in another four days, it will be exactly one year since the winner of the 2015 presidential election, Muhammadu Buhari, of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was sworn into office. Buhari’s inauguration as President on May 29 last year came with a flourish of hope for better days ahead of the nation. He was elected on the wings of a vibrant campaign for change in the country, which resonated with beleaguered Nigerians who had become fed up with the rot in many aspects of our national life.
Rising general insecurity and the seemingly intractable Boko Haram insurgency were making life difficult for so many Nigerians. The medical sector was buffeted by strikes and dilapidated infrastructure and equipment, which made medical tourism a household word in country. Doctors and other workers in the public service in many states were owed several months of salary arrears and unemployment was raging against the souls of ordinary Nigerians. Electricity supply, which had always been a big problem in Nigeria, was well below what was required to build a strong economy. Buhari promised to fix all these problems.
But, as he turns one year in office next Sunday, the question on the lips of many Nigerians is whether Nigerians are faring better now than they did last year. Individuals are asking themselves: Am I much better off today than I was on May 29, 2015?
The answer to this question is being answered in the negative by a number of Nigerians. Looked at critically, there are many areas in which Nigerians expected significant changes. One of these areas is in the power sector, which has, instead, been on a decline. Not even the privatization of the power companies by the former regime has helped to improve power supply to the country and the great improvement that was expected in the sector has remained a mirage, even though the government has been trying to keep hope alive with its promise that Nigeria will soon be generating 7000 megawatts of electricity. The expected rehabilitation of our dilapidated roads such as the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway is yet to commence in earnest. The government’s plans on job creation have remained just that. The crash in the price of crude oil, which is Nigeria’s main revenue earner has not helped Nigeria at all as it has led to a shortage of forex, with attendant negative impact on production and the cost of goods. The price of petrol has skyrocketed, especially on account of the cancellation of the fuel subsidy regime, under which the Federal government committed billions of naira into bridging the landing cost of a litre of petrol and the price at which it was sold to consumers at the fuel stations. Nigerians are also paying more for electricity and food items.
Many things seem responsible for this state of affairs. For one, the long delay in the appointment of ministers, and in passing the 2016 Budget could not but delay the implementation of the government’s programmes. The government explained that it met an empty treasure and is broke. That is not quite unexpected in the light of the crash in oil prices, the corruption and profligacy of the nation’s past leaders and our failure, over the years, to diversify the economy to reduce the dependence on crude oil as main source of revenue.
The Buhari government has done so much to unearth the corruption that drained the national purse and brought us to where we are to today, but one year after its inauguration, the time has come for it to move on and begin to set a solid foundation for the nation’s economy. It should not wait any further in actualizing its campaign promise of paying N5000 stipend to the poorest Nigerians. As problematic as the implementation of this scheme is likely to be, the time has come to implement it in earnest. The power supply situation needs all the ingenuity that the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, can bring into it to meet the needs of Nigerians.  Inflation, which has gone below the single digit target in the national budget to about 13.7 per cent ought to be brought below 10 percent in view of the highly diminished purchasing power of ordinary Nigerians.
In spite of the growing difficulties in the country, however, the Buhari government deserves commendation for the implementation of Treasury Single Account (TSA), which has largely helped to keep public funds in the public treasury and not in the private bank accounts of the chief executives of the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of government.
Apart from the very public war on corruption, with the arrest of former officials of the then Goodluck Jonathan administration and the attempts to make them refund the huge public funds that they collected to prosecute the 2015 presidential campaign, one good message from the Buhari government is that it is no longer business as usual as far as corruption is concerned. The impression that has been created is that this government will not tolerate corruption and Nigerians can now hope that the impunity that characterized the mismanagement of public funds under the immediate past regime will reduce. This, in itself, is a great achievement, especially when it is considered that the looting of public funds is largely at the root of the underdevelopment of the country.
Again, the Buhari regime has recorded some progress in the battle against terrorism. The capacity of the terrorists to launch massive attacks in the North-east of the country appears to have significantly diminished. The ongoing onslaught on the Sambisa forest base of the terrorists has also underscored the seriousness of the government about the war against terrorism.It is largely responsible for the movement of some of the Boko Haram elements out of the forest, which led to the recovery of one of the Chibok girls identified as Amina Ali.
The government will do well not to relent on this campaign against terrorism. It should also do more to address the other security challenges such as kidnapping, armed robbery and herdsmen menace in the country. Now that Budget 2016 has been passed, work should commence immediately on its execution to ensure that it is implemented as passed. The rehabilitation of critical roads is one of the ways in which ordinary Nigerians measure the performance of their governments. The government should, therefore not be lax in ensuring that good work is done on all the roads and rails that it has earmarked for construction/ reconstruction in the budget. Projects in the education and health sectors should be properly executed while the government pays special attention to the economy, especially its diversification and the foreign exchange problems.
One year is already gone out of four that Nigerians gave Buhari to administer the country. He must do everything necessary to ensure that he delivers on all his promises in the remaining three years to meet his pre-election billing as the one who can solve the nation’s problems.
I have noticed that people are jittery whenever the agitation for self-determination is mentioned in some quarters. The other day when Fulani herdsmen attacked Nimbo in Eugu state, which attracted widespread condemnation, the Northern Elders and leaders were forced to contain their marauding kinsmen to refrain from their nefarious activities in Southern Nigeria as it may cause the breaking up of the country.
If Buhari can support Western Sahara to gain independence from Morocco, why is he jittery?
Surely, the North cannot survive without the South and they know it.
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