(POLL) - Assessment of Buhari's one year in office: VOTE here to rate Mr. President's performance

It is normal that after one year in office, many Nigerians will evaluate President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in various sectors, and that is why NigerianEye is giving you the opportunity to rate Buhari's performance in his first year.

It is common knowledge that Mr president premised his ascendancy to the presidency on three key fields: security, economy and corruption, thus we want our readers to rate Buhari's first year performance based on these, however some key factors like job creation,  power supply etc  can also be used to rate Buhari's performance in his first year.

RATE BUHARI'S PERFORMANCE BELOW

CORRUPTION

In a sense, President Buhari’s most important promise to Nigerians was that he would fight corruption and weaken it before it destroys Nigeria. He has kept that promise and there is clear evidence of determination and focus in investigating and prosecuting acts of public corruption. One year after the presidential elections, it is clear that the level and scale of predatory corruption was so massive that corruption would have killed Nigeria had political alternation of federal power not occurred.

A few hundred persons were stealing billions of naira and making governance impossible. More seriously, massive allocations for arming our troops were simply diverted to private pockets thereby strengthening the Boko Haram insurgency and creating the conditions for the killing of over 20,000 Nigerians and the displacement of over two million people.

However, lot of people have accused Buhari of being one-sided in his anti-corruption fight, others have even called it a mere witch-hunt, stating that many of the 'corrupt APC figures' have been spared.

The majority of the corrupt officials that have been arrested are People’s Democratic Party (PDP) members. The names that have been mentioned in relation to the $2 billion arms deal, including  prominent members of the PDP. 'Does this mean that there are no corrupt APC officials?' A question many Nigerians have asked all year long.

Also on the Abacha loot,the late military dictator allegedly robbed Nigeria of $5 billion before his death 1998. In March of 2014, the United States Department of Justice revealed that it had frozen more than $458 million believed to have been illegally obtained by Abacha and other corrupt officials.

Therefore, in President Buhari’s grand fight against corruption, his first point of call should have been going after the biggest looter which is the late Sani Abacha, but instead, he choose to start his probe from 1999. He erroneously declared that Abacha (who even the notoriously mum Swiss banking system agreed was corrupt) did not steal from the national treasury.

Many have said that if Buhari wants to fight corruption fair and square, then he should begin with previous military regimes, especially the dictatorships of the 1980s and 1990s, while others believe he should start the probe from the last government.

Nigerians still await the amount of loot recovered in figures which the president promised to present in a few days

How would you score Buhari on corruption fight, do you think he is selective?



SECURITY
Prior to his coming, Boko Haram was conquering territories, attacking communities and military formations with ease. There were also isolated attacks in Abuja, Kano, Kaduna and Taraba.

President Buhari’s first approach was to relocate the military command and control centre from Abuja to Maiduguri being the main theatre of warfare. Additionally, the morale of the soldiers was rejuvenated as they saw in the new commander-in-chief a renewed hope, confidence, determination and commitment.

Presently, the Boko Haram terrorist group has been decimated, and degraded that they are unable to launch attacks and overrun communities. What this translates into is that peace has finally returned to the North East and by extension the entire country.

The Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are gradually returning back to their villages while economic activities are once more booming. In fact, the real estate business in Maiduguri is now witnessing a boom, and prices of land and properties have increased phenomenally.

However while the flame of the Boko Haram insurgency is beginning to calm down, the rise of the rampaging killer herdsmen is worrying.

How would you score Buhari on Security. Are you safer under Buhari than you were in Jonathan's administration? 

CHIBOK GIRL FOUND

The kidnap of the 219 girls from Chibok under the Goodluck Jonathan administration was one of the strong points for the APC presidential campaign, Buhari vowed to bring back the Chibok girls, fast-foward one year later, One Chibok girl, Aminat Ali was found few days ago.

