One year in office: Buhari a failed messiah or a one chance president?

Editor’s note: As President Muhammadu Buhari clocked one year in office on May 29, 2016, the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration must have realised that there is a huge gap between promising heaven on earth and the reality of fulfilling those promises. In it in this light Kess Ewubare, a Senior Associate Editor at Naij.com explains why Buhari is fast losing his reputation as the much awaited messiah.

President Muhammadu Buhari clocked one year in office on May 29, 2016 and the much desired change he and the All Progressives Congress promise Nigerian remains as elusive as ever.

The jumbo promises by made by the APC

If Muhammadu Buhari had lost the 2015 general election, many Nigerians by now would be lamenting that the country missed a great opportunity to elect a leader and messiah that should have ushered Africa’s most populous country to the promise land, but alas, President Muhammadu Buhari clocked one year in office on May 29, 2016 and the much desired change he and the All Progressives Congress (APC) promised Nigerians remains as elusive as ever.

Buhari’s victory against Goodluck Jonathan in the last general election made history as Nigeria’s first switch of power from a ruling party to an opposition. That victory however, came at a cost, the APC promised all the promsables under the change mantra. Some of the  party campaign promises included the institution of a social safety net programmes, free and universal healthcare, a nationwide feeding programme for children in public primary schools and a conditional cash transfer that pays N5000 – N7500 monthly to 25 million of the poorest Nigerians over the next four years as long as they send their children to school and get them immunized, constant electricity supply and the sustainability of the subsidy on petroleum products among others.

Following the jumbo promises by made by the APC, the expectations of Nigerians on Buhari was high and the citizenry could not be blamed, Nigerians wanted a better life at all cost, even if it involved voting in a former tyrant who once ruled the country with Iron fists.

But the last one year of the Buhari administration has been less than eventful for millions of Nigerians who are beginning to feel that the APC duped them by selling promises that it couldn’t keep.

Blame it on Jonathan

Nigerians have also become tired of the “blame it on Jonathan cliche’ which the administration has time and again voiced as the reason for the economic challenges and other difficulties being experienced in the country.

On May 29, the minister of information, Lai Mohammed, for the umpteenth time blamed the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan for the problems in the country.

Lai Mohammed has maintained that the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan is responsible for the current challenges in the country.

He said:“For the first time, we have a President, whose integrity is what is actually driving the force in this country.  But we inherited a very sick government, the type that is inflicted with so many ailments and everything – sickle cell and any kind of sickness. You know Ebola! We came into government at a very bad time, but for the fact that God loves this country and we won the election, because if any other political party had won the election, Nigeria would have seized to exist.”

Such rhetoric has attracted criticsm from political commentators who have called on the administration to stop making excuses and focus on how to move the country forward.

Others have accused Buhari who was once thought to be the awaited messiah of lacking any clear-cut vision on how to rule this nation.

One of such critic is the outspoken Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state who has said the APC government of President Mohammadu Buhari has recorded nothing but woes and unprecedented hardship.

Fayose reacting to president Buhari’s speech democracy day speech in a statement on May 29,  raised cogent issues highlighting the fact that the current administration has failed to bring the hope it promised to Nigerians.

Fayose said:”Despite President Buhari’s electoral promise to reduce petrol pump price from the N87 per litre that he met it and make life more bearable for Nigerians, he increased the price of petrol to N145, increased electricity tariff in spite of lack of power supply.”

“Food scarcity last experienced when Buhari was military Head of State between 1983 and 1985 has returned to the country, with Nigerians being unable to feed.

“Foreign Reserve was $28.6 billion, Excess Crude Account (ECA) was $2.07 billion, dollars was less than N200, petrol was N87 per litre and most importantly, one bag of rice was N8, 500 and power generation was over 5,000MW when Buhari assumed office.

“Today, power generation is less than 1,400, Foreign Reserve has reduced to $26.5 billion, dollar is now over N350, petrol has increased to N145 per litre and one bag of rice is now over N15, 000!”

“I read the president’s speech and all that I saw was a president still sounding like he was campaigning for votes more than one year after winning election. It is disappointing that the President’s speech was once again about promises, not about what has been done.

“Not even a mention of one kilometre of road tarred by this administration, no single job was created except the ones created in Central Bank of Nigeria for their cronnies and children, not a single megawatt of electricity generated. This is shameful.

“The reward Buhari gave to Nigerians for electing as president was to increase petrol pump price by N58.50 and get the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo to justify the increment by saying Nigeria was broke!

“In other words, President Buhari increased petrol pump price because the country was broke and it needed to shore up its revenue base. The N58.50 added to the previous pump price of N86.50 was an Indirect Tax imposed on each litre of petrol purchased by Nigerians.”

The huge gap between the promised change and what is on ground  

Following Fayose’s appraisal of the Buhari administration, it is glaring that there is a huge gap between what Buhari promised to do if elected as president and what he has achieved in his one year in office. Although the administration has achieved a measure of success in the counter insurgency war, this has been over shadowed by the frequent attacks by rampaging herdsmen across communities in the country which has claimed countless number of lives.

Power generation which during the Jonathan peaked at over 5,000 megawatts has dropped to below 1,600 megawatts, thereby plunging homes and offices into darkness. As a consequence, the minister of power works and housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, has come under intense attack by some Nigerians over the continued power outage being experienced across the country.

While the APC led administration may claim to be making gains in the anti-corruption war which appears one sided, it is pertinent to state that the success of any government is hinged on the economy and the Nigerian economy is under tremendous stress as a result of the steep fall in the price of crude oil which has been the mainstay of the economy.

The gloomy state of the economy has led to the astronomical rise in the prices of perishable and non-perishable goods even as citizens’ disposable income had drastically reduced due to the loss in the value of naira.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s first one year in office has been has been full of uncertainties in the sense that the administration has been slow in coming up with policies that could stimulate the economy.

Many Nigerians who expected so much from the president have been left disappointed, saying this is not the change that they voted for. There were lots of expectations that the people had while voting for the current administration, but as it stands, Buhari appears to have fallen from the status of a messiah to a one chance president.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the editorial policy of Naij.com.

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