President Muhammadu Buhari rode on the goodwill of tens of millions of us to beat former President Goodluck Jonathan. It was an unprecedented feat that saw him trashing an incumbent and thereby becoming the first African leader to have power given to him by a sitting president.
Most Nigerians simply wanted change. Most considered Jonathan as a failure and described his administration as clueless. Clueless because he could not handle the Boko Haram insurgency any longer as he continued to lose grounds and local councils to the criminal gang. Jonathan suffered terrible military setbacks as Commander-in-Chief and could not even account for 234 missing Chibok school girls, nor did he even admit that they were missing. His administration and supporters’ politicization of the kidnap earned him lots of opposition and loss of respect in international circles.
To worsen the matter was Jonathan’s administration’s lukewarm approach to checking other acts of insurgency around the nation. Policemen and other security operatives were losing their lives like chickens to small ethnic militia groups and other criminal gangs. Soldiers were fleeing the battlefields and seeking refuge in neighbouring countries. Some battalions were abandoning their formations and weapons to insurgents in flight after being overpowered. The military weapons and equipment were not adequate or good enough to face the adversaries. An attempt to secretly buy weapons from South Africa became a public scandal because due process was not followed.
Again, fund running into billions of dollars meant for fortification of the military were scandalously shared and greedily personalised. Nigeria under Jonathan’s watch belonged to the crooked and crafty and steadily, the state declined.
At that moment, anyone could beat Jonathan. This was because most Nigerians had lost hope and confidence in his leadership. It was too clear that even the devil, if he had contested, might have been given a chance to make a change. It was on this platform that Buhari rose to prominence and became the proverbial rejected one becoming the cornerstone. Thrice, Buhari had been rejected. But against Jonathan for the second time, it was too sure he was going to coast home.
But under Jonathan, the Naira was relatively strong and petroleum pump prices were not that bad. Attempts to remove subsidy had generated heat and public outcry, including protests led by the All Progressives Congress leadership. This was reversed and life continued with fuel available and an 80-litre tank could still be filled with just 5,500 Naira. The economy was not in recession and indeed Nigeria’s economy, after a rebase, became the largest in Africa. The cost of return air trip to the United States, no matter how it fluctuated, did not go beyond N240, 000. The cost of buying a very good Tokunbo SUV from Cotonou would not exceed N2.5m.
Jonathan’s administration was bad in internal security and corruption, but it maintained a sound economic score-sheet. Arguably, Jonathan lost the 2015 elections to APC because of the huge setbacks in military integrity and lack of capacity to keep Nigeria safe. The thinking was that economic prosperity meant nothing if personal and internal security was absent. Buhari became the bride of many Nigerians that had hoped against hope. Although having a poor pedigree in governance based on his first coming in the early 1980s, people were willing to give him a chance more because of Jonathan’s failures and because of the memory we had of his track record on anti-corruption, and military firmness, which was required to silence Boko Haram.
However, almost two years after Buhari’s rule, it has been one ethnic and religion-motivated cleansing or the other.
A notorious group that many have described as Fulani herdsmen has been on the rampage – Benue, Enugu and Kaduna – killing inhabitants of villages and cities and decimating, in particular, Christian populations. The government under Buhari has been accused of ineffectiveness and silence on the matter, which have led to speculations that the acts are probably state-approved. Tension has escalated in the land because of these midnight and daylight murders.
If the social situation and tensions on ground have created fear and mutual disaffection among the ethnic and religious groups, the economic abyss is more critical to personal happiness and national stability. People’s hopes and dreams have practically ended because of the aggravated economic decline and recession.
Kerosene, the domestic fuel of the poor, now sells at N220 per litre. A bag of ‘pure’ water is now N150 as against the former post-recession price of N50 or N70 per bag of 20 pieces. To purchase a very good SUV now will require about N4m, except for the desperate Arab dealers in Cotonou who now sell at just any price to the Nigerian buyers, so as not to run at a loss. The report from that place is that the foreign dealers are now selling off all their merchandise and departing for their home countries because of the recession in Nigeria.
Jonathan’s administration was bad in internal security and corruption, but it maintained a sound economic score-sheet. But under buhari, People’s hopes and dreams have practically ended because of the aggravated economic decline and recession
It can be argued that President Buhari is fighting corruption in a manner that everyone outside the shores gives him adequate credit. But with plenty of stolen monies (dollars, pounds and euro) recovered, the people want to see and enjoy the benefit of these anticorruption gains. When such huge amounts are recovered and it is yet mentioned in the 2017 budget that 30% of funds required for reviving the economy were externally borrowed, there is bound to be outcries and doubts about the government’s corruption war.
The current administration has disappointed many, including their strong supporters, on whose goodwill Buhari and company rode to power. They need to feel their conscience, empathise with the suffering mass of people and become more responsive to the needs of Nigerians. The Naira should not get to this abysmal level, no matter what; if the monetary administration of the country is in capable hands. It has taken too long to get the CBN Governor fired. Two years ago, I agitated for this. Two years on, the Naira is N314 to one dollar. The CBN chief has run out of ideas. He and his team must go. The Finance Minister too. In civilised countries, such failed officers resign. They should be fired if they will not resign. National interest should not be undermined by APC or party interest. The Finance Ministry and the CBN must be purged.
Folarin is Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and International Relations, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State.
