Democracy: President Buhari's achievements, successes and failures after 2 years in office

- After two years of being on the saddle, economic programmes of President Muhammadu Buhari are yet to have impact on the life of the common Nigerian

- His frequent travels and poor state of health have also in no small measure slowed down the implementation of certain programmes he seems to have penned down for Nigeria

- Although members of his cabinet and media aides have argued that he has good plans for Nigeria, the Nigerian people are yet to agree with the view of his aides

- As at today, President Muhammadu Buhari has spent two years in office, Nigerians are saying the national economy is immobile and the much publicised change agenda has not benefited the poorest of the poor

How time flies, people are quick to say. Indeed, two years is gone already since President Muhammadu Buhari became President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That also means, its two years to the end of the tenure.

For some folks, it has been two tortuous years of change, changing from what the country was to what obtains now. For some others, nothing really changed, while some are so indifferent to the political situation in the country that they probably never even notice when an election is done.

In the mid-term report sheet released by the presidency, the achievements are stated to include growth in agriculture by 4.11 percent, solid minerals by 7 percent resulting in an increased contribution from the ministry to the federation account from N700m in 2015 to about N2 billion in 2016.

The fact-sheet also claims that despite the low oil prices, the nation’s external reserves have grown by US$7 billion since October 2016, the sovereign wealth fund has received inflows totaling to US$500m in 2016 and 2017 while the excess crude account has seen an inflow of US$87m, in 2017.

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What all these economic jargons portend for the average man on the street is hard to say. Despite the consistent savings, especially in the external reserves in the last two years, as given by the government, Nigeria has continued to witness a persistent depreciation of the naira as against the dollar.

This, in turn, has resulted in untold hardships for many Nigerians, as the naira drop has led to a steady inflation over the last couple of years. Prices of almost every imported commodity has doubled, and even the locally produced commodities have increased concurrently, to enable the producers still meet with their financial demands.

While the government states that the local production of grains in 2016 has been substantially increased from 2 tonnes per hectare to as much as 7 tonnes per hectare, in some states, causing the country’s rice imports to drop from 580,000 MT in 2015 to 58,000MT in 2016, it is no secret that the price of a bag of rice (which is the most popular grain) is more than 30 percent higher than what it used to be before May 29, 2015. This, according to economic analysts, is the sure result of restricting imports when the local production capacity has not been sufficiently built to meet the food demands.

Prices of fertilizers have been reduced by up to 30 percent to make it more available for local farmers and a series of funding and capacity development initiatives have been designed and launched to support Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) across the country including the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari in August 2016.

Even the aspect of export has been simplified as the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has now been mandated to schedule and coordinate joint physical examination of cargo to ensure there’s only one point of contact between importers and officials.

This has made it easier for local producers wishing to export their products, as even the Central Bank, Customs and banks now required to process Net Export Proceeds forms within 72 hours; and Pre-Shipment Inspection Agencies (PIAs) now required to issue Certificate of Clean Inspection (CCI) within 3 days. However, the possibility of exporting when the local market has not been satisfactorily supplied and imports have reduced is quite slim.

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Also, the infrastructure sector has witnessed massive input with the revival of some abandoned projects. In this aspect, the major criticisms has been pointed towards one zone begin ignored. A second republic lawmaker, Junaid Mohammed, claimed in a recent chat with DAILY POST that President Muhammadu Buhari is behaving just like the Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan by favouring only the South-west region in terms of infrastructural development while neglecting his own people, the north.

Mr. Mohammed was quoted to have said that President Buhari has also not built even a single road in the north despite haven spent two years of his administration. According to him, “Today, it is the south-west that is enjoying the Buhari administration in terms of key appointments and development projects like roads. He has short-changed the north. He has not done even a single road so far in the north. Buhari’s idea of project implementation is skewed in favour of the South west. This is the same thing that Jonathan did for other parts of the country excluding the South south where he comes from.”

In the area of security where the president could indeed be commended for the drastic reduction in the Boko Haram attacks, some citizens still feel that the sect are only lying low for a while and have not really been subdued. For such persons, it is more a political case than anything else, especially with the sudden uproar of the Niger Delta militancy which had hitherto been resolved by the Yar A’dua administration.

To resolve this, during the president’s absence a couple of months ago, Acting President Osibanjo took the lead to visit these areas, hear their complaints and outline the plan of the federal government for their communities. This positive citizen engagement has led to a new vision which brought together a robust set of promises, solutions, targets and initiatives aimed at ensuring that the people of the Niger Delta benefit maximally from the region’s oil wealth.

In line with this, President Buhari subsequently approved an additional 35 billion naira for the 2016 budget of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, as well as the approval of a 2017 commencement date for the stalled Nigerian Maritime University in Delta state among others.

For every successive administration in Nigeria, power has always been an issue, and even for the best governments in the country, when the issue of electricity is called, the government is still somehow found wanting. In this insatiable sector, the president launched a reform with the 701 billion naira payment assurance programme designed to resolve the liquidity challenges in the power sector.

