[b] Its been nearly a year since Buhari ascended the presidency, one year since we all dared to dream, one year since we all stood up for what we think Nigeria should be. The level of hysteria, jingoism, mass participation and brazen partisanship that defined the 2015 elections may never again be experienced in this country.
This amateur attempt at an article is not meant to disparage anyone and i refute being tagged a 'wailer or a zombie'. My history on nairaland shows an avowed progressive and once Buhari shed his toga of authoritarianism and political conservatism I supported him wholeheartedly.
In the 2015 elections Buhari was not my favorite candidate, I would have embraced a Pat Utomi or a Remi Sonaiya but the intricacies of Nigerian politics made their chances anything between zero and nil making me settle for the only electable option left. Buhari is ascetic, Buhari is stern, Buhari is incorruptible and a man of integrity but no one ever called Buhari brilliant, we knew we were getting a very limited candidate but the odiousness of the PDP stank to the high heavens, While Jonathan himself might be a decent man as evidenced by his concession which has made him a 'hero' to some the conduct of the affairs of state under him left much to be desired, it will be an understatement of the century to say Nigeria was looted, it was looted blind and our commonwealth were cornered by a select few.
Some may ask why the long epistle, well it seems easier to speak your mind here. As an economist(which i am by the way) or someone who has a passing knowledge of political economy you probably know there are two main economic school of thought competing for dominance. The free market/ libertarian/ conservative school of thought which opposes the very presence of government in the market place, they believe the forces of demand and supply and not government should determine prices, in its extremity they are against every form of regulation, welfare, taxation, minimum wage legislation, taxation and every way government skews the market while on the other hand the socialist/leftist/liberal politico-economy school of thought believes government has a role to play in the market to ensure fairness, economic justice, equitable distribution of income which is usually accomplished through taxation, social security and welfare, minimum wage legislation and lately a mission to protect the environment.
From his pedigree we knew Buhari to be a poltical/social conservative(which bothers me) and statist/command/socialist in economic outlook(which bothers me even more) but even the most passionate defender of the statist paradigm will tell you that ignoring the market is to ones peril.
For the record I do not blame Buhari for the economic downturn, that blame has to be placed squarely at Jonathan's door for his lack of decisive leadership. Under Jonathan Nigeria raked in record oil revenues but public debt both in nominal terms and as a proportion of the GDP also rose which constitutes a paradox, How can you earn and borrow at record levels?, while Saudi Arabia was growing her reserves at more than $100Billion per annum, Norway's sovereign wealth fund and pension fund hit an high of $1trillion twice its GDP. I leave Jonathan's conduct for posterity to judge.
I have to admit i underestimated how stubborn, obstinate and fossilized Buhari was in his ways, following the oil glut Nigeria needed dynamic leadership which he failed to provide. I will say at this point that his economic policies will wreck Nigeria faster than IPOB, Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen combined and in record speed too. We have already seen an significant spike in income inequality, inflation and a significant drop in social cohesion.
Buhari keeps railing on about why he does not want to devaluate the naira, how it will hurt poor people but as the president he lives in a bubble and sources Zara's fees from the 'official market' but i got news for you Mr President the market has adjusted and the poor are already significantly poorer, no one takes the official dollar rate seriously anymore.
The CBN governor went on national television and basically guaranteed Dangote all the $$$ dollars he wanted if this is not cronyism and rent seeking i really do not know what to call it, who will guarantee dollars to Baba Taju that wants to import improved seeds for his tomato farm or for Chukwudi that wants to import engine from Japan or millions of people without direct access to Mr CBN? resources that should have been spent on productive enterprise are now used to 'lobby(bribe)' bankers to get some semblance of FOREX close to the official exchange rate.
Combine that with the scourge of Fulani herdsmen to which the government is working 'silently' to resolve with the throwback to jackboot, gestapo ways of protest resolution (IPOB, Shiites) a notorious throwback to a military past time to an attempt for surface but not institutional reforms and finally to the growing army of unemployed youths and adults and the general depressing mood of the country , You do not need Melisandre to look it up in the flames for you to know Nigeria is sitting on a keg of bleeping gunpowder. May the gods spare us [/b]

We are entering the 5th month without a budget.

SamuelAnyawu:
We are entering the 5th month without a budget.

The country is on auto pilot