Muhammadu Buhari had contested for the position of Nigeria presidency three times and eventually won on the fourth time. As a presidential candidate in the 2003, 2007, 2011, and 2915 elections, Buhari made many promises to enhance the welfare of Nigerians. In 2015, Buhari came with many promises. They included ending the Boko Haram insurgency within 100 days in office, stabilise the economy, reactivate the Nigerian refineries and build more, provide conducive environment for learning and subsidise education, end the academic strikes in all schools, reduce pump price of petrol to less than N60 and improve the agriculture sector.
President Buhari also promised to focus on healthcare, sports and power sectors. In 2015, his government came up with a five-point agenda to overhaul and make the oil sector efficient and viable, to stamp out corruption in the country, provide mass employment, tackle insecurity, improve infrastructure and good health care in the country.
Unfortunately, the government has failed in its promises. On fighting corruption, Transparency International, TI, in 2022, ranked Nigeria at 154 out of 180 corrupt nations globally. Unemployment rate “in 2015 was at 8%, but hovering around 34% this year. Fuel is scarce and sold beyond the government recommended price of N184 as most stations sell at N300 per liter.
Education has become an expensive commodity with tuition fees rising to N500, 000 in some states and federal tertiary institutions. This shows that nothing has changed in the aspect of social and economic condition of the country but have instead worsened. Power sector has collapsed, the national grid collapsed 98 times amid N1.52tn bailout. The fight against insecurity is still a challenging war but has gulped over $1bn for the purchase of weapons.
The oil sector was better in the past than today because this government that promised to revitalise and make the three refineries of the country functional has sold them for private operation and to add adverse effect on the economy subsidy is due for removal in June, this year. The economy is dwindling and hardship is evident in all parts of the country. Unemployment is worsening and the number of out-of-school children is daily increasing and becoming frightening. Farming is no more safe and conducive for the farmers because of kidnappers and bandits that continue to raid villages and kill villagers.
Despite this deplorable situation of the country, President Buhari is of the opinion that his government had done very well. In October, 2022, he said his government had “impacted sectors like power, communications, digital economy, oil and gas, national security, anti-graft war, social investment, health, and agriculture.” Buhari’s government is insisting that his government has done a lot for the people. He blamed anti-party, opposition and the bad eggs of Nigerians that are destroying his efforts.
It was calculated that for 20 times President Buhari has blamed others for the failure of his government. In September 2022, President blamed the Nigerian elite for insecurity and infrastructure development”. He blamed academic staff of tertiary schools for sending his children to a London university; blamed the epileptic power on the previous leaders; unemployment on the youths by considering them “lazy” and gold-diggers waiting for white collar jobs. He blamed state governors for not doing well in the rural areas on social development, blamed doctors of the country for traveling to London hospital for medical checkups and medication.
The Buhari is more conversant with blame-victim theory to prove his loyalty and transparency to the international community by exonerating himself from mistakes and failure of his government. He believes that his government is perfect and the best in the history of Nigeria. Many times, Buhari boasted about the good record and high performance of his government. In September 2022 in Owerri, Imo state, President Buhari commended his administration, saying, “My administration has done extremely well” in Imo state.
And, as the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, January 31, deadline of old naira notes collection approaches, the government is blaming commercial banks for refusing to collect the new naira notes. The question is, what is the meaning of this statement and its metaphor; does this government want to repeat what happened in 1984?
Now that petrol is sold above the official price, the government is blaming the independent marketers, and the marketers have said they buy the product above the government price and some times pay kick backs.
When food prices escalate and Naira crashes the government blames others instead of addressing the problem.
As the Buhari government comes to an end on May 29, it is leaving a challenge for the next president. In his new year message, President Buhari said: “I did my best for Nigeria…. “And I pray that the next president will also pick up the baton and continue the race to make Nigeria one of the leading countries of the world by the end of this century.”
Ibrahim, a political analyst and lecturer of Mass Communication, Kaduna Polytechnic, writes from Kaduna via [email protected]
