By Julia Payne and Ulf Laessing


ABUJA (Reuters) - Almost a year after winning an
election on promises to fix Nigeria, Muhammadu
Buhari's grand vision of reform is fading, with
power centralised in his increasingly remote
presidency and the bureaucracy in disarray.


After axing almost 50 top civil servants and 40
ambassadors and shaking up ministries in a bid to
exorcise endemic graft, the 73-year-old former
military ruler has even started cancelling some
weekly cabinet meetings.


His aides said this was because under his
predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, the meeting had
become a forum for ministers to hand out over-
priced contracts to friends.


Critics say the effect has been to leave government
rudderless while Africa's biggest economy flatlines.
Power is concentrated in Buhari's office, where files
pile up on the desk of his chief of staff. Ministers
appointed only in November - more than six
months after Buhari's victory - are reluctant to
make decisions, diplomats say.


Government insiders admit things may be getting
worse before they get better, but say that is to be
expected given the scale of the task in hand.


"Of course it's chaos. We're rebuilding a whole
system. There is no depth in the bureaucracy,"
said a senior government source who asked not to
be named.


Buhari is too often absent to provide enough
personal guidance, according to his critics.


Since taking office in May, he has been on 26
overseas trips, visiting Saudi Arabia and Qatar this
week, where officials say he hopes to drum up
interest from investors.


His opponents complain that his external focus
comes at the expense of the two pillars of the
domestic economy - the oil-producing Niger Delta
and Lagos, the sprawling megacity that serves as
Nigeria's commercial capital.
He has visited neither as president.


NO BUDGET
Buhari has won plaudits from ordinary Nigerians
for fighting graft as part of a crackdown on an elite
whose wealth has grown for decades while most of
the country's 170 million people remained in
poverty.


The army under his command has also
reconquered territory from the Boko Haram group
in the north, though the jihadits still regularly
stage suicide attacks.


But the ascetic general has not yet delivered on a
promise to create jobs by ending reliance on oil.
His civil service cull has cut avenues for graft but
also created knowledge gaps, to the point that the
government has so far been unable to produce a
viable budget.


Buhari last week fired a senior budget official who
had been appointed in August, after he helped to
produce a draft which labelled car or computer
purchases as capital expenditures, according to
Nigerian research group Budgit.


One billion naira - more than $5 million at the
official exchange rate - had been budgeted for
office furniture alone.


"This was really depressing when we expected that
this should be a total shift from the wasteful
culture that we had had in the past," said Oluseun
Onigbinde, founder of the group.


Buhari fired most of the top management at state
oil firm NNPC but his replacements have struggled
to get a grip on the massive and opaque entity,
officials say. Some projects have been delayed as
the newcomers struggle to locate the relevant files
in the four NNPC towers.


With no regular meetings, ministers are still trying
to figure out what they can achieve, officials say.
Buhari merged several ministries but since a
cabinet retreat in November, he has left them to
drift.


Buhari's aides counter that the cabinet meets
whenever there is something to decide, and that
the government needs time to work out detailed
plans - including funding - for such daunting tasks
as road-building or the improvement of Nigeria's
notoriously erratic power supply.


But a senior civil servant who asked not to be
named said ministers struggled to get the attention
of Buhari's office.


"There is a proposal, a consultancy does a study
but then the report gets ignored," he said.


Buhari asked Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to
coordinate economic policy, but diplomats say he
is being sidelined as the president personally
handles all key issues, including a freeze of the
naira exchange rate that is crippling investment.


That leaves businessmen wondering how the West
African oil producer can survive its worst
economic crisis for decades.


"Policy statements hang but there's no trickle
down," said Prince Ike Ubaka, head of the All
Farmers Association of Nigeria.


af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFKCN0VY1KJ?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FAFRICATopNews+%28News+%2F+AFRICA+%2F+Top+News%29&&rpc=401

Talking about 16 years of PDP and 9 months of APC
How PDP ruined Nigeria.
1. PDP met a bag of rice at less than N2500 in 1999 but left it at N11,000 in 2015 when they left power.
2. PDP met the Dollar at N20 when they came in 1999 but left it at N220 in 2015 when they were leaving.
3. PDP met petrol pump price at N11 when they came in 1999 but left it at N87 when they were leaving in 2015.
4. PDP met a bag of cement at less than N400 but left it at N2000 while they were leaving in 2015.
5. PDP met a tin of milk at N15 in 1999 but left it at N100 when they left in 2015.
6. PDP met only OPC in 1999 but left us with Niger Delta militancy, MASSOB, IPOB, BAKASSI, and Boko Haram as at when they left in 2015.
7. PDP was ushered in with a free and fair election in 1999 by the military but they left us with ballot box snatching, rice sharing for campaigns, do-or-die politics, political assassinations, etc.
8. Life expectancy for Nigeria was 59 years when PDP came in 1999 but PDP left it at 42 years in 2015.

"Change is difficult. Not changing is fatal" - Hillary Okoh

With what Nigeria is getting from the president, the future is very bright.

International wailing trying so hard to suppress National wailing!
Very soon, European wailing and UN-wailing will emerge!

