In his inaugural speech on Friday, May 29 at the Eagle Square in Abuja, President Muhammadu Buhari said his administration would tackle three major areas: security, corruption and unemployment, which he said had drawn the nation back over the years in its march towards progress and development.
Nigerian President Muhamadu Buhari marks 100 days in office.When he defeated Goodluck Jonathan back in March, he promised to deal swiftly with Boko Haram, tackle corruption and improve the country's economy.
High expectations on Buhari's leadership credentials swept him to victory with almost 54% of the vote in a historic defeat of an incumbent president in Nigerian elections. Buhari's ascetic demeanour, quite atypical of the venality often associated with Nigeria's political elite, endeared him as the candidate to tackle the violent insurgency in the North, the predatory corruption and the looming economic crisis after the collapse of global oil prices in July 2014.
Since his victory, the pressure on Buhari and his ruling party, the All Progressives' Congress (APC), to deliver on campaign promises has been immense. Growing demands for political accountability, enabled by a vibrant media culture, have led to unprecedented scrutiny over every appointment, every speech and every decision by the new government.
So how is Muhammadu Buhari's performance so far stacking up against his campaign promises in his first 100 days in office?
SECURITY
Shortly after his inauguration, it was evident that tackling the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria's north-east was a major priority. Buhari's trips to West African neighbours, the G7 in Germany, the African Union summit in South Africa and the United States on invitation from president Obama aimed to restore confidence in Nigeria's leadership of the multinational joint task force, to secure support for the war against Boko Haram, and to restore Nigeria's ties with allies which had frayed under his predecessor.As widely expected, Buhari replaced the military chiefs who had superintended over the largest security budget of up to $5.8 billion per year and yet the most hollowed-out army in the country's history.
Although Buhari's government is ostensibly taking the right steps to tackle a six-year insurgency, Boko Haram remains very much active, killing over 1,000 people since his inauguration.
CORRUPTION
With Buhari's towering personal integrity, anti-corruption is a key area in which many Nigerians eagerly await decisive action on cases of mismanaged and stolen public funds. Although no high profile corruption conviction has been secured, certain indicators point to considerable progress.
The anti-corruption agency -- the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission -- dormant for years under former president Goodluck Jonathan is awake from its death-sleep, suddenly acting on old petitions, arraigning former governors, and inviting the Senate President's wife and other high profile personalities for questioning.
Although many eagerly await the trials of notorious former ministers -- some of whom individually have been accused of stealing up to $6 billion of public money -- the most useful anti-corruption reforms are likely to be the less-publicised ones such as the recent harmonization of government revenue and receipts in a Treasury Single Account to block avenues for mismanagement. Relatedly, Nigeria's foreign reserves rose from $28.6 billion in May to $31.2 billion in July, two months after Buhari's inauguration despite the low oil prices.
ECONOMY
The APC government is yet to articulate a clear economic policy direction after three months in office. Perhaps in a bid to calm growing disquiet among Nigerians, investors and international partners, President Buhari attributed, this delay to the challenge of rebuilding damaged institutions first before appointing competent and credible individuals to form his cabinet.
Silent reforms could slowly start bearing fruit with, for instance, improvement in electricity supply due to an increase in power generation and the rehabilitation of the country's refineries now operating at 60-80% capacity. This could enable the country ease out of expensive fuel subsidies when a cabinet is finally appointed in the next few weeks.
One area the President has done so well within his 100 days in office was area of diplomacy.
Buhari has been able to warm himself and his administration into the heart of the international community and within such a short period, he has been guest to over eight countries, including the USA, UK, Germany, Cameroon, Mali, Chad, Niger, amongst others.
However,No doubt, the President has come under serious knocks from Nigerians as the nation’s economy has continued to struggle to barely keep afloat. All the indices of growth for any economy have shown that the nation’s economy is presently not doing very well.
For instance, recent figures released by the Bureau of Statistics show that Nigeria’s unemployment rate jumped to 7.5 per cent in the first quarter of the year compared to 6.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2014.The report also stated that the number of the unemployed in the labour market increased by 18.43 per cent to 861,110 persons between Q4 2014 and Q1 2015.
NBD report also shows that real Gross Domestic Product, GDP, growth rate further declined to 3.86 percent in the first quarter of the year compared to 5.94 percent the previous quarter.
Also, the Consumer Price Index, CPI, which measures inflation rose further to 8.7 per cent in April compared to 8.5 percent in March.
However, the country’s GDP growth rate was lower by 2.25 percent points from the preceding quarter and by 1.98 per cent from the corresponding quarter of 2014.Nominal GDP in Q1 2015 was estimatedat N21.04 trillion compared to N24.20 trillion in Q4 as well as N20.16 trillion in the corresponding quarter of 2014.It noted that in Q1 2015, labour force population increased to 73.4 million from 72.9million in Q4 2014, representing an increase of 0.69 per cent.
The nation’s main currency, the Naira, has experienced the worst value vis-a-vis other major currencies of the world in recent times. At the peak of last month, the Naira ridiculously exchange at N248 to one US dollars and N365 to the British Pound.
