Should we celebrate Buhari?

Today is the first anniversary of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. For many Nigerians, it is an occasion to celebrate this symbol of change they voted into power a year ago and to appreciate his modest achievements within the year. Yet for many others, it is a time to lament about the socio-economic hardships the country […]

Today is the first anniversary of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. For many Nigerians, it is an occasion to celebrate this symbol of change they voted into power a year ago and to appreciate his modest achievements within the year. Yet for many others, it is a time to lament about the socio-economic hardships the country is presently going through and to urge the president to do more to alleviate the sufferings of the citizenry.
However, amidst the uncertainties of the present, one thing is clearly visible. There is calm in the land. The President still enjoys the sympathy and trust of the people as he struggles to bring the situation of the country to a more tolerable level.
Though public enthusiasm is not as strong as when he was newly elected, his persistent plea for patience has not been in vain.
Indeed, Nigerians are looking forward with hope that better days may come in the nearest future. But for this understanding and resilience of the people, the nation would have been thrown into a social upheaval a couple of weeks ago when the Nigerian Labour Congress, (NLC), called for a general strike to protest against the government over the recent hike in the price of petrol. Though no one was happy about the price increase, because of its attendant negative ripple effects on virtually every other sector, the strike failed because Nigerians realised that it would have further dislocated the economy thereby causing more hardships.
Some would argue that the deregulation of petrol was a policy somersault given President Buhari’s repeated assurances to the contrary in the past. But they cannot deny that government’s plans to retain and reasonably manage the subsidy regime was based on increasing the local refining capacity and thereby reduce importation. This plan had been scuttled by the upsurge of attacks by militants on the pipelines supplying crude oil to the refineries. The same militants have also been attacking crude oil production facilities and they have ignominiously succeeded in reducing the nation’s supply of oil to the international market.
So even if President Buhari desires to retain subsidy, the resources to fund it are not there. Rather than blame the government for the withdrawal of subsidy, well-meaning Nigerians should shift the blame to the Niger Delta militants and plead with them to let the nation move forward.
On this occasion of his first anniversary in office, it is natural for people to review President Buhari’s stewardship within the year, whether or not he lived up to expectation. It would be recalled that the president rode to power on the back of what could be summarized as four major promises of change. One of these was to tackle the Boko Haram insurgency and restore peace and security. Another was to fight corruption and retrieve the nation’s stolen assets. Thirdly, he promised to maintain the rule of law and democratic norms thereby putting an end to impunity in governance.
Fourthly, he promised to effect socio economic changes through increased capacity building of social infrastructure, agricultural and industrial production and the creation of other measures that will generate employment and social security opportunities for all citizens. Whatever his critics may say, he has made significant progress in at least three out of the four major deliverables. On security, he has substantially defeated the Boko Haram insurgents and normal life has returned to many communities in the formally embattled areas.
He has so far also delivered on his promise to rule according to the law and democratic norms. His government has not been indicted over any notable infringement. The only promise he approached cautiously was the issue of socio-economic change. This needed careful and meticulous planning to implement because the 2015 budget and the dwindling resources he inherited were grossly inadequate to address it.
In all, President Buhari has not performed badly in the last one year given the diverse problems his government inherited.  He has made progress on many fronts. The change revolution is gathering more steam and soon Nigerians will see the change they desire in virtually all the areas where it matters.
Adeleke can be reached at [email protected]