[s]

jimharry21:
Talking about 16 years of PDP and 9 months of APC
How PDP ruined Nigeria.
1. PDP met a bag of rice at less than N2500 in 1999 but left it at N11,000 in 2015 when they left power.
2. PDP met the Dollar at N20 when they came in 1999 but left it at N220 in 2015 when they were leaving.
3. PDP met petrol pump price at N11 when they came in 1999 but left it at N87 when they were leaving in 2015.
4. PDP met a bag of cement at less than N400 but left it at N2000 while they were leaving in 2015.
5. PDP met a tin of milk at N15 in 1999 but left it at N100 when they left in 2015.
6. PDP met only OPC in 1999 but left us with Niger Delta militancy, MASSOB, IPOB, BAKASSI, and Boko Haram as at when they left in 2015.
7. PDP was ushered in with a free and fair election in 1999 by the military but they left us with ballot box snatching, rice sharing for campaigns, do-or-die politics, political assassinations, etc.
8. Life expectancy for Nigeria was 59 years when PDP came in 1999 but PDP left it at 42 years in 2015.

[/s]


OBJ ruled for 8 of those 16yrs you quoted, he is now the darling of APC.
Those who ruined Nigeria are now in APC.

jimharry21:
Talking about 16 years of PDP and 9 months of APC
How PDP ruined Nigeria.
1. PDP met a bag of rice at less than N2500 in 1999 but left it at N11,000 in 2015 when they left power.
2. PDP met the Dollar at N20 when they came in 1999 but left it at N220 in 2015 when they were leaving.
3. PDP met petrol pump price at N11 when they came in 1999 but left it at N87 when they were leaving in 2015.
4. PDP met a bag of cement at less than N400 but left it at N2000 while they were leaving in 2015.
5. PDP met a tin of milk at N15 in 1999 but left it at N100 when they left in 2015.
6. PDP met only OPC in 1999 but left us with Niger Delta militancy, MASSOB, IPOB, BAKASSI, and Boko Haram as at when they left in 2015.
7. PDP was ushered in with a free and fair election in 1999 by the military but they left us with ballot box snatching, rice sharing for campaigns, do-or-die politics, political assassinations, etc.
8. Life expectancy for Nigeria was 59 years when PDP came in 1999 but PDP left it at 42 years in 2015.

For making all that sense you will soon be carpet bombed with insults. Thank you for pointing out what should be obvious.

dukie25:



[size=18pt]Those who ruined Nigeria are now in APC[/size]

APC.... SHAME

When I tell people that, that hopeless, big fool,pig head, dullard have nothing to offer they said I'm lying. You see it! Even foreigners I seeing it now.

dukie25:
[s][/s]OBJ ruled for 8 of those 16yrs you quoted, he is now the darling of APC.
Those who ruined Nigeria are now in APC.

No wonder they blame only Jonathan and IPOB.

jimharry21:
Talking about 16 years of PDP and 9 months of APC
How PDP ruined Nigeria.
1. PDP met a bag of rice at less than N2500 in 1999 but left it at N11,000 in 2015 when they left power.
2. PDP met the Dollar at N20 when they came in 1999 but left it at N220 in 2015 when they were leaving.
3. PDP met petrol pump price at N11 when they came in 1999 but left it at N87 when they were leaving in 2015.
4. PDP met a bag of cement at less than N400 but left it at N2000 while they were leaving in 2015.
5. PDP met a tin of milk at N15 in 1999 but left it at N100 when they left in 2015.

How much are d prices of these items today? much higher than what they were in May 2015.

According to u PDP 'ruined' Nigeria in 16 yrs, but it has taken APC just 9 months to overtake PDP. Because the prices of those items u mentioned are much higher today than when PDP left. who knows what they will be if we are to give APC 16 yrs!!!

jimharry21:
Talking about 16 years of PDP and 9 months of APC
How PDP ruined Nigeria.
1. PDP met a bag of rice at less than N2500 in 1999 but left it at N11,000 in 2015 when they left power.
2. PDP met the Dollar at N20 when they came in 1999 but left it at N220 in 2015 when they were leaving.
3. PDP met petrol pump price at N11 when they came in 1999 but left it at N87 when they were leaving in 2015.
4. PDP met a bag of cement at less than N400 but left it at N2000 while they were leaving in 2015.
5. PDP met a tin of milk at N15 in 1999 but left it at N100 when they left in 2015.
6. PDP met only OPC in 1999 but left us with Niger Delta militancy, MASSOB, IPOB, BAKASSI, and Boko Haram as at when they left in 2015.
7. PDP was ushered in with a free and fair election in 1999 by the military but they left us with ballot box snatching, rice sharing for campaigns, do-or-die politics, political assassinations, etc.
8. Life expectancy for Nigeria was 59 years when PDP came in 1999 but PDP left it at 42 years in 2015.

U are way off point taking things out of context!

This kind of report can only come from our colonial masters that still want to hold as slaves to ransom. PMB should ignore them all and keep focus on his reforms !!!

why wont they voice trash when its obvious we are moving forward? Nigeria shall definately be great by fire by storm, mindset and perception is changing. How can you compare 9 months to 16years of economic rape?

Buhari is highly incompetent