Half the population of the young voters who voted Buhari in 2015 did so because they were already disillusioned with Jonathan and would rather vote a goat instead of Goodluck. The other half voted Buhari because they heard tales of a no-nonsense Messiah who would come in and immediately do wonders to place Nigerian on a never-seen-before growth pedestal. The gullibility of the latter group was aided by the thoughtless, miracle-like promises that Buhari and his promoters made during campaigns. Today, can we tell the same story? Can we still say the 2015 decision was a wise one? Can we say Buhari is any better than Jonathan? Let us look at some facts together.

1. All of a sudden, the Naira is the worst performing currency in Africa! Check the chart below, made in July 2016 when the Naira was still considerable strong compared to now. Who do we blame for the mismanagement of the Nation’s currency? Some ardent Buhari supporters will not want us to blame Buhari for this, but then, should the head (who labored for years to become President) not be blamed for a gross collapse of the value of our Nation’s money under his watch?

2. All of a sudden, the Naira became one of the worst performing currencies in the world. Check the chart below. Photo Credit goes to the Economist which is not even a Nigerian newspaper that can be blamed of bias.

3. In less than two years of bitterly castigating the government of Ex-President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, the Buhari administration has reverted to at least three of the Jonathan government’s policies. These include the Graduate Internship Scheme which was recently praised for impacting at least 41000 young graduates, the GES Agricultural inputs programme and the Oil Swap arrangement of the NNPC.

Of particular note is the oil swap deal of the NNPC. Upon assumption of office of President Muhammadu Buhari, his administration cancelled the oil swap arrangement and replaced it with Direct- Sale-Direct- Purchase (DSDP) arrangement, which took off in February 2016. Just seven months down the line, the same Buhari administration is trying hard to revert to the Oil swap arrangement of the Jonathan era which Buhari’s men had hitherto claimed was a corrupt method of handling oil sales and purchase. You can check these links for details:

[url]https://newtelegraphonline.com/oil-swap-cracks-fgs-direct-…/[/url]

4. The President who himself was a vocal critique of the past government’s handling of the Chibok girls’ issue has suddenly become distant from the BBOG campaign group, the same group whose hard stance against the Jonathan government helped his supporters to effectively malign the ex-President and help him win the elections. Suddenly, they are being denied access to the Aso Villa and the FG is no longer interested in whatever they have to say, despite the fact that we are in a democracy! See the picture below where BBOG protesters met a police brick wall at the entrance to the villa. This was not the case during the Jonathan era!

5. Suddenly, our government has resorted to propaganda to fake public acceptance. Just as usual with Nigerian politicians, diverse money-for-protest groups are now springing claiming they stand with Buhari. The disappointment for most people is that they expected the government of the ‘saintly’ Buhari to be above cheap propaganda. See below:

6. Suddenly, the fight against corruption that Nigerians expected to be all-encompassing and thorough has become a shameful witch-hunt of perceived political opponents while really corrupt government officials in the Buhari administration are being shielded. Buratai had serious allegations of corruption and the EFCC never tried him. Several corruption allegations went out against Amaechi including formal petitions and the EFCC is yet to speak on them. The EFCC jumped into action to investigate Fayose (a sitting Governor) while it ignored loads of petitions against Aregbesola. Timipre Sylva had several corruption allegations hanging on his neck prior to the 2015 elections and has since become a good boy. Weripamowei Dudafa was a close ally of the former President and would have been privy to many corrupt practices that might have gone down then; alas, he is now in the APC and he is not being probed. This list plus a whole lot of other persons who deserve to be in jail by now but are walking the streets freely and shouting ‘Change’.

7. The pump price of Petrol is now also under the forces of inflation. The same Buhari that campaigned telling us it was not right for Jonathan to sell fuel at #87 because of the reduction in crude prices in the international market is now selling fuel to us at #145 for the same reason. I even heard his government might increase this figure soon.

These issues make me want to ask most of my friends who voted Buhari into office this simple question:

ARE YOU STILL PROUD OF THE DECISION YOU TOOK TO VOTE BUHARI INTO OFFICE?

cc:
Seun
Lalasticlala
Barcanista
Ishilove

Most-time, I feel its better we learn the hard-way............... OREMUSSANCTUS

Goodluck never gave us an option. Should he had not allowed open day corruption to take over his government, Buhari will keep crying on national tv as usual. Yes I supported him because all I and many nigerians need was CHANGE in the way things were done. Truth is that Goodluck would not had done better in this period cause if he could borrow to pay salary when dollar was above budget benchmark he will definitely be bad now. Given another chance I will not vote Goodluck or Buhari. You can keep writing your epistle while I prepare for 2019 to be able to vote out this government

jmichlins:
Goodluck never gave us an option. Should he had not allowed open day corruption to take over his government, Buhari will keep crying on national tv as usual. Yes I supported him because all I and many nigerians need was CHANGE in the way things were done. Truth is that Goodluck would not had done better in this period cause if he could borrow to pay salary when dollar was above budget benchmark he will definitely be bad now. Given another chance I will not vote Goodluck or Buhari. You can keep writing your epistle while I prepare for 2019 to be able to vote out this government

The major problem of democracy as a form of government is that the majority makes a fatal mistake because of certain sentiments and instead of reflecting on the mistakes to make more informed decisions, they still carry on to make even worse mistakes...still riding on the power of the majority!

