When we started these series last week and asked you if you were better off with President Buhari’s performance of one year in office, we did not mean that the All Progressives Congress (APC) government he leads, is responsible for any or all of the problems confronting Nigerians today. Rather, we meant and still insists that as elected President, he (Buhari) was chosen over all other presidential candidates, including his predecessor in office, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, because majority of voters believed he should fix the problems he inherited. And, if there were wounds (as indeed) there were festering wounds in the land, the buck stops on Buhari’s desk. He must heal the wounds. It is his job to solve the problems.
That’s why he’s Commander-in-Chief. A Commander-in-Chief doesn’t run away from the battle. He does not trade blames. He accepts the tasks, no matter how daunting they are. May be, the anger in the land today, two days after the President’s one year in office, could have resulted from the people’s over confidence in the ability and integrity of the President to fix these problems.
But, it must be noted that nobody expects the President to solve all the problems facing Nigeria in one year. Here is the real issue: political historians will tell you that there is a seasonal cycle to every presidency. The first year, the President is expected to lay out his programmes. These programmes are in simple terms, a package of his promises during the campaigns. And, indeed, the APC promised a mouthful. In one year, he is judged on how far he has been able to fulfill those promises. Put in other words, if the President and his party have not fulfilled some of those promises, what are the chances that he will fulfill those promises, in the coming years.
The consensus of Nigerians is that the President has performed below average in one year. The one year of every president is crucial because failure to lay out his programmes, he may be stuck in one place because during the second and third year, every president is supposed to mend his fences politically. How successful he does this will determine his chances of running for re-election.
As we said last week, nowhere has this administration compiled a more dismal record than in its handling of the economy. Its performance in this sector, bad at the start, has grown progressively worse. Admitted, Buhari inherited an economy in bad shape, and perhaps on “empty treasury, he has done little to stop the economy from drifting further aground. He wasted too much time in other issues, while neglecting the engine that holds everything else together.
What will democracy be in the absence of a sound, vibrant economy? What will a country be in the face of rising unemployment, depreciation of the currency, stagflation, poor external reserve and high national debt, among other economic woes?
States are today living on bailouts, a clear and present danger that the country is broke. Only last week, the Finance Minister, Mrs Kemi Adeosun revealed that Cash-strapped states have agreed to adopt a 22-point fiscal governance reforms action plan in their domains as a way out of their present huge financial liquidity challenges. We don’t know how true this statement is.
Last month,  as a result of the inability of the states to service their bailout intervention credit, the Federal Government reportedly had to reschedule the servicing of the debt advanced to them in the wake of the labour crisis across the country that is now over. These are some of the disturbing figures, the rate of unemployment has risen to 12.1 percent in the first quarter (Q1) of 2016, according to the National Bureau of Statistics Unemployment Watch released recently. This is a time bomb if government continues to treat the jobless rate with kid gloves.
Also, inflation has hit rooftops, rising to all-time high of 13.7 percent. This is more than the 9 percent ceiling recommended by the Central Bank. Even last week’s two-day Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of the Central Bank of Nigeria, seems short on providing telling solutions to the macro-economic problems, apart from announcing a flexible foreign exchange (FX) policy that attempts to achieve a parity in the interbank and parallel market for the value of the naira.
Though this is seen as a major policy shift to narrow the present disparity in the two market windows, and prevent some privileged few who hitherto get forex allocation at the official window but trade at the parallel market for huge profit margin, government’s mix of wrong activities and outright inactivity, experts say, is threatening to collapse the economy.
The grim truth is that government’s policies on inflation and forex appear to have collapsed, because the fiscal side of economic management has not been forthcoming, one year into this administration. That’s why recession is already here with us due to two consecutive negative quarters we have recorded under this administration, even though the danger signals started under the Jonathan presidency.
This negative growth, as NBS figures pointedly show, represents a drop of 2.47 percentage points in output from the 2.11 percent recorded in the last quarter of 2015, and 4.32 percent point lower than the 3.96 percent recorded in the corresponding period of 2015. For the first in many years,  Nigeria has recorded its lowest economic growth, 0.36 percent in the first Quarter of 2016. After one year in office, many people are asking: Is Buhari really prepared for the problems that face Nigeria? Is there any  hopes that the ‘change’ APC promised have not collided with a more visceral problem? For me, it’s germane to ask: Why is Buhari always appearing on the political scene at more difficult times? Is it in his stars or a combination of seen and unseen factors knocking themselves together to ensure he does not have a smooth ride? Go back to 32 years ago when he first came on the scene as military Head of State, and you will understand my drift.
Everywhere you look, hope is fading in Nigeria.  It confirms a recent World Bank “Ease of Doing Business Report” which shows that Nigeria is kissing the bottom rung as one of the “20 worst countries in the world for doing business”.  All of these are warning signals that tougher times are ahead unless Buhari and his team come up with a creative way to solve  the many problems that face Nigeria and its citizens. The time of demagoguery should be over. This is the time to face reality.
In clear terms, this is the time to find genuine answers to the questions that Nigerians are asking. The President should be reminded that trust is what drives politics and makes the followership to believe in their leaders. One year over, this should serve as a moment of truth for President Buhari.

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To be concluded next week