Nigerians groan as Buhari  begins 2nd term

By GODWIN DUNIA, YUSUF MOHAMMED, OBINNA EZUGWU AND SESAN LAOYE

Ahead of the commencement of his second term agenda, Nigerians have expressed a strong sense of despondency as regards their expectations from the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

This much was gleaned when a team of Business Hallmark reporters hit the road to gauge feedback from the public on through administering a poll on what their expectations of the PMB administration were in the second term.

Asked to respond specifically to how they thought the administration would fare in relation to the economy, tackling insecurity, job creation and bolstering national unity from a range of four options (Excellent, Good, Fair and Bad), none of the respondents went for the excellent option.

However, the majority of the respondents communicated that their expectations were between fair and bad, with 20 percent scoring the President fair and 75 percent scoring him bad.

Asked to explain their choices, many of the respondents averred that the verdict from the President’s first term in office was not encouraging and accordingly, they gave hard knocks to the Buhari administration over its handling of the ship of state in the first term.

BusinessHallmark findings reveal that the poll outcome also belies the pessimism and anxieties that respondents are having to grapple with on account of the disappointments they had encountered in the course of the President’s first time out on the saddle.

With just days for President Muhammadu Buhari to be sworn in for a second term of another four years in office, many respondents say that the least that can be done to raise their expectations once again is that the President would undertake a drastic change in his approach to various national issues, ranging from the economy to security, employment and national unity. For many of the respondents, who coincidentally are from the southern part of Nigeria, they believe that the restructuring of the federation is about the only way now to guarantee strong national unity among all the ethnic nationalities that are presently fused together into the Nigerian amalgam.

In Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, 40 people were interviewed in various parts of the town such as Apata, Agodi/Gate, Dugbe, Mokola, Challenge and Iwo road.

Those talked to were drawn from ethnic nationalities that cut across the South Eastern parts of Nigeria, the South West, the South south and the Northern parts of the country. They were also between the ages of 24 and 76, and occupationally, they range from bricklayers to carpenters, tailors, teachers, students, civil servants, surveyors, nurses and okada riders.

All of the 40 Ibadan respondents rated the Buhari administration poorly on the economy and want new strategies to be adopted to improve it.

On: security, 25 said he will perform poorly, 10 said his performance would be excellent, with the remaining 5 undecided.

On the prognosis for employment and job creation, 35 rated the President poorly, 3 gave him a fair mark with two other respondents being undecided.

On their expectations over how the president would address the question of bolstering national unity, five respondents gave the President a fair mark.

However, the other 35 rated him poorly, with some of them going on to suggest that the complete restructuring of the federation was about the only way to guarantee national unity but which they did not see President Buhari as being willing to take up.

Continuing, they proposed that about the only way that President Buhari could frontally respond to continuing accusations of his demonstrating tendencies of nepotism, is to ensure balancing and national spread in the top and strategic positions in his second term.

They strongly advocate a regime of meritocracy and the presence of demonstrably competent people from the south in the government who would help turn the country around. Equally, they want the president himself to be more active in governance now that it appears his health condition has improved.

The situation in Lagos was not dissimilar with the outcome from Ibadan, with as many as 70 percent of respondents saying that they did not expect much to improve in the Buhari second term.

Like in Ibadan, the President did not also get a good or excellent score on any of the canvassed options with 20 per cent scoring him fair and 80 percent scoring him bad.

Respondents were between ages 28-40 and hail from the South West, South East and South South geo-political zones of the country.

Indeed one commentator, Ify Rita said: ‘this country is dead to me. My only expectation is to leave and never come back.’

For Osuinde Obehi, his conclusions were simply based on the premise that President Buhari had performed badly in his first term; he will still do badly in his second.’

On his part, Christian Halliday remarked that the President ‘cannot give what he doesn’t have.

The 2015 promise as albatross

It will be recalled that President Buhari was voted in as president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2015, and based on the fact that the majority opinion then was that he would deliver on the promise of better governance, appease groups that were aggrieved, bring succour to the suffering masses, create jobs for the teeming  population of youths, and most especially for a man with military antecedents, most Nigerians gave him their mandate with the thought that, he would ensure security of lives and property.

One of such Nigerians, who is also a Zonal Sales Manager in Benin City with a leading distribution company in Nigeria, Fareast Mercantile Company Limited, Mr. Tunde Eza, told Business Hallmark that, “It is difficult to believe that the security situation in Nigeria is getting worse every day even when we yet have in the saddle, a man that the majority of Nigerians had voted for with the impression that he would improve upon the state of security in the country.”

The business player expressed his dismay over the security situation in Nigeria, saying that the killing of hapless citizens has sadly now become a daily affair. He said it is obvious that the Buhari first term faced awesome security challenges and that the government has not recorded a pass mark in taking concrete steps that would secure lives and properties.

“I know the Buhari government continues to insist that it did its best in this area in the first term, but the record card of the government in that area is embarrassing to say the least. A situation where we have a retired general as a democratically elected president, one would have thought the security menace and unreasonable killings would have been overcome by now. This is more so when that was part of the three-point agenda of the Buhari campaign in 2015.