Goodluck was bad, we voted Buhari because we wanted to vote him out! Buhari has turned out bad, are we going to vote a goat next because we want to vote him out? Should we not trash the major issues and use the lessons to mould our 2019 decision? These are not just epistles...I am ruminating on the issues!

tolulakin:


The major problem of democracy as a form of government is that the majority makes a fatal mistake because of certain sentiments and instead of reflecting on the mistakes to make more informed decisions, they still carry on to make even worse mistakes...still riding on the power of the majority!

Goodluck was bad, we voted Buhari because we wanted to vote him out! Buhari has turned out bad, are we going to vote a goat next because we want to vote him out? Should we not trash the major issues and use the lessons to mould our 2019 decision? These are not just epistles...I am ruminating on the issues!

yes you stated obvious facts but reality is that there's nothing to be done to change this mess we are in until 2019 so instead of you writing this, you will do well to lecture us on what to look out for come 2019 because just like you said I will vote a goat to make sure I remove this government unless something drastic happens. Goodluck didn't ride on the euphoria he was elected on and it's no fault of mine.

ARE YOU STILL PROUD OF THE DECISION YOU TOOK TO VOTE BUHARI INTO OFFICE?


Yes Sir/Ma, I am still proud to vote Buhari into office, and after these tenure, if he has nothing tangible to present as achievement then I look elsewhere.

To make my point clear, I didn't regret and will never regret voting against Get. If he decides to contest again, I will still not vote him.

jmichlins:
Goodluck never gave us an option. Should he had not allowed open day corruption to take over his government, Buhari will keep crying on national tv as usual. Yes I supported him because all I and many nigerians need was CHANGE in the way things were done. Truth is that Goodluck would not had done better in this period cause if he could borrow to pay salary when dollar was above budget benchmark he will definitely be bad now. Given another chance I will not vote Goodluck or Buhari. You can keep writing your epistle while I prepare for 2019 to be able to vote out this government

YOU ARE DRIVING ME NUT WITH THIS PERSISTENCE SAYING OF JONATHAN REGIME IS CORRUPT, UP TILL NOW YOU CAN'T SEE THE GLARING DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO REGIME, apc has shamelessly, stupidly and conscience-lessly gone back to there vomits, every policies of Jonathan that they castigate or rebuke, I THOUGHT THEY ARE THE ALL KNOWING, THE OMNIPOTENT THE PRESENT DAY EMMANUEL but is shameful that from apc heads to toes and their online warrior are nothing but glorify thugs, zombies and headless chicken!

jmichlins:
Goodluck never gave us an option. Should he had not allowed open day corruption to take over his government, Buhari will keep crying on national tv as usual. Yes I supported him because all I and many nigerians need was CHANGE in the way things were done. Truth is that Goodluck would not had done better in this period cause if he could borrow to pay salary when dollar was above budget benchmark he will definitely be bad now. Given another chance I will not vote Goodluck or Buhari. You can keep writing your epistle while I prepare for 2019 to be able to vote out this government

YOU ARE DRIVING ME NUT WITH THIS PERSISTENCE SAYING OF JONATHAN REGIME IS CORRUPT, UP TILL YOU CAN'T SEE THE GLARING DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO REGIME, apc has shamelessly, stupidly and conscience-lessly gone back to there vomits, every policies of Jonathan that they castigate or rebuke, I THOUGHT THEY ARE THE ALL KNOWING, THE OMNIPOTENT THE PRESENT DAY EMMANUEL but is shameful that from apc heads to toes and their online warrior and nothing but glorify thugs, zombies and headless skeleton.

Ahmeduana:

YOU ARE DRIVING ME NUT WITH THIS PERSISTENCE SAYING OF JONATHAN REGIME IS CORRUPT, UP TILL YOU CAN'T SEE THE GLARING DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO REGIME, apc has shamelessly, stupidly and conscience-lessly gone back to there vomits, every policies of Jonathan that they castigate or rebuke, I THOUGHT THEY ARE THE ALL KNOWING, THE OMNIPOTENT THE PRESENT DAY EMMANUEL but is shameful that from apc heads to toes and their online warrior and nothing but glorify thugs, zombies and headless skeleton!

if you can't see the corruption that had way till now then you need to be sorry for yourself. Saudi Arabia saved excess money during the oil boom but what we had here was fake GDP and those fake statistics that doesn't reflect on the life of average nigerians. It's said that about 80million nigerians live below poverty level do you think it just started. Come 2019, I will vote out this administration cause it failed on her promises

jmichlins:
if you can't see the corruption that had way till now then you need to be sorry for yourself. Saudi Arabia saved excess money during the oil boom but what we had here was fake GDP and those fake statistics that doesn't reflect on the life of average nigerians. It's said that about 80million nigerians live below poverty level do you think it just started. Come 2019, I will vote out this administration cause it failed on her promises

I agree that freewheeling corruption was the bane of the GEJ government but I think citing it as a reason for supporting Buhari is like saying you support burning down your house because it has a severe rat infestation. The analogy is a tad bit melodramatic but it's designed to drive home the point - The medicine for a disease should not be worse than the disease.

