The Journey So Far »

^{Making a delivery of speech at a summit in Washington DC on the 14th of December, 2022, President Muhammadu Buhari, affirmatively, declared he has done his best in piloting the affairs of the country ever since he took over the mantle of leadership from Good luck Ebele Jonathan. Taking into cognizance, the security, economy and fight against corruption will be dissected in broaden approach in today's column as those were the areas targeted at using the mantra "change" during his campaign period.}

Before President Buhari took over in 2015, May 29th, the country went into coma. Almost every region of the country had been put into the state of chaos. Pandemonium resulted from every day bomb blast became the usual. Insecurity was on rise on daily basis. And this ugly situation was one of the key reasons the Jonathan led administration was voted out in the February general election of 2015.

President Buhari took over power with so many mouth watering promises made during the campaigns. From dragging, drastically, the price of petrol to the best minimal as compared to the previous administration to crushing the Boko Haram insurgency and making 1 Naira to 1 dollar exchange come into reality.

Going into the nitty gritty of such policies and bringing them into reality, it would be unfair to say that they aren’t tedious to accomplish. However, the pilot had given the assurance of making all come into realization.

At the time of writing this piece, incessant case of bomb blasting in all the nooks and crannies of the nation wasn’t in place. That has been defeated. However, the operation of the unknown gunmen and bandits is still seeing the light of the day. Of recent, within the span of a month, five cases of attacks have been recorded by the Independent National Electoral Commission {INEC}. Two cases in Osun and Ogun States each and three cases in Imo State only. The offices of the commission and staff aren’t safe. With the reactive measure which the government has been applying, four of the five attacks were successful.

It won’t be unfair to allocate a pass mark to the President in this sector owing to how it was in the previous administration.

Moving to the economic sector of Buhari’s administration, I will start by saying that the experts and technocrats needed in the economic field for proper implementation of fiscal and monetary policies aren’t brought on board. Most of the appointments made in this key sector are based on party affiliation. Mediocrity outweighs Meritocracy in decision making as far as this very sector is concerned.

Should we start from the CBN governor who is an open member of the All Progressives Congress or the Managing Director of Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company {NSPMC} who happens to be his in law? Shouldn’t we also be concerned about the incompetency that the Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed of the Finance, Budget and National planning ministry is showing? Kemi Adeosun was handling the ministry with competency until her removal on a ground which I termed useless and unreasonable.

Yes! a lot of economic reforms policies were introduced for the nation to have an improved economy but where are the competent hands to execute them? This, Dr. Bongo Adi of Lagos Business School {LBS} lamented about. In his words; “having all the necessary economic reforms policies introduced, the President should go for competent hands in developing the country’s man power and improving economy” .

A lot of efforts were made in the introduction of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises {MSMEs} policy to support the various enterprises across the nation which in turn, supposed to have yielded positive outcomes. Also, the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan{ERGP} was introduced in managing debts and to improve the economy. Another issue worth being worried of is the manner in which the administration borrows effortlessly. While it’s good to borrow and fund Capital projects in order to pay off the debt afterwards, it’s pertinent to note that constant borrowing without making use of it judiciously will plunk the economy into recession. All these happen because the administration lacks serious exercise of checks and balances. Everything is compromised at the detriment of the masses and the country’s improved economy.

Holding him to what he promised, what is the exchange rate of Naira to Dollar today? How much is the price of petrol per liter now? Do they deliver the “too much” electricity as promised? Do have all the time you need to make the assessment and answer the questions yourself.

However, I reiterate that programs were initiated for the purpose of improving the economy but why letting those programs handled by incompetent hands which has resulted to the administration recording lower than what it expected?

Talking about the fight against corruption, this administration has done little or nothing compared to how they pledged to tackle the course. If someone had told you when they were campaigning that Buhari’s administration will record corruption cases and nothing will be done to address them, you would have called that person a hater.

Professor Lumumba of Kenya said; “In Japan, a corrupt public official will be killed but in Africa, they are celebrated”. The statement shows how weak corrupt cases and officials are addressed in Africa, inferentially to Nigeria. So much lackadaisical approach. And the betrayal is that what we have now is not what they promised.

In the manifestation of Professor Lumumba’s statement, we are now talking about the former Secretary to Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal. Someone who was caught romancing and having intercourse with fraudulent practices is now bringing up debates as to why other person aside him was chosen as a Vice Presidential candidate. Ridiculous! A person who is supposed to be in prison.

Another worrisome case of corruption recorded is the syphoning of 70bn by the former accountant general of the Federation, Idris Ahmed. The only thing he suffers from the criminal act was a removal from office just as it was done to Babachir Lawal. Jokes of the century.

70billion Naira was available for one person to syphon without being penalized while the education sector at the tertiary level suffers proper funding.

It’s on this note I advise politicians to be extremely careful of the kinds of promises they will make to the masses when contesting for any political office. Words like; ‘I will try to’ should be used instead of the deceptive; ” I will do”

Having known that scoring the President excellent will be a grave mistake and an injustice to judgement of the affairs of the country owing to what he promised, assessing his performance so far, what remark would you likely give if you’re authorized to do so; fairly or foully?

Yusuf Danjuma Yunus is a student of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Kaduna State and can be reached via :yunusand82@gmail.com or @YYunusand on Twitter.