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President Muhammadu Buhari is not a leader that allows others or posterity judge him. He assesses himself and appropriates highest marks, even when there is little to show for it. This is what he is doing as the May 29 handover date approaches. He seizes every opportunity to advertise the accomplishments of his administration, selling the impression that he is about the best to have happened to the country.
The other day, at the presentation of keys to some new homeowners at the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), Zuba, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the President reminded them that his administration’s promise of change has been fulfilled for them.
At the trooping and presentation of colours parade at Eagle Square,Abuja, which witnessed the retiring and replacing of 53 unit colours and the issuance of 28 new ones, he made similar assertions. At the event, he painted a picture of significant improvement in the Nigerian Army’s fighting power since he took office in 2015, claiming that the efforts of his administration have led to unprecedented success in neutralizing insurgents in the country.
He said: “At the inception of this administration, the nation’s security situation was greatly challenged by the activities of violent non-state actors. Today, I am pleased to specially note that the situation has tremendously improved and I wish to also proudly highlight that we have made remarkable progress in the fight against insurgents, militants, oil bunkers, kidnappers, and other criminal elements in the country.”
That was Buhari at his best – tall in appropriation but short in evidence. While he boasted of degrading the insurgents and other criminal elements, farming communities in Kwande Local Government Area of Benue State were flattened by Fulani herdsmen who killed 50 residents and set many houses ablaze. Bandits were running riot in Ondo, Kaduna and Zamfara, killing and maiming Nigerians. In the eastern part of the country, communities have been sacked by militant separatist groups. All these incidents of insecurity do not matter to the President. For him, all is well.
But that is where he gets it completely wrong. In fact, Nigeria under Buhari is in a sorry state. Here was a President who rode to power on the crest of popular acclaim at home and abroad. On May 29, 2015, when he was inaugurated, Buhari was presented with multiple wish-lists from Western nations and governments on the assumption that he was the redeeming face of the country’s years of leadership failure. But eight years after, he has left the country broken and shattered more than he met it. Under him, all the fault lines in the country have become more apparent. Nigeria had never witnessed the level of division that currently exists among the citizens. With his acute provincial inclination to his Fulani ethnic stock, other nationals have been treated as strangers to the commonwealth.
An artist’s impression, during the week, of a broken-down truck with an unconcerned driver sitting idly and claiming to have done his best, illustrates the damage the President has done to the country. When critics accuse him of being lifeless, it is not as if he is dead. It is rather an interpretation of his nonchalant disposition to issues bordering on the welfare of the citizenry.
There is hardly any aspect of governance where Buhari did not disappoint his admirers. But his poor handling of the economy and mismanagement of the 2023 general election are areas wherehe dealt the most devastating blows on all. The Punch Newspaper editorial, titled “The Buhari years: An era of gross economic fiasco”, made a brilliant summary of how the President literally wrecked the economy in his eight years of superintendence. It wrote: “This era witnessed a relentless upsurge in human misery, rising national debt, two recessions, record unemployment and inflation levels, and receding foreign direct investment. While so much had been expected of him, he delivered eight locust years.
“He (Buhari) made bad choices, failed to demonstrate any real grasp of modern economic ideas, and lacked the presence of mind or leadership acumen required to turn the ailing economy around”.
The Paper added: “Nigerians have never had it so bad. The country overtook India in 2018 as the global capital of extreme poverty with 87 million of its population adjudged to be extremely poor. Some 91.6 million Nigerians currently live in extreme poverty, second behind India, per the World Poverty Clock. The National Bureau of Statistics in 2022 assessed 133 million citizens as living in multidimensional poverty”.
There is not much to add to the fine piece on the topic. Nigeria under Buhari is a study in poverty and mismanagement of opportunities.
Next is the 2023 general election. This is perhaps, where history will not forgive the President and Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Buhari promised free and fair elections with the passage of the new Electoral Act and kept repeating so multiple times. Consistently, he announced his resolve to bequeath to the country a legacy of transparent elections and credible democracy.
Yakubu made similar pledges. But when it mattered most, it became glaring that neither the President nor the INEC chair was prepared to keep to those promises. All the pronouncements on deploying a fail-safe system anchored on electronic transmission of results and Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) were broken. Many Nigerians could not vote because of BVAS failure and other infractions. Some that voted alleged the results falsified.
The harm done on Nigerians by that crass indiscretion cannot be easily remedied. Apart from the resources wasted in the sham that passed for elections, many Nigerians have been scarred for life and have vowed never to participate in elections in the country again. That is the worst psychological assault on the nation by Buhari and Yakubu. The Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate in the election, Peter Obi, was, therefore, right that, rather than wasting taxpayers’ money pretending to organise an election that the outcome had been arrived at beforehand, the President should have saved the country that profligacy and handpicked his successor.
So, while the President prances about over the May 29 transition date and professes his self-righteousness, he needs to be told that Nigerians are not enthused at his claims of delivering on target. If anything, rather, he has set the country back in many respects.
