Buhari Has Nothing To Celebrate One Year In Office – Nigerians

A poll by The Whistler in Abuja shows that a broad section of Nigerians are in agreement that the Buhari presidency has been one of more “air puffing, than real action.”

Most of those who spoke to our correspondents and responded to our poll rated the economy and security as two critical areas of which the regime has done very badly on.

These are followed by power, fuel availability and anti-corruption fight of which they say the APC-led government has failed on.

Mr. Emmanuel Onwubiko, the national coordinator of the Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA), argued that the threat of Fulani herdsmen of certain parts of the country without the federal government taking any decisive steps has obliterated any gains made against Boko Haram insurgents.

“The Federal Government to my mind, the president in particular, has not done well in terms of security. You cannot replace one evil with another. You can’t technically defeat Boko Haram and replace them with Fulani herdsmen who go about ransacking communities, raping women, killing innocent villagers and taking away peoples ancestral homes without the president saying as much as anything?

“As far as I am concerned, this government cannot be celebrating anything yet if there is no social justice and bringing these Fulani terrorists to book.”

Another respondent, Iporin Adeoti, said one year was too early to judge the government but conceded that not much is on ground to be cheerful about.

“I think one year is too early to start talking about celebrating one year in office. What is there to celebrate about? Is the nearly three months fuel queues everywhere? Is the high cost of goods or the near-collapse of the naira against other major currencies? There is nothing to celebrate. Rather the government should use the period for sober reflection and recommit to the ideals of change which they preach,” Adeoti said.

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Also, shop owner, Chuks Ibe, lamented the high exchange rate and the inaction in the manufacturing sector and expressed the disappointment that there is nothing to show that the regime is on track to revamp the economy.

President Buhari will be one year in office on May 29 and is yet to get the budget passed a situation that has been blamed for his delayed appointment of ministers six months into office.

Within the period, thousands of Nigerians have lost their jobs while the naira fall to its lowest against other major foreign currencies while Fulani herdsmen have overrun villages and killing people even more than Boko Haram, a UN report indicates.

Only recently, a staunch supporter of the government, a former Minister of Education and coordinator of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, described Buhari’s economic policies as “opaque and outdated,” a description that drew the ire of the presidency to tongue lash as being “inconsistent.”