By Fem Aribasala
When Buhari seized power, Nigeria’s
GDP was $444. When he was overthrown in 1985, Nigeria’s GDP had dropped
dramatically to $344. When Buhari seized power, one dollar exchanged for 0.724
naira. But by the time he was overthrown, one dollar exchanged for 0.894 naira;
a 23% devaluation in barely two years. It was not surprising, therefore, that
there was wild jubilation throughout the length and breadth of Nigeria when
Buhari was overthrown.
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| *Buhari |
Litany Of Failure
History is now
repeating itself in Nigeria.
Since electing Buhari as president one year ago, Nigeria’s GDP has plummeted,
with the economy suffering a negative growth in the first quarter of 2016; the
worst in 25 years. Prices have skyrocketed. Investors have packed their bags
and left Nigeria.
Job losses and lay-offs have increased geometrically. Petrol stations have
surreptitiously doubled their prices. Nigeria is now on the cusp of a
recession.
Buhari was handed over
$30 billion in foreign reserves by the Jonathan administration. He inherited
over $2.5 billion in the Sovereign Wealth Fund; $1.4 billion in the ECA; and
$4.65 billion in back taxes from NLNG. But virtually all of this has been squandered
in one year of gross incompetence.
The president took the
illegal and ill-advised step of providing N713 billion as bailout for insolvent
state governments, without the approval of the national assembly, only to
discover that those monies were squandered and not even used as intended to pay
salary arrears. He squandered billions of dollars defending doggedly an
unrealistic official value of the naira, only to finally admit defeat after the
damage had been done.
Billions of dollars
were mopped up by corrupt officials and shrewd middlemen who obtained dollars
at the official N200 to $1 rate, only to sell this for huge profit at the N380
to $1 black market rate.
Babatunde Fashola
boasted while in opposition that: “A
serious government will fix the power problem in six months.” Now in office
as Minister of Power for over six months, power blackouts have been
unprecedented under his watch condemning the Buhari administration by his own
words as a most unserious government.
Change For Worse
Goodluck Jonathan warned
Nigerians about the bankruptcy of Buhari and the APC. His words have now become
prophetic. He said in the heat of the 2015 election campaign: “The choice before Nigerians in the coming
election is simple. It is a choice between going forward and backward, between
the new ways and old ways, between freedom and repression, between a record of
visible achievements and beneficial reforms and desperate power seekers with
empty promises.”
After 365 days of a
disastrous Buhari presidency, only diehard Buharimaniacs can deny that
Jonathan’s warning has not come true. Propaganda has an expiration date, and it
must now be abundantly clear that the expiration date for the hot air of
Buhari’s government has long passed. Many of those like Dele Sobowale, Oby
Ezekwesili and Wole Soyinka, who sang the praises of Buhari during the 2015
election, are already having a buyer’s remorse. Most Nigerians now realise they
have been sold a fake bill of goods by Buhari and the APC.