Buhari had a track record as president of gratuitous economic illiteracy which unleashed severe and needless hardship on Nigerians in the 1980s. In a saner clime, such a record would have eternally banished him from serious contention for consideration to run for president. He, however, benefited from disillusion with the status quo and Nigerians tendency to apply ethnic/religious filter to their reasoning. It also helped him that 85% of Nigerians are under the age of 35 and have no recollection of his first presidency.

To the corruption issue, you have to start with the fundamental: corruption is evil because of the consequence. The consequence of corruption is lower standard of living. The problem with economic illiteracy is that it also leads to the same outcome. My position has always been that Buhari's illiteracy will ofset any potential gains from reduced corruption. This is why I said the following in May 2015:

4Play:
I think GEJ was the least bad of 2 crap options. GEJ was a spineless buffoon who aided and abetted corruption but he didn't, unlike Buhari, have an affinity for economically illiterate policies.

Unlike most people, I believe that inept economic policies are a bigger vice than corruption. Buhari's first tenure was an ode to economic ineptitude. Corruption will still carry on regardless, at best to a lesser degree, but the avalanche of daft policies will be his greatest undoing.

at the risk of getting misunderstood, it must be said that corruption actually fuels an economy. the problem is that infrastructure suffers. but in a nation like ours with faulty structures & systems, corruption can't be reduced significantly. because our leaders use the tribal & religious tools to enrich themselves.

however, if you insist on fighting corruption, then you must have an efficient & effective plan that redistributes wealth in such a manner that it is equitable, offers fair opportunity to individual abilities & outcomes are fairly predictable.

but again, the present structure will not give room for that. hence an economy in free fall.

that been said, TI in 2014 (I think, or 2013) showed an improvement in our corruption rating. it wasn't much, but it showed we were making progress.

& it was not because the government was chasing people, but because processes where being put in place to curb corruption.

No change, just noise.

Some folks will say if given the opportunity,they would still vote Buhari instead of GEJ,and that GEJ would not have done any better than Buhari presently. I look at such people and laugh at their huge capacity for foolery. How do you know GEJ wouldn't have done better than Buhari since the nation was aleast 100x better during GEJ's tenure than it is now? That is what i call self-conceited stupidity. Such folks are nothing but dumbos who will only learn the hard way.

Even all the CHANGERs on NL don DIE OF HUNGER!!!!

Muchechecheche

APC NL!!! We dey HAIL O!!!!

Even NL can't afford ads to cure barrenness anymore!

Chai!!!!

A president that cannot READ his own emails due to ILLITERACY! No WAEC na CURSE!!!

The excesses of this govt has become just so overtly incomprehensible. Infact, i feel like am in a lot of trance these days....Anyway, God help us.

Mr Toluakin, pls kindly tend to d matters biko. I can only guess u know what i mean boss.

jmichlins:
yes you stated obvious facts but reality is that there's nothing to be done to change this mess we are in until 2019 so instead of you writing this, you will do well to lecture us on what to look out for come 2019 because just like you said I will vote a goat to make sure I remove this government unless something drastic happens. Goodluck didn't ride on the euphoria he was elected on and it's no fault of mine.

democracy cannot save us in 2019 because only nincompoops run for office.very little to choose from.capitalism however is the key to development

Buhari should swallow his pride and revert the TSA to where he met it.

The CBN is not known to pay a single interest on the money in the TSA 'warehouse', and inflation at over 17% and rising. That means the money is losing 17% of its value. Return back the money to the banks, they will use it to reflate the economy through lending.

But more than that, Buhari should be persuaded to resign. He has made his point. God will reward him in his future endeavors. He has really tried his best. Just that his best is not up to what is needed to run an ordinary local government in Katsina State.

Cromagnon:
democracy cannot save us in 2019 because only nincompoops run for office.very little to choose from.capitalism however is the key to development

I don't have anything else to tell you since you think that democracy can't help us. If democracy can't help what will

God gave Buhari to warn Nigeria against indiscipline and that we will get worse if we don't behave and stop our insanity and incessant corruption.

jmichlins:
I don't have anything else to tell you since you think that democracy can't help us. If democracy can't help what will

a very strong man
or a very long time(britain 400 years usa 200 years of democracy)

Nigeria is a country that voted out a 54 years old PhD holder and voted in a 79 years old Illiterate. What a country and still, some "youth" probably paid or too ashamed to admit are still justifying their error.

WHAT A COUNTRY !!!!!!!!!!!