President Franklin Roosevelt of the United States inherited a сomparatively similar economic atmosphere with that of President Muhammadu Buhari during the second rescue mission. When Roosevelt assumed office on March 4, 1933, the American economy was in a sorry state. A quarter of the workforce was jobless, 250,000 families defaulted on their mortgages, and 1.2 million Americans were homeless. As for the financial sector, 9000 banks holding the savings of 27 million families failed; inflation accounted for 25%-30%. You can probably imagine the level of financial collapse in the US that historians termed the Great Depression.

President Buhari inherited a fairly better economy than his American counterpart. According to the World Bank records, at the end of 2014 the Nigerian economy experienced sustainable growth averaging 7%, with poverty rate accounting for 60% of the population and a rebased GDP figure of $509 billion.

The data from the CBN showed that the new government met a foreign exchange reserve of $36.1 billion, excess crude reserve of $2.45 billion and unemployment rate of 24%. Stock market capitalization stood at N11.477 trillion. It is very safe to posit that President Buhari inherited these economic indices with a pledge of improving them.

However, as a result of Buhari’s 100 days in office, market capitalization fell by N10.108 trillion as of September 3, 2015, foreign investments dropped by N309 billion, and unemployment rate rose by 8.2%. In the 2015 report the National Bureau of Statistics noted that 19.6 million Nigerians are unemployed – this is, actually, more than the population of most African countries. The reasons for such poor economic outcomes are mostly engineered by the economic players’ considerations in relation to the economic agenda President Buhari is going to pursue. One hundred days have passed, however, the investors, both local and foreign, are still guessing and waiting, and the Nigerian economy is stagnant – all because Buhari is not able to find saints among 170 million Nigerians to appoint ministers. It looks a if he is the only honest Nigerian left, as he has made the international community believe.
Roosevelt vs. Buhari

The difference between Roosevelt and Buhari is that Roosevelt knew what was at stake – for Buhari seems not to. A few days after being sworn in, Roosevelt summoned a special session of the Congress, and made the following declaration: “I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis – a broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe”. Within the first 100 days in office, President Roosevelt pushed 15 major bills through the Congress, which were meant to reshape every aspect of the economy, from banking and capital market to mortgage system, manufacturing and agriculture. Most of those bills are still in place in the US – Roosevelt laid a solid foundation for the modern American economy. As for Nigeria, after 100 days the National Assembly is in disarray going from one recess into another, Buhari is threatening the PDP members with probe, and civil servants, who are even more corrupt than politicians, are becoming liaison officers to the president. Nigerians are ignorantly recording all Jonathan’s achievements as what Buhari has achieved within 100 days, because they love his personality.

Undoubtedly, President Buhari has stabilized power and petroleum supply, however, the trick behind these changes is that the economic saboteurs are still watching and studying the present government. if President Buhari continues with his “I will”, “I shall”, “the PDP did not do this or that”, the enemies of our development will commence their unpatriotic business.
Tide of history

When “Oga Jona” was still in the good books of Nigerians, precisely during his first 100 days in office, Nigerians used to excuse most of his flaws saying: “Jonathan means good for this country”. However, Jonathan failed to create jobs, end insurgency in the north-east and eliminate corruption in the oil sector. Moreover, good intentions didn’t secure him a return ticket to Aso Rock.

Today Nigerians lay Buhari’s shortcomings on the altar of good personality. Personality, just like good intentions, is an abstract concept. One hundred days without government policy framework and ministers, one hundred days of obvious ethnic bias in the appointments will soon erode Buhari’s good personality. Change cannot be the government agenda, because change is something ambiguous with two extreme poles – negative and positive. Government policy is different from party policy. The much criticized Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state made the judiciary functional, and paid salary arrears accumulated by the previous government. He was able to itemize what the previous administration stole from the treasury and the channels, through which money were leaking. He achieved this all within 100 days.
One hundred days – not enough?

No one is asking President Buhari to resurrect the dead infrastructure within 100 days. However, we claim that 100 days is enough for a serious government to show focus and direction. The electorate needs to know what economic path the government wishes to follow so as to give the economy a favourable perception, and boost investment and the stock market activity. The federal government should cease using the media to prosecute suspected corrupt officers of the previous government and shamelessly cancel the development projects that will benefit the regions having given Buhari 5% of votes. Buhari should start the real probe by bringing these cases to court. Based on the firm evidence, “Oga Jona” and his accomplices should be jailed and made to pay back whatever they looted.

If President Buhari fails to adhere to the wishes of Nigerians, he will be surprised that those, who shouted “hosanna, hosanna” for him this year, will chorus “crucify him, crucify him” in 2019. Considering his age, I am sure Buhari is not going to rerun for presidency, but for the sake of his party, he should give the government a direction and act like a Nigerian president, not an ethnic lord.

Ok

Aminat508:
Ok

lol how u

Aminat508:
Ok

even yhu?

Buhari would fail, it's crystal clear
A man with no economic road map whatsoever
Over to those who lick the Hausa /Fulani armpits