Pat Utomi (Professor of Political Economy)
My take on this is that this is not a good time to score the President one way or the other. We are in a national emergency. The country is in a rolling civil war. There was the Florida Everglades River I studied in Geography. I had thought it was a mass of land as described in Geography, until I visited it about 25 years ago. I saw that it was the slowest moving river in the world. That metaphor applies to Nigeria. If you go to the South-South, there is a civil war. You have the same in the South-East and the North-East.
The country is in a state of war. We should not be looking at the President alone. The failure of this government is that it has not realised actually the state where the country is. The problem lies in their inability to recognise where we are. Our economy is in a very bad shape.
My problem about the economy is that there is no clear articulation about how we can get it right. We are just rolling and rolling in a spot. Not that there is a problem is the problem, but that there is no articulation of how to get out of the problem.
The kind of politics we adopt is the kind that allows cronies to thrive. If there is anything painful about the government, it is that it is a repeat of what played out between 1983 and 1985. We have the same costly mistakes coming back. We are supposed to have passed the learning stages. We need to decentralise authority. Many of the problems are created by the misplaced authorities and power. We are in a paradox of progressive degeneration. We should learn and move forward, not backwards.
Adeseye Ogunlewe (A former Minister of Works)
I think in the area of fighting corruption, I can say yes, the President has justified his election. But the fight against corruption is alleged to be one-sided. The investors are also looking at the clampdown on the judiciary, and that is not good enough. This is because, if they (investors) have any problem, it is the same judiciary that will bail them out. In terms of his personality, Buhari is admirable because he seems to be a genuine leader.
He has a good pedigree and a track record. But looking at the economy, when Buhari came, the Gross Domestic Product grew at six per cent per annum, now it is -2 per cent. The problem is that Buhari did not start early. He believed he had all the time. The world economy does not wait for anybody.
Investors do not have the time to wait for him to put all the ministers together. For example, it took the President about eight months to have ministers in his cabinet. So, the investors had to take their monies elsewhere. Therefore, the economy is not doing well at all at the moment. Anyone who thinks on the contrary should go to the market. If for an example, you are sick and you go to the market, you will see that the prices of drugs have doubled now. Nigeria does not manufacture drugs. We deceive ourselves if we say there is no problem. The truth is that there are a lot of problems.
A number of Nigerians also cannot send their children to school, both local and international because there are no funds. The worst part of the Buhari administration is the lack of consultation. I do not know who are his advisers, but they have not got any clue on consultation. The President’s best friends should be the National Assembly and the leadership of his party, which he must consult with regularly before taking any decision. My plea to the President is to use his national caucus to make things work for him.
Alhaji Moshood Salvador, (Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party, Lagos State chapter)
It is absolutely impossible for the President to be popular at the moment. He came into power when everyone was happy and had a pleasant home. But now, it is a sad story. Businessmen are lamenting and the business environment is not as pleasant as it used to be. Who would then accept the President anywhere in the country? People that are deceiving themselves in the country do not know what we are passing through. We have the antecedents of the President in 1984 and 1985. Therefore, it is absolutely impossible to score him high until we are able to see the effectiveness of his administration.
We are glad about his fight against corruption but it should not be selective. It must not be used as a political whip or tool to intimidate innocent Nigerians. Nobody is raising eyebrows about the anti-corruption fight.
A particularly area where the President’s administration is doing badly is the economy. The President and his caucus may have their own agenda, which is not exposed. We were lamenting that the dollar was N150 when Buhari came.
But now that the dollar is above N300; we are in a deep trouble. All the investors are running away.
Mumuni Adetokunbo, (Socio-Economic Right Accountability Project)
That acceptance which greeted the President in 2015 has waned considerably and the obvious reason is because of the economic downturn. This is also because Nigerians are witnessing a serious depletion in their standard and of living. The President came in with so much goodwill but this is sliding away now. Unless he does something about the living standard of the people, there cannot be acceptance.
On the economic front, you cannot even score him an average mark. Whether the economy grows or not, it is measured by the standard of living of the people. If you say the Gross Domestic Product and the Gross National Product have risen, those are statistics. What are the average Nigerians saying? The only grounds on which the President can be rated high are in terms of security and also his fight against corruption.
Debo Adeniran (Coordinator, Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders)
The President has been able to make some significant achievements in the areas of security and his anti-corruption war. These are actually the main reasons why Nigerians overwhelming voted for him in 2015. We know his pedigree and what he did during his tenure as a military Head of State. Everyone knows the implications of corruption on the economy.
After the 2015 general election, Nigerians wanted a radical departure from the past. And that is what Buhari has just started. But we expected him to declare his assets from day one when he was declared the winner. He did not do that until it became almost belated. This is one of the setbacks. Till now, there are some of his ministers who are also accused of corruption.
The President has not initiated an investigation into this allegation. He is the only one who has been giving them (accused persons clean bills of health) which are not based on known investigations. Basically, we expect that the President would initiate an investigation into the allegations against his ministers accused of corruption. The President has, however, achieved in the area of security because he has, to a large extent, brought insurgency to a very minimal level.
Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (Human rights lawyer)
To me, the President was not accepted by the people in 2015. He was not welcomed with glamour and popularity. You remember that the period following the 2015 general election and when the administration took off was a rainy season when the dams were full and electricity was more stable. Then the government took fraudulent credit for the improvement in electricity supply. Some said the President’s purported body language had brought about stability in power and the exchange rate. But long after the dry season came, we knew that there were no additional megawatts. Between 2015 and now, it is clear to everyone in the country that we are in for trouble.
There is no single Nigerian that can be glad with a directionless administration. If you take it from the economic standpoint, there is no single blueprint; the fiscal policy is in riot with the monetary policy. Some quarters have asked the country to brace up for a revolution in the face of the hard times we are going through. The All Progressives Congress, in its manifesto, promised several kilometres of good roads, but it has not even completed the rehabilitation of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
The same story is what we have in power generation. I have no doubt in my mind that the people of the country have been short-changed and we are now in a period of civilian dictatorship. We are running a government that is operated by a cabal, as confirmed by even the wife of the President.
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