Nigerians claim to have felt some impact in this area, especially with the removal of the N700 monthly service charge given to subscribers by distribution companies even when no electricity unit was consumed. Also there has been an improvement in power supply in some parts of the country.

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Even the president’s travels to other countries which was largely criticized last year did bring about a change, unlocking billions of dollars in infrastructure funding. Construction work has commenced on the first major product of that collaboration with China and Morocco, a 150km/hour rail line between Lagos and Ibadan.

For Manji Cheto, a public affairs analyst, the underwhelming performance of the APC government led by Muhammadu Buhari was inevitable from the beginning, based on the clear gap between what the public expected of the government and what it could realistically achieve.

Cheto stated that the expectations became even more impossible to achieve because of the ever mounting but not unexpected challenges which the government has had to face ranging from the fall in oil prices to the heightened terrorism risks triggered by Boko Haram, not to mention unbridled corruption which was a major agenda for the president.

Even if the government is to be judged based on the yardstick set during the campaigns, it would still fall short. The All Progressives Congress (APC) had delivered a lot of ‘vague and unrealistic’ promises, most of which had to be discarded as soon as the government assumed power and assessed the reality on ground. The result therefore has been disappointment for the electorates especially for those who voted on the basis of their convictions that such plans were workable.

Cheto insists that the early signs the government would fail were there all along; from the President exhausting eight months to appoint his capable cabinet, and an additional 14 months to unveil its medium-term economic strategy, the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), plus the now-customary practice of delayed budget presentations and approvals. “By all means, the Buhari administration can, so far, only be described as taking a bad situation and making it worse. For this reason, continued attempts to paint the government as a victim of a set of unfortunate circumstances are, at most, disingenuous,” he stated.

The Vision of the NERGP which was only inaugurated in November 2016 is to restore economic growth, invest in Nigeria, and to build a globally competitive economy by returning Nigeria’s economy to sustainable, inclusive and diversified growth, and to transform Nigeria from an import-dependent to a producing economy; a country that grows what it eats and consumes what it produces. In this aspect, Nigerians are still waiting to see like the Biblical Thomas who refused to believe without seeing.

The fight against corruption which for most, was the strongest symbol of his integrity and strength of character, has been a case of ‘sidon look.’ The Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA) was set up by President Muhammadu Buhari to strengthen controls over government finances through a continuous internal audit process across all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), particularly in respect of payroll and through their activities, more than 50,000 erroneous payroll entries have been identified, with payroll savings of N198 billion achieved in 2016.

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The single treasury account was also comprehensively enforced despite all the protests with the directive issued on August 7, 2015, to all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to close their accounts with deposit money banks (DMBs) and transfer their balances to the Central Bank of Nigeria on or before 15th September of the same year.

This decision according to its proponents helped the government to manage its finances (revenues and payments) using a single/unified account, and resulted in the consolidation of more than 20,000 bank accounts previously spread across DMBs in the country, and in savings of an average of N4.7 billion monthly in banking charges associated with indiscriminate government borrowing from the DMBs.

It also ensures increased transparency in public financial management, as well as prevents a scenario in which some MDAs have idle cash while other MDAs are compelled to borrow exorbitantly from DMBs.

The fight against corruption has also remained largely inconclusive, as there has hardly been any arrest and prosecution seen through to the end. It has just been issues of whistle-blowing and tracking of funds in one hideouts after the other. Across most, if not all sectors, it has been testimonies of increased savings and more inflow of funds, but surprisingly, a lot of citizens expectations are still left unfulfilled. Hopefully, these desires will not become another case of ‘a dream deferred.’

On the other hand, for those who claimed to have voted him in on the grounds of his transparency and integrity, he has failed to show 100 percent transparency on the state of his health. In the last one year of his administration, he has had to embark on medical tourism times without number, and without any publicly stated reason. His consistent failing health, which has resulted to series of medical trips in the name of one check-up or the other, has been a cause of worry to Nigerians.

Even though his wife Aisha Buhari has publicly stated on her twitter handler that the President “is not as bad as it’s being perceived,” and he still continues to fulfill his presidential duties every day, and some other personal aides have toed the same line, Nigerians await the day when the president will come out clean on what exactly he has been travelling out to treat, and what it portends for the economy as well as for his political party and associates.

Mockingly, some Nigerians have taken to the social media accounts to vent their frustration at not being seen as important enough to reveal the state of his health. Some have jokingly referred to him as a visiting President whose base is truly situated in London, while some others claim that for the first time Nigeria is having two presidents and no vice president, the acting president and the visiting president.

There are even indications from recent reports that some National Assembly members may attempt to call for the invocation of section 144 (1) of the 1999 constitution aimed at ascertaining the health status of President Muhammadu Buhari.

As at last week, The Guardian reports that there was an attempt by the chairman of the house committee on public accounts, Mr. Kingsley Chinda, to present the issue under matters of urgent importance on the floor of the House of Representatives; but the Speaker of the House, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, was not favourably disposed to having such a weighty issue with grave political implications in the polity listed on the order paper of the lower legislative chamber.

Meanwhile, this NAIJ.com video Nigerians reacting to Northern leaders statement that Osinbajo will not be made President in 2019