“It is difficult to live with the reality that the security situation under such a man’s watch is deteriorating and has not improved much more than what had obtained in the Jonathan era. The Kaduna to Abuja road is practically unsafe to travel to the extent that even the military prefer to travel by rail in that terrain for insecurity reasons.

“Look also at Zamfara that is supposed to be a goldmine in the country and the shocker that Nigerians were not even aware that such level of mining was going on there until people started dying. All these are not expected from a government that enjoyed the support of the majority of the people. Something must be done in its second coming and it must ensure that Nigerians across the divide are secure and can move around any part of the country. President Buhari must change the entire security high command and bring in new ones and order them to rise to the challenge of security of the citizens”.

Eza also lamented the state of the economy in the first term of President Muhammadu Buhari and urged him to wake up and put things in order so as to better the lot of the masses in the second term.

He said: “Whatever policies the new administration wants to put in place must be those that would touch the larger majority of the citizens, most especially the poor and down trodden.

One such measure, Eza believes is for the administration to ensure full and speedy implementation of the new minimum wage.

“The incoming administration must ensure that no state government in the country would find it difficult to pay the minimum wage of N30,000.00 for workers. The minimum wage must be complied with from this month. This, to some extent would alleviate the sufferings of workers.

Other areas of the nation’s parlous economic life did not escape the searchlight of Mr. Eza:

“The president must also ensure that steps are taken to revive the energy sector. This is the driver of our economy and it would facilitate investment which would also create employment opportunities. The energy sector is very crucial to our economic development as a country. Without this, small scale enterprises cannot run at optimal levels.

“Another area that the incoming administration should focus on in its second term is the transport sector. Nigerian roads most especially need total overhauling. We need a more durable and motorable road network if the government actually wants to succeed with the diversification to an agro-economy. Without good roads, that effort would just remain as mere government rhetoric”.

Eza also added: “The new Buhari administration should also ensure that the question of the provision of water for Nigerians is made a priority issue. There are lots of places in Nigeria that there is no good water for consumption and there is need for the government to take steps towards reversing this situation. If the new administration can focus on these areas, I think the country would be better”.

On his part, a lecturer in the Department of Political Science of the University of Lagos, who spoke anonymously to Business Hallmark said, “the scorecard of the administration shows much disappointment from a government that much was given. The first term has left the country in a near situation of hopelessness, given the abysmal performances recorded in the past four years.’

He urged the administration to wake up from slumber and face the reality of governance. “It is alarming that the cheapest commodity in our society today is ‘life’. Every day we record killings here and there and the administration has not taken considerable steps to arrest the situation. There is no security of life and property in Nigeria today, and it is a violation of the constitution the President had sworn to,” the university don lamented.

President Muhammadu Buhari, it will be recalled, was elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) party in 2015. At that point, he had given his countrymen and women the impression that he would consider the expectations of the average Nigerian and run an administration based on the personal philosophy of one who belongs ‘to no one but belongs to everyone.’ This much he stated even as he took his Oath of Office on May 29, 2015.

Also, the President had whilst delivering his inaugural speech promised to focus on the economy, the fight against corruption and the provision of security. But till date, the economy still remains comatose, without any pointers as to what next to do.

On the question of corruption, there are many who insist that there is more official corruption than ever recorded in the country at the moment and that the administration seems to be stranded about what to do on it, while challenges related to the emergence and upsurge of kidnapping, terrorism and ethnic bigotry are on the increase daily.

For Lagos author and legal practitioner, Michael Ogunjobi, “admittedly, there are shortfalls and areas that require urgent attention. Take for instance, can we say that the rule of law obtains in Nigeria?

“Besides, even if we commend President Muhammadu Buhari in view of the report that the nation’s external reserves are at higher levels, we cannot overlook the latest ranking of Nigeria as the global poverty hub or of our teeming younger generation’s alarming rate of migration in search of greener pastures abroad.”

Despite these failings however, an essentially optimistic Ogunjobi does not however think the political future of the country is bleak, rather he would want the new administration to focus on the welfare of the average Nigerians who are really facing the reality of the current sad tide in the land.

He says: “Succinctly, we cannot say that our polity’s future is bleak under this dispensation, rather we can only express concern on the need to prioritize the welfare of average Nigerians.

“Thus, the performance of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration across sectors such as- Electricity, Education, Worker’s welfare, Rule of Law, Housing, Job Creation, Security, Transportation and Health ultimately require improvement in the new tenure.”

Ogunjobi also urged the new administration, to rise to the challenge of governance, noting further that there was a need for the APC-led administration to remember that a Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP)-led government was voted out for it to enter the scene in 2015.

“The erstwhile ruling Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) was voted out of power in 2015; tomorrow is pregnant, so the All Progressives Congress (APC) must not just go to sleep. President Muhammadu Buhari must now convince the people that continuity is better.”

Concluding, Ogunjobi sums it up: ‘So far, what Nigerians are saying is that President Buhari has not really come to terms with the expectations of most Nigerians and therefore must make critical adjustments in everybody’s interest.’ There is nothing else to add.