Buhari administration clocks
one year in power, civil society activist and
president, Nigeria Voters Assembly (VOTAS),
Comrade Mashood Erubami, looks at the
achievements of the new administration, saying it
has made giant strides in many areas. President Muhammadu Buhari clocked one year as
an elected president last Sunday. The election
represented a change of guard from the
unimpressive and unproductive government of
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Buhari and his All
Progressives Congress (APC) rode to power on the crest waves of ‘change’. He was elected on the
basis of his personal virtues of transparent,
accountable leadership and his promises to bring
about positive changes in the economy, to fight
corruption and insecurity. He has used his goodwill
effectively to ensure that the positive changes to start bearing fruits through changing the rules of
engagement and methods of governance in the
areas of constitution of the political office holders
and programmes of government. As we have come to understand the change
mantra, there is something new in the President
Buhari change government given that peoples’
expectation is unarguably very high. The chant of
change in itself means that the government
represents something new. Change means bringing about difference in a situation positively or
otherwise as Nigeria for a long time has existed on
very low moral standards. In the last one year, the
context of the APC change mantra has been shown
to be about bringing the country out of decay to a
different status through radical redirection and transformation in new attitudes and new
orientation, replacing old, unusual practices with a
new and different heart. Evidently, there has been manifestation of new
levels of change in that government has seized to
be conducted as business as usual like in the past.
The changes have been real, governance has
started to be newly democratic remaining to be
inclusive, people driven and people owned. Before the emergence of Buhari in power, the
Nigerian economy was growing, but it was not
impacting on the lives of the citizenry. Ironically,
majority still lives in penury because the prosperity
did not trickle down to the poor and the lower
middle class. As a result, it is not easy to evaluate the Buhari
administration in the last one year. The
administration has been confronted with huge
challenges, which affected the ruling party’s
already worked out programme to reposition the
economy. This development has caused initial discontent among the populace, but with his strong
character, honesty and focused leadership, the
President has in the last one year adjusted the
programme. The delay in constituting his cabinet
was also another factor that affected the speed of
the government in the last one year. Artisan, traders and even blue chip businesses
have started to pick up in their trades, because
Buhari has started to run a new government of
change, by facing the multiple problems facing the
economy with a strong political will. Right now Buhari is already making steady
progress in diverse areas of life. For instance, the
administration has repositioned the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to become
more effective in its operations. Already, has
started witnessing achievements that were unheard of in the last 16 years, by contributing to
growing the economy and dishing out monthly
reports of its activities. Production, sales and
income generation from oil are being published in
manners that underscore transparency and
accountability. This is another step following after what he
introduced while in power as a military head of
state between 1983 and 1985, when he made
citizens to know the state of the economy through
the then Minister of Finance, Dr. Onaolapo Soleye.
The minister made public the revenues made on quarterly basis. On the promise to fight insurgency, it is unarguable
that the war against terrorism is being steadily
won. Boko Haram insurgents have been disarmed
and are no longer controlling territories,
kidnapping citizens and terrorizing the people with
bombs day and night. Electricity supply for industrial and domestic
usages are being engaged towards improvement
unlike what obtained before, PMB took the reign,
improving productivity, reducing the cost of
production and enhancing income/surplus. Not a
few of every sector of life enjoy improving electricity supplies even though there are still
rooms for improvement. On corruption, the promise made by PMB is
already yielding results, corruption has been made
to become an unpardonable offence in Nigeria and
those saddled with the fight against corruption are
now up and coming in their responsibilities. High
calibre offenders are being raked into detention and being queried on their stewardship and very
soon will find themselves in jails where they
belong. Today, Nigeria’s rating has improved
internationally. The government has started to put
pressure on the international community to help it
recoup stolen funds tasking world leaders to do
something quickly. Right now, Britain and Switzerland are being
implored to assist Nigeria in this regard.
Notwithstanding the challenges of Corruption
fightbacks, Buhari has achieved a lot in the area of
fighting corruption in the first one year of his
administration and this is quite discernible to all. It is no gain saying that President Buhari came into
government with the exceptional courage to tackle
corruption in a country that has been described as
‘fantastically corrupt’. He is not only fighting corruption, he is also
engaging corruption fightback and blocking
leakages in the system. The revenue accruing to
the nation through the Nigeria Customs Service and
the NNPC has increased astronomically. The President has improved the on the revenue
accruing to the country in the face of the falling oil
prices in the world market. Yet, the resolve to
diversify the economy cannot start yielding result
in just months. Buhari inherited an economy in
crisis on account of declining oil revenues and an economy also ravaged by large-scale corruption
and internal insecurity Sustaining the legacy As we move through into the second year, the
government headed by Buhari must begin to
enthrone financial accountability, improve living
standards, defeat corruption, reduce
unemployment, as well as indiscipline; a
phenomenon, which in Buhari’s analysis, three decades ago “is the main problem of Nigeria.” He must go back to the drawing board to begin to
make the people the safeguard of the system and
relist a comprehensive programme on value re-
orientation (relaunching of WAI), as well as resolve
the internal rift within his party. Buhari and the APC should revert to quarterly
public information presentation either directly or
through his dedicated minister on current and
emerging issues about economy, peoples
orientation (discipline), gains from anti-crimes and
anti-insurgency wars and successes in anti corruption drives to lay bear before the people,
information about the three core areas of tasks
allotted for the government of change. The current efforts at fighting corruption should
continue to be non-selective and unsparing. The
giver and the taker of bribe and stolen money
should be treated as equal criminals. If two people
commit the same type of crimes, no one should be
treated with kid gloves. The Federal Government should open a dedicated
account to serve as a pool for keeping the
proceeds of recovered graft and stolen money and
make public regularly: Such money should be
utilised for better and beneficial purposes that will
last longer and sustain prosperity in the life of the citizens; provide equipment for the armed forces;
create jobs for our army of unemployed graduates;
fix all roads schools and hospitals that are in states
of disrepair.
Nation