President Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in on May 29, 2019. On Tuesday, it was his three years in the saddle. Nigerians expected so much from Buhari due to his weighty campaign promises. Three years down the road there have been mixed reactions as to how he has performed.
One of the main reasons Nigerians voted the All Progressives Congress APC in 2015 was that they believed that the security situation would improve given the military background of President Muhammau Buhari.
The country, some say, is even in a worse situation than former President Goodluck Jonathan left it three years ago. Terrorism persists in some parts of the North East and it has now extended to the North Central part of the country in the form of herdsmen invasions.
The terrorists have gone back to their old ways of bombing harmless citizens in villages in North East.
Kidnapping, especially of school children has become a permanent feature.
On the other side, some say the security situation has improved in the North East. Unlike the past, Boko Haram has not been able to capture territories.
Those who are in his support say he had been swift in terms of rescuing kidnapped children. Although the Chibok school girls were not abducted under his watch, he has been able to facilitate the release of over 100 of them.
Recently, 110 girls were abducted from Dapchi in Yobe State. In less than three weeks, 109 of them were returned to their parents after negotiations with the terrorists. Unfortunately one of them, Leah Sharibu has not been released. The president was hailed by many Nigerians for his timely response.
Anti-corruption war seems to be Buhari’s forte. His administration has been able to recover stolen funds amounting to billions of dollars. Although he has been accused of witch-hunting the opposition members and not fighting a fair anti-corruption war, no one can accuse the President of not taking steps to curb the excesses of the public office holders who deep their hands in public treasury.
Steps by Buhari’s government to give bite to the anti-graft crusade included the creation of the Presidential Advisory Council against Corruption which, among other things, advises the government in the prosecution of the anti-graft fight. Others are the implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) initiated by the past administration and whistle-blower policy.
In addition to establishing the Efficiency Unit reviewing overhead spending, minimizing wastage and enhancing savings, the administration also created the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit to strength controls over finances through an internal audit process across Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
Recently, American President Donald Trump, while hosting Buhari at the Washington DC, noted that though Nigeria had a reputation for what he called “very massive corruption,” President Buhari’s anti-graft fight has been commendable.
Under Buhari, Nigeria has been elected into the Open Government Partnership (OGP), an international transparency, accountability and citizen engagement initiative.
However, one area many have faulted him is failure to balance diversity in his political appointments. He has been accused of appointing mainly northerners into his government, something that has been denied severally by his administration. On the political front, things have not been smooth as there are crises within his party, the APC.
The most recent problem which may spell doom for his party is the newPDP faction within the APC, threatening to quit the party, citing marginalisation as the main reason.
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In terms of the economy, the President has not fared better than former President Goodluck Jonathan. Some attribute the poor economy to recession. Others blame Buhari for the recession. If the party is to stand a chance in 2019, the economy needs to be fixed, many have argued.
Part of the APC’s manifesto was to create millions of jobs. Instead of doing that, the country is witnessing the opposite. Millions of Nigerians have lost their jobs since the APC government came on board. According to a data from the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, under President Buhari, Nigeria has the worst unemployment figures ever. A total of 7.956 million Nigerians became unemployed between January 2016 and September 30, 2017.
This has compounded the hardship in the country. Nigerians, especially the poor, had high hopes in Buahri. They were of the view that he would take the right steps to better their lives. Economically the situation is worse for them.
Some people believe it is too late for the president to right his wrongs ahead of the 2019 general elections. Others are of the view that he has time to put things in order.
Speaking with The Next Edition, a political analyst, Thompson Babajide, said “It would take years for the government to correct its mistakes. The blunders are enormous. Where do they start from? Their house is not even in order. Who is the leader of the party? We don’t know. Who is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees? Have they even had a national convention? I think it is too late.”
For veteran journalist, Mr. Yakubu Mohammed, although there may be not much time, President Buhari should adopt a fire brigade approach to regain the trust of the people, especially the poor who had so much faith in him.
He said, “Perhaps, just perhaps President Buhari, in the short time that remains, can still do something dramatic to show that he has a feeling and that he is concerned about the poor, those who put too much trust in his capacity and integrity, those who thought that he was different, that he was not like others. He must still find time to rise to the occasion.”
From all indications, how well the president’s performances in the last three years will positively or otherwise impact on his efforts at seeking a re-election is a situation millions of Nigerians are waiting to see. 2019 election will surely tell.
