President Buhari: Time to hurry up

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As President Muhammadu Buhari begins his second term in office, we join millions of law-abiding and well-meaning Nigerians to congratulate the President. Particularly heartwarming was that Nigerians and supporters of the opposition accepted the result despite its many observed faults and kept the peace just as in 2015. Indeed, the success of democracy in the country, which has a population of 190.9 million and is home to Africa’s largest economy, matters for the whole continent. Yet, with his reelection, anxiety is high. It is on this note we call on the President and his party to understand that their second term place a great burden on them to quickly settle down and correct the many blunders that made their first term uneventful and short of expectations.


Elsewhere in developed democracies, reelection of candidates are seen by the people as periods of fun, more like carnivals. Candidates return to the office in a relaxed atmosphere to explain their performance during their first tenure. On the part of the masses, they welcome their prospective leaders with hope, relate with them freely and extract commitments from them on what they expect to get in return. The masses, during the period, are proud to flaunt the nation’s symbols, convinced that they are part of a process that will further the growth of the nation in all its ramifications.


Sadly, opposite is the case in Nigeria where the masses have experienced economically drab and ideologically uneventful four years. The President’s record over the last four years is discouraging. Under the watchful eyes of Buhari, few countries fail to punch their weight as dismally as Nigeria. He has failed to diversify the country’s economy as oil still contribute more than 70% of the government’s revenue and more than 90% of her foreign exchange. The Lagos Stock exchange is in the doldrums, and, between May 31, 2015 and May 31 2019, the naira has fallen from $199 to the present $360. Economic growth has barely recovered following the 2014 crash of the oil price. Per capita gross domestic product is less than it was when he took office. Joblessness has more than tripled. The public education and health systems have all but collapsed. Erratic power supply is a daily fact of life.


The bad news keeps coming. Efforts to spur agriculture and other non-oil parts of the economy have failed. Foreign direct investment has fallen by more than half since 2010. Boko Haram insurgency appears to be gaining strength, violence persists in the Niger Delta and environmental pressures due to climate change have stoked clashes between herdsmen and their host communities, the country’s political class is badly fragmented, and popular confidence in the government’s ability to provide security is eroding. All told, more than 2 million Nigerians have been displaced by conflict. The country also has the world’s second largest number of people suffering from HIV/AIDS, and faces huge burdens from tuberculosis, malaria and other preventable diseases. Governance remains weak, corruption and crime rampant. The proportion of Nigerians living in poverty in 2015 was 61%. By 2018, Nigeria has become the poverty capital of the world.


KAFTAN POST maintains that the second term of Buhari should be the term Nigeria takes an important step towards fulfilling her immense potential. The country is more divided than when he assumed power in 2015. He is now facing the twin threats of unlikely high expectations in the north and deep suspicion and skepticism in the south. He’ll have to work hard to bring the divided nation together.


To move the country forward, Buhari needs to give equal weight to economic revival, without which little progress will be made in quenching conflict and radicalism. To promote domestic manufacturing and farming, the President restricted importers of more than 40 categories of goods, including cement, fertiliser and textiles, access to hard currency. Over the past four years, this official decision has led to more smuggling, more shortages, and a thriving currency black market. To address this, unifying exchange rates and liberalising access to hard currency would be a major step forward.


Access to electricity supply and good roads would be a great help to the agricultural sector that employs two-thirds of Nigeria’s workforce. Lack of cold storage facilities and an efficient transport system, crop farmers like plantain, oranges, among others, suffer losses of up to half their production. Decongesting the Apapa ports will also be a huge step as crop exports such as cashews are holed up.


To fund public investment, the government of Buhari will need to boost non-oil revenue through improved tax compliance and enforcement. Until the tax system is fixed, further reliance on debt would be unwise, although the debt ratio of the country looks modest at about 25 percent of GDP. The problem is that Nigeria collects relatively small revenue, so the debt service eats up most of the budget. Debt servicing already accounts for 60% of federal revenue, and the figure is expected to rise to more than 80% by 2022, a level that the IMF calls “unsustainable.”


Buhari’s first term was seriously overwhelmed by unnecessary crises with other arms of government. Other arms of government’s constitutional rights were largely trapped, and this caused a lot of disaffection in the system. That should be corrected. Buhari should make good his commitment this time around to run an all-inclusive government. This is crucial for rapid development to restore peace and national unity.


The time for triviality, frippery and unhelpful pandering to narrow feelings is over. Buhari is presented with the last chance to live up to the expectations of the people and leave the stage in 2023 with ovation across the bight. Buhari needs to hurry up to etch his name in gold. He already appears to be late at 76.

































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