Diplomacy
Through his diplomatic shuttle, Buhari has, to a large extent, been able to restore the respect and dignity of Nigeria within the global community.
At his meeting with the G7 countries comprising the USA, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK, the seven most industrialised countries pledged to back Buhari because they acknowledged “the way and manner of his emergence and the tremendous challenges faced by the government he leads, not of his making, especially in its efforts to combat the Boko Haram.”They promised to “engage, cooperate and collaborate” with President Buhari’s government in tackling the serious problems that Nigeria faces.During his trip to the United States for instance where he was very warmly received by President Obama, Buhari elicited America’s support for and commitment to his avowed fight against insurgency as well as corruption.
Accompanied on the trip by some state governors and other senior government officials, Buhari was invited by Obama for talks that would help strengthen bilateral relationship between both countries as well as how the USA could support the fight against the Boko Haram sect.The two leaders discussed several issues relating to security, economy, trade and bilateral cooperation with Obama declaring loud and clear his country’s commitment to assist Nigeria overcome the challenges she was presently facing.
Obama had declared: “Nigeria is obviously one of the important countries in the world and one of the most important countries in the African continent. Recently, we saw an election in which a peaceful transition to a new government took place.
“And it was an affirmation of Nigeria’s commitment to democracy, a recognition that although Nigeria is a big and a diverse country with many different parts, nevertheless the people of Nigeria understand that only through a peaceful political process can change take place.”
Before leaving the US, the President sought Obama’s assistance in locating and returning $150 billion stolen in the past decade and held in foreign bank accounts on behalf of former corrupt officials.
The UK government has also pledged support to the President in his fight against insurgency. During his May visit to the UK for instance, Prime Minister Raphael Cameron promised that UK military will continue to provide training and share intelligence with Nigeria in order to defeat insurgents.
The two leaders agreed that corruption needs to be tackled to ensure Nigeria’s prosperity and success, even as Cameron promised to provide technical assistance to the Nigerian government to aid its anti-corruption reforms.
Since returning home, Buhari had also held separate meetings with Benin Republic President Boni Yayi and UN Secretary-General, Ki-Moon at the Presidential Villa where security and economy were discussed.
President Buhari has also through diplomatic shuttle been able to commit Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Mali to support the war against insurgency. These efforts have already started yielding results as Boko Haram members have been greatly degraded, even as they now resort to gorilla type operation, a clear sign that their end is near.
RESTRUCTURE AND APPOINTMENT
Buhari, who said that he was putting his experience as a former soldier to good use in the war against Boko Haram and considering his deep knowledge of the military and its operations, announced the sacked of all Service Chiefs he inherited from former President Goodluck Jonathan and appointed replacements.
Former Chief of Defence Staff, CDS, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh; Chief of Army Staff, CoAS, Lt-General Kenneth Minimah; Chief of Naval Staff, CNS, Vice Admiral Usman Jibrin; Chief of Air Staff, CAS, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu and National Security Adviser, NSA, Colonel Sambo Dasuki, rtd, were all replaced with General Abayomi Olonishakin; Lt-General Tukur Buratai; Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas; and Major-General Babagana Monguno respectively. Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar was also appointed Chief of Defence Intelligence, CDI.
Buhari also sacked Joseph Dawha as the Group Managing Director, GMD, of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, replacing him with Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu. He also approved the appointment of Umaru Danbatta as new Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC.
The gale of sack also affected Director- General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Patrick Akpobolokemi, appointed by former President Jonathan.
Buhari dissolved the management of the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON, and appointed Ahmed Lawan Kuru new Managing Director to replace Mustafa Chike-Obi.
He also sacked Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, Alhaji Sanusi Ado Bayero, and reinstated Habibu Abdullahi, earlier sacked by Jonathan on April 29.
Just few days ago, Buhari announced Babachi David Lawal as Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF; Alhaji Abba Kyari as Chief of Staff, CoS, to the President; Colonel Hameed Ibrahim Ali, rtd, as Comptroller-General, Nigerian Customs Service, NSC, and Mr. Kure Martin Abeshi as Comptroller-General, Nigerian Immigration Service.
Lessons Learnt So Far
The major lessons learnt from the emergence of President Muhammed Buhari is the act of integrity and disclipine that made him who he is today, as a president of the most populous Black nation(Nigeria). Nigerians are now learning to attach much importance to character and integrity rather than resources or illicit acquisition of wealth. Corrupt people no longer have hiding place. Ethical revolution is on in Nigeria.
Nigerians are now enjoying relative power supply, constant availability of premium motor spirit(fuel), pipeline sabotage is reducing and a whole lot of restructuring in NNPC. The Military have a target end for wiping out boko haram(3month), and there are seriousreformation to achieve these in the northern part of the country. Also the friendship and respect that nigeria command among comity of nations are coming back in place with the emergence of sai baba sai buhari. The president also debunk the 100 days mantra in chatham house lecture in united kingdom(UK), that the 100 days promises circulating around then is fraudulent in view of the these it is important for nigerians to understand that, this is a government that is elected for four years, we should not be in a haste to judge it just only in 100 days.
Time will tell whether president buhari will be on the right or wrong side of history.
God Bless Federal Republic of Nigeria
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