As the razzmatazz of the re-election and swearing-in of President Muhammadu Buhari for a second term of another four years in office ebbs away and the reality of the daunting task ahead dawns on all Nigerians, citizens are, naturally, gripped by an admixture of anxiety, apprehension and fear for their own future and that of the country in general.
On May 29, 2019, Nigerians across the 36 states and Abuja sat glued to their TV sets to witness yet another peaceful transition from one political dispensation to another.
However perfunctory this quadrennial event may appear, the swearing-in of a president which, to some, looks more of a hollow ritual in view of the gargantuan responsibilities before the occupier of that office, also calls for deep introspection, more so that President Buhari is not new on the block.
For giddy four years, the President has been in the saddle, ruling over Nigeria, a country beset with so many problems and yet holding great prospects. Upon his victory at the 2015 presidential elections, in which the then incumbent, President Goodluck Jonathan, was defeated, Buhari’s catch-phrase was ‘war on corruption’. And, indeed, his administration relentlessly pursued the crusade of getting at corrupt politicians and other light-fingered public office holders, during which it recovered stolen funds in the neighbourhood of N6 billion, at least going by official records.
Though critics described the Buhari anti-corruption war as largely selective, as politicians who played Smart Alec by defecting to the ruling All Progressives Congress were largely spared, it is still to the credit of the administration that politicians lain culpable by unassailable evidence of corrupt practices, were prosecuted in the open court. Under the administration, the anti-graft Czar-the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, to a large extent, lived up to its billing; though it also apparently lacked the finesse of diligent prosecution in the way it often galloped to prosecute its suspects in court.
Buhari, however, went the extra mile in his fight on corruption as he probed into the finances of judges, thus presenting a putrefying odour of hidden malfeasance that was least muted for the hallowed sanctuary of the nation’s judiciary.
But measuring the Buhari era of four years is really no more than a mishmash of the good and the bad, with the negative impact of the administration challenging the gains it recorded in four years. While the government boasts of appreciable increase in the Gross Domestic Product’s index, it is hard to match such calculation with the lowly rated per capita income of the average citizen.
Faced with excruciating hunger, depravation and grinding poverty arising from joblessness and bare opportunities, many educated Nigerians are fleeing the country in droves to seek greener pasture abroad.
Only recently, the country was horrified by the spectre of Nigerian emigrants who were trapped in the North African country of Libya, where they were manacled and brustalised as domestic slaves, being gory sights that nearly caused diplomatic row between the two countries. These daring emigrants had actually wanted to find their way to Europe by sea, in search of the proverbial Golden Fleece, and for some, to live the normal life, which they considered unattainable in Nigeria.
While energy is key to the sustenance of any economy, the Nigerian experience remains a mirage, despite what looked like a definite assurance from the Buhari administration that power supply would become stable within one year of being in office. Though the Power Ministry has been churning out figures of appreciable increase in megawatts’ supply, the truth remains that the better days are far from being here.
But worse of all is the lingering, and as some are wont to say, worsening state of security in the country, with the inclusion of bloody herdsmen attacks to the existing setbacks of Boko Haram insurgency, kidnapping, and robberies.
Buhari, a Nigerian of the Fulani ethnic stock, is particularly viewed as weak in curtailing the excesses of Fulani herdsmen, thus heightening ethnic tensions which the administration battled hard to arrest.
Nigeria’s gale of variegated crises came to a critical stage, up to the election period early this year, to the extent that many thought Buhari would be defeated by his close rival, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party. However, Buhari was eventually declared winner in the election, the denouement of which was his recent inauguration.
While we do not want to necessarily open old wounds, it is, however, instructive for Mr. President to look back and seek where he has to block holes for his new administration to prosper. The economy, from all indications, is in a bad shape, as government’s touted industrialisaton has yet to get the needed bearing. Virtually all sectors, especially education, health and the social services, are in comatose. Above all, there is insecurity of lives and property in the land; which is why the Buhari administration is being urged to now succumb to the strident calls for state police, as a complement to the current police formation.
The road to achieving these demands, however, starts with the composition of the President’s coming cabinet. Beyond partisan politics, he should shop for credible and qualified Nigerians to oversee the ministries; rather than give vent to the parochial way of ‘finding job for the boys’, common with the Nigerian system.
This is wishing the new administration a fruitful tenure.
