We urge him to go out into the street and feel the pulse of the ordinary Nigerians who believe that nothing positive has come from ‘change’ this past one year. For them, if there is anything, it is one year of hardship, one year of regret
Nigeria, May 29, 2016 – It is exactly one year since Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.His emergence as President came as a relief to many who were fed-up with the old order. The expectations of Nigerians was heightened when he mounted the podium and said in his inaugural speech, “I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody”.
He also assuaged the fears of many, stressing that Nigerians will not regret that they have entrusted national responsibility to him and his party.
“We must not succumb to hopelessness and defeatism. We can fix our problems”, he assured.
He also alluded to the major problem facing the country, which is power supply, stressing that the development is nothing but a national shame for an economy of 180 million people to generate only 4,000MW, and distributes even less.
According to him, the nation has expended close to $20b since 1999 and that the result has been darkness, frustration, misery and resignation among Nigerians.
“We will not allow this to go on. Careful studies are under way during this transition to identify the quickest, safest and most cost-effective way to bring light and relief to Nigerians”, vowing to tackle corruption head long.
His statements were no doubt very reassuring and brought relief even to apostles of the old regime.
But one year on, how has Nigeria fared? We take a look at the economy, viz exchange rate, state of power supply, fuel supply and anticorruption initiative.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)says inflation is now 13.72 percent, which the Central Bank of Nigeria traced to energy crisis in the last one year and the free fall of the Naira to the US Dollar in the parallel market.
Sorry to say that the past one year has been fraught with series of fuel scarcity, worsened by recent hike in the price of petrol from N86.50 to N145 per litre, which has been described as nothing but an attempt to strangulate the already suffering Nigerian masses. Besides, power supply is in a sorry state with aggregate power generation allegedly falling to zero before bouncing back to a ridiculous 1000 megawatts.
While Nigerians are used to unsteady power supply, the only succor they seem to fall back on which is Premium Motor Spirits(PMS) soured beyond the reach of the common man with ripple effects on the cost of goods and services. What is more, the one year was characterized by free fall of the Naira against the US Dollars. The Naira is now N365 to 1 US Dollars in the parallel/black market.
Although the CBN has maintained that the exchange rates remains N197 to the Dollars, the reality is that the wide margin between the official rate and the black market has only created an avenue for officials of CBN to corruptly enrich themselves.
The reasons are not far-fetched. Manufactures now struggle sometimes without success to obtain foreign exchange for importation.
Some have attributed it to lack of focus on the part of government and lack of economic wisdom to tackle the problem confronting the nation. Those who have so argued point accusing fingers to experimental policies of the Buhari-led government in issues having to do with foreign exchange, taking one decision one week and reversing it a week later.
The consequence has been very bitter for the ordinary Nigerian and manufacturing concerns, with many laying-off workers to be able to cope with current reality. The banks are no exception. Compulsory retirement of workers has become the only strategy, employers are employing to survive the current economic hardship.
In the last count, about 22.45 million Nigerians are now unemployed, with 710, 693 job losses as at March 2016.
It is not just negative, the Buhari government however seems to have made some positive impacts in the fight against corruption with reports that government has been able to retrieve some money from individuals deemed to have corruptly enriched themselves.
So far, only one person has been convicted for corruption in the person of Director General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Temisan Raymond Omatseye, who was sentenced to five years imprisonment over N1.5 billion contract scam.
But then, there are some who have also condemned the anti-corruption fight of the President for being lopsided against the opposition and for what many described as lack of respect for the rule of law.
Those in the school of thought believe that while the president is probing the source of funding of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) campaign, he has kept silent about the source of funding of his party, the All Progressive Congress (APC) on whose platform he came to power.
As for security, it can be argued that while the President seems to have succeeded in reducing the onslaught of the Boko Haram in the North East, the where-about of over 200 Chibok girls remains unknown even as the menace of Fulani Herdsmen has surfaced, leaving so many families bereaved without concrete plans to end the menace. Infrastructural development remains comatose with progress only made on paper.
However, as the President steps out to celebrate one year today, we urge him to go out into the street and feel the pulse of the ordinary Nigerians who believe that nothing positive has come from ‘change’ this past one year. For them, if there is anything, it is one year of hardship, one year of regret for Nigerians. The only thing he did very well was the numerous foreign trips at the expense of the Nigerian tax payers.