Nigerians are still divided on the Chibok story, while others are still hoping for the release of the remaining Chibok girls, others believe the whole Chibok story is a 'scam'

What is your position? kindly tell us


NNPC REFORMS

One of the first steps the administration took was to reconstruct the opaque accounting structure of the NNPC to be more transparent. This led to the closure of more than 40 accounts. Now, NNPC publishes its monthly financial reports. Operational deficits have been reduced by not less than 50 per cent. NNPC outstanding Annual Audits from 2011 to 2014 has been conducted.

The agency is also undergoing other forms of restructuring that will make it an effective entity. This restructuring, said analysts, leaves room for competition, predictable revenue generation and compliance with global best practices.

Buhari has also resolved the shadowy oil swap deals that had cost the country billions of dollars and left it at the mercy of a few rich Nigerians. The government has also introduced third party financing to eliminate direct funding of cash calls. The administration has also renegotiated existing service contracts under Joint Venture and Production sharing contracts (PSC) Operations by about 30 per cent leading to operational efficiency improvements and cost reductions.

The administration has also eliminated the Offshore Processing Agreement (OPA) through the introduction of the Direct Sales and Direct Purchase (DSDP) scheme with reputable off-shore refineries. This has yielded annual savings of $1 billion.

How would you score Buhari on NNPC reforms?

REFINARIES WORKING AGAIN, BUT N145/L STILL UNPOPULAR

Before the inauguration of the current administration, the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries were dormant. Now, they are back in operation with over 50 per cent capacity and producing 7 million litres of PMS daily. The Kaduna refinery also resumed production at the end of the April, 2016.

Minister of State for Petroleum Dr Ibe Kachiwku said the government was looking at privatising the refineries within 12 months. He said oil giants Agip and Chevron have indicated interest in purchasing two of the refineries.

However the recent increase in fuel price to N145/L is perhaps, one of the most unpopular actions of the Buhari administration in his first year, which is sequel to the many months Nigerians suffered queuing for fuel in petrol stations during the fuel scarcity.

How would you score Buhari's management of the global oil crisis/fuel price?

DETENTION OF KANU, EL-ZAKZAKY AND OTHERS

A few people have also expressed dissatisfaction over the continuous detention of key individuals such as Nnamdi Kanu, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, Sambo Dasuki, Olisa Metuh, Fani-Kayode and many others, the president has been accused of not obeying court order to free some of the detainees that have met bail conditions, emphasizing that their prolonged detention without trial was illegal and a violation of their fundamental rights, but the president has defended his stance on local and foreign media, stating that it was in the best interest of the country, that they remained in detention.

What are your thoughts about the continuous detention of Kanu, El-Zakzaky and others?

JOB CREATION

With the promised,720,000 jobs by the 36 states in the federation yearly (20,000 per state) one of the selling points of Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign promises was employ­ment generation for the unemployed, mostly the youths, who form over 50 per­cent of the nation’s population. According to the National Bureau of Statistics in its 2012 national youth survey report; youths of working age, in the age bracket of 15 to 35 years are nearly 70 million persons in a pop­ulation of 166 million Nigerians; of these youths 54 per cent were unemployed then. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), reports in 2014 showed that the figure had risen to 80 per cent. The nation’s population is also reported to be over 170 million.

However, one year into the present ad­ministration, it is not enough that signifi­cant jobs have not been created, rather mil­lions of jobs have been lost and still count­ing, thereby swelling the statistics.

It would be an understatement to say that Nigerians, most especially the working class, are facing serious hardship amidst the current economic challenges.

In the last one year, with millions of job loss and still counting as a result of skeletal production or outright closure of compa­nies due to the Federal Government policy on restriction of foreign exchange for 41 raw materials, high cost of living, poor wag­es, further deteriorating electricity with high tariffs, persistent fuel crisis with the new pump price of petroleum of N145 per litre, workers indeed are the endangered species.Or perhaps, Buhari's administration still needs more time.

How will you rate Buhari's performance?

STATE OF THE ECONOMY
It is clear to everybody of cognitive age that Nigeria is going through a storm economically. Inflation hit 11.4% in February and growth has fallen to 2.1%. At the start of the year, financial pundits projected that businesses will need to brace up and devise means of hedging the inevitability of a weaker naira in 2016. The naira has continued its unprecedented free fall in value against the US Dollar, trading between N320-N370 through the year to 1 USD on the parallel market but remains pegged at N197, however the president has refused to devalue the Naira irrespective of the pressure he faces.

