By; AUWAL AHMED IBRAHIM
Muhammadu Buhari contested for the position of Nigeria’s presidency three times and eventually won the fourth time. As a contestant; Muhammadu Buhari made many promises to cater for the welfare and the progressive development of Nigerians in the 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015 contests.
In the 2015 contest, Muhammadu Buhari came with many promises and an agenda to crush the Boko Haram militants in 100 days in office, stabilize Nigeria’s economy, reactivate the Nigerian refineries and build more, provide conducive environment of learning and subsidize schools tuition fees, end the academic strikes in all schools, reduce pump price of petrol to less than N60 and improve the agricultural sector.
Muhammadu Buhari also promised to focus on healthcare, sports and power sectors, and his government in 2015 came with five points prominent agenda to overhaul and make the oil sector efficient and viable, to stamp out corruption in the country, mass employment, tackle insecurity problems, improve infrastructure and good healthcare in the country.
Upon the promises and the agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, by looking at the performance of the present government, it has performed below its promises in the affairs of fighting corruption.
The Transparency International report in 2022, ranked Nigeria at 154 out of 180 corrupt nations globally and unemployment rate “in 2015 was at 8%, but hovering around 34% this year. Fuel is scarce and sold beyond the government’s recommended price of N184 where most stations sell at N300 per litter. Education has become a commodity where tuition fees rose to N500,000 in some states and federal tertiary schools.
This is showing that nothing has changed in the aspect of social and economic condition of the country, but worsened. Power sector has collapsed more than before the government of Muhammadu Buhari came into power, the national grid collapsed 98 times amid N1.52tn bailout. The fight against insecurity is still a challenging war, but has gulped over $1bn for the purchase of weapons.
The oil sector was better in the past than today, because this government that promised to revitalize and make the three refineries of the country functional, has sold them to private operation and to add adverse effect on the economy, subsidy is due for removal in June this year.
The economy is dwindling and hardship is creeping in all parts of the country. Unemployment is reaching worst point and out-of-school children number is daily increasing and becoming terrible every year. Farming is no more safe and conducive for the practitioners because of kidnappers and bandits that continue to raid villages and villagers.
But, upon the above mentioned situations of the country, President Muhammadu Buhari is of the opinion that his government has scored very well. In October, 2022, he said his government has “impacted sectors like power, communications, digital economy, oil and gas, national security, anti-graft war, social investment, health, and agriculture.” Buhari is keen that his government has done much for the people and is still doing. He blames anti-party, opposition and the bad eggs of Nigerians that are sabotaging his efforts.
It was calculated that “20 times President Muhammadu Buhari blamed others from the faults of his government. In September, 2022, President Muhammadu blamed the Nigerian elite for insecurity and infrastructural development”. He also blamed academic staff of tertiary schools for sending his children to London university, blamed the epileptic power condition on the previous leaders, unemployment on the youth by considering them “lazy” and gold-diggers waiting for white collar jobs. He blamed state governors for not doing well in the rural areas on social development, blamed doctors of the country for traveling to London hospitals for medical checkups and medication.
The Buhari government is more conversant with blaming-victim theory to prove his loyalty and transparency to the international community by exonerating self from mistakes and faults of his government. He shows that his government is the perfect and the best in the history of Nigeria. Many times, Buhari boasted of good records and performance of his government. In September 2022, President Muhammadu Buhari commended his administration by saying, “my administration has done extremely Well” in Imo State.
And as the Central Bank deadline of old Naira notes circulation is approaching, 31st January, 2023, the government is putting blame on banks for refusal to go to the apex bank to collect the new Naira notes. One can ask what is the meaning of this statement and its metaphor? Does this government want to repeat what happened in 1984?
Now that pump price is sold beyond the recommended price, the government is putting the blame on the independent marketers, and the marketers have testified they buy the product beyond the government price and some times, pay kick back.
When food prices escalate and Naira crashes, the government blames others instead of seeking solutions and addressing the problems.
As the government of President Muhammadu Buhari is coming to an end on May 29, the President has praised himself and leaves a challenge for the next coming president.
In his New Year message, President Muhammadu Buhari said, “I Did My Best For Nigeria…. “And I pray that the next president will also pick up the baton and continue the race to make Nigeria one of the leading countries of the world by the end of this century.”
Auwal Ahmed Ibrahim is a political analyst and a lecturer of Mass Communication Department, Kaduna Polytechnic, he can be reached on auwalgoronyo@gmail.com
