full weight of the law comes to bear on Tanko and his conspirators. This case is a peculiar one and must be used as a case study. Investigations of his background, when and why he set up the school should be found out. Is he financially indebted to banks and under great pressure of debt payback? This is a pure case of vendetta against the system/society. He must not be hurriedly ‘killed’ by the law until all useful information has been extracted. He is obviously suffering from financially induced psychosis catalysed by depression laden sadism. The north will ‘stop bleeding’ when they start comparing their lives pre and post Sharia era to discover when, where and how they ‘missed it’.
-Mike, Mushin, Lagos, +2348161114572
Dear Casmir, Hanifa Abubaka’s case is a revelation that kidnappers have begun to open private schools. This is the peak of insecurity in Nigeria. I suggest that the revalidation of proprietors should be a national exercise. Every Divisional Police Officer (DPO) should open security platform on WhatsApp with parents. God save us.
– Cletus Frenchman, Enugu +2349095385215
Dear Casy, the brutal murder of Hanifa Abubakar has opened the floodgate of evil that Nigeria is now known for across the world. All segments of our national life are destroyed and bastardized. Let’s remind some parents that some private schools in the country today have become epicenter of evil and corruption.
I am not demonizing the private school owners; after all, the upsurge in private school was part of govt and societal failures. Woe unto the teacher that the child was entrusted to his care. Hanifa my little saint, sleep in the bosom of the lord.
-Eze Chima C., Lagos, +2347036225495
Casmir, the gruesome murder of Hanifa is regrettable and goes a long way to show the height of frustrations of Nigerians to hopeless governance.
The rate of insecurity which manifest in form of terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, drug abuse, human trafficking, suicide, ritual killing, occultism, rape and so many other societal vices are good indicators of failed governance. So many Nigerians have found themselves in depressed situation that their actions negate the acceptable norms of an ideal society. This failure in governance has destroyed the beauty of our society.
No amount of punishment will reduce the crime wave in our society unless the toxicity in governance is removed.
-Pharm. Okwuchukwu Njike, +234 803 885 4922
Dear Casy, every day is for the thief, one day is for the owner. Every day has been for Abdulmalik Tanko in his heinous crime biz but Hanifa’s day was for God almighty as the owner who used that day to expose Abdulmalik for what he is, a serial killer and ritualist.
Hanifa’s gruesome murder has demonstrated man’s inhumanity to man in Nigeria, which had an up-swing in the last eight years, beginning from Boko Haram that took the centre-stage and gave birth to the under-listed kids, to wit: 1. Fulani brand of murderous herders; 2. Terrorists; 3. Insurgents; 4. Bandits; 5. Kidnappers. The needed counteraction from FG has been more of rhetoric and sophistry. Advice: Better modern weaponry, better remuneration with better insurance policy for our security agents as motivation package only if the Ogas will allow it to trickle down to the rank and file.
-Steve Okoye, Awka, 08036630731
Dear Cas, in a nation where moral is at the lowest ebb, where the urge to get rich is the order of the day, kidnapping and crimes would thrive. We shall continue to dwell in state of anarchy. May God help us!
-Chinedu Adumekwe, Urualla, Imo State, +2348117419520