Just recently, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed,lamented that the economic situation in the country has gone completely out of the control of government as the global economic meltdown was having a negative spiral effect on it.

He explained that this was so because Nigeria cannot determine the price of crude or gas.

Berating critics of the administration as mischief makers, he said President Muhamadu Buhari’s frequent trips abroad, especially to the oil-producing nations, became imperative because of the urgent need to rally support for the stability of the global oil prices and also to attract Foreign Direct Investment FDI into the country.

Buhari's administration also consistently blamed Jonathan's government for our economic woes throughout his first year, stating that the country needs some time to get out of the economic mess the PDP-led government plunged the country into.

In the face of government’s seemingly unclear economic policies, many have said that the All Progressives Congress’ led government does not have a clear vision of how to transform Nigerian economy into one that would benefit most people, but is one year enough

For those who are losing hope, we however recommend a report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, PwC which said the Nigerian economy could rise to $6.4 trillion by 2050 to the ninth position among the world’s leading economies with policies and programmes aimed at diversifying the economy from over-dependence on crude oil.

At that level of growth, PwC said the country’s economy could potentially surpass that of Germany, United Kingdom, France, and Saudi Arabia before that year.

The report said potentially, Nigeria’s global agriculture exports could take-off at a rate similar to Brazil’s, with about $59 billion in export revenues by 2030.

How will you rate Buhari's performance?


BAILOUT FOR STATES
At the time Buhari took over, many states were struggling with arrears of salaries. To alleviate the suffering of Nigerians, the President last September directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to disburse N689.5 billion as bailout to 27 states to pay salaries.

How will you rate Buhari's performance?

POWER SECTOR
In Nigeria, electricity is such an essential need, arguably more than petrol. Need we buttress this by recalling how the seeming inability of former President Goodluck Jonathan to keep his promise to provide regular electricity to Nigerians became one of the major campaign issues raised against him in the 2015 presidential elections that brought President Buhari to power?

Thus, it was not surprising that, right from his inaugural speech, President Buhari identified power as one of the four cardinal concerns of his administration, together with corruption, insecurity and fuel scarcity.

We have had high and low points in the power sector during Buhari's first year. We have generated up to 5,074 megawatts during Buhari's adminsitration and of course many will remember the much publicized 'zero megawatt total power collapse' a couple of months ago.

However the effect of vandals who frequently tampered with power installations also limited the efforts of Buhari's government in solving the power problem

In March, the president said Nigeria's power problems was no longer a laughing matter, and his administration would do everything necessary to increase power generation and distribution from its present status of about 1,500 to 3,500 megawatts with additional 2000 before the end of the year as a way of halting the ripple effect effects on the economy. But giving high hopes on the power sector, the president stated that before his government winds up in 2019, he would achieve a historic 10,000 megawatts of electricity. The promise was contained in a keynote address which he presented at the opening ceremony of a two day summit of the National Economic Council, NEC, in Abuja.

How will you rate Buhari's performance?

ECONOMIC HARDSHIP
About Two weeks ago, President Muhammadu Buhari begged Nigerians to be patient with him on the excruciating economic hardship they face everyday, saying that he was determined to alleviate their sufferings by changing the structure of the Nigerian economy once and for all.

Buhari's first year will be remembered for a year of fuel queues, poor power supply and fall in Naira etc which have put Nigerians under serious economic hardship, with many groaning in pain and poverty.

The N18,000 minimum wage however remains unchanged, despite the increased cost of living, leaving millions in poverty, despite the bail-out, some states have still found it difficult to pay workers.

The government of Buhari with the recent approval of the 2016 budget, promised a N5000/month stipend to millions of poor Nigerians.


Do you believe in Buhari's promise to get us out of this economic hardship?



The power is in your hands, it is up to you to decide and rate Buhari's performance in his first year.