By Deji
Adeyanju
In about one year of Muhammadu Buhari’s misrule, Nigeria dropped from being the largest economy
in Africa to who-knows-where, as well as the number one investment destination
in Africa to number 13. What a difference one
year can make.
Inflation rate that was below 9% when former President Goodluck
Jonathan handed over to General Buhari on May 29, 2015 is now at 15.6% under
Buhari. In one year, Buhari has taken our inflation rate from single digit to
double digits.
*Buhari |
Our GDP growth rate was at 6.95% under Jonathan, now it is
-0.36%, the worst in Nigeria ’s
history. Officially, our GDP is in ‘recession’. If this is not a sign that
President Buhari has ruined the economy completely in just one year, what is?
In 2013/14, Nigeria
was the 3rd fastest growing economy in the world, now we are 29th in the world.
With the country’s current negative GDP of -0.36, Nigeria is set to be kicked out of
the top 50 economies of the world in no time.
It is important to note that there are only 4 countries with
negative GDP growth in Africa in the last quarter and Nigeria is now
one of them.
The notion that President Buhari met an empty treasury when he
took over is false because President Jonathan handed over $30 billion in
Foreign Reserves, $5 billion in accrued Liquefied Natural Gas dividends, $3
billion in the Excess Crude Account, and around $2.4 billion in the Sovereign
Wealth Fund.
Buhari was handed over a budget of about N4.5 trillion passed by
Jonathan, few weeks before handover. Around N5.3 trillion was received as oil
income in 2015, how was this money squandered by Buhari?
With the landing cost of petrol to the country at N89 per litre given
the drop in price of crude oil, the Buhari’s federal government still increased
fuel price to N145 per litre. Effectively Buhari is making a profit of N56 per
litre of petrol bought by Nigerian. So, why does Buhari keep giving the
impression the country is broke?
With this increased revenue from a new income stream, why hasn’t
the Buhari government this new income? Why can’t states get more money from the
federation account? Why can’t states pay salaries?
There are those blaming governors for their inability to pay
salaries after spending one year under Buhari. They are simply naive or
uneducated.
The federal government of Nigeria
– Abuja – is a
quasi colonialist that controls everything from the states, yet it starves the
states of their own money. When people say governors go to Abuja to beg for funds, I laugh.
What does Abuja
generate? Absolutely NOTHING.