The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari’s (retd.) presidency will expire today and the jury is already out on his performance. In accordance with the human aphorism, there is time for everything, a time to start and a time to end and thereafter, the assessment of performance. This discourse provides a brief review of the performance of the Buhari regime in insecurity and corruption over its eight-year tenure.
Muhammadu Buhari assumed office with clear promises on ending insecurity, fighting corruption to a standstill and improving the economy. All the foregoing would not be achieved if the country is not united in purpose for the people to move in the direction of progress on these three and other fronts. Insecurity to a great extent, at the time of his assumption of office, was restricted to the Boko Haram crisis in the North-East. At some time before 2015, the terrorists had held some territories and hoisted their flags. There were several bombings including suicide bombings and the kidnap of the Chibok Girls which outraged the conscience of Nigerians and the entire world. However, shortly before the end of the Jonathan era, the government of the day made several efforts to end insecurity and there were marked improvements. The Buhari regime improved on the efforts of the previous era and fought the terrorists to the best of its ability. But total victory has not been achieved as the insurgents from time to time launch attacks on soft targets.
The insecurity has undergone mutation. Today, the North-West is experiencing terrorism which the authorities simply refer to as banditry. Tens of thousands have been killed, property destroyed, animals like cattle stolen and many displaced while the insurgents are holding territories where they collect tax and continually terrorise citizens. The stories coming out of states such as Kaduna, Katsina, Niger, Zamfara, etc., qualify only for jungle narratives where life has become nasty, brutish and short. Farmers can only go to their farms after negotiating on what to pay to terrorists, people are kidnapped in broad daylight, women are raped while some of the terrorists receive chieftaincy titles from traditional rulers even after they have been declared wanted by the security authorities.
The Chibok experience has been replicated in many schools, from primary, secondary and tertiary institutions and the case of Leah Sharibu whose refusal to renounce his Christian faith led to her kidnappers freeing others after negotiations with the Federal Government and held on to her stood out as one of the most pathetic. The Abuja Kaduna railway was attacked, passengers killed, some kidnapped and heavy ransom was paid before most of them were released.
In the North-Central, especially in Benue and Plateau states, herders have a field day killing, maiming and dispossessing the natives of their land. Even persons who ran away from the conflict and reside in camps for internally displaced persons are again attacked and killed. Benue people had a situation where a presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, asked them to either forfeit their land to the marauders or be ready to die. After the presidential elections in February 2023, the orgy of violence has become accentuated in these states. People have been killed including women and children, in circumstances that suggest a pogrom while the authorities appear clueless. Impunity becomes the norm as there is hardly an investigation, prosecution and punishment following the shedding of blood. The Benue and Plateau killings have assumed an ethnic dimension and it is now a situation of one week – tens and hundreds of killings.
In the South-East, the agitation of the Indigenous People of Biafra has been mismanaged. What started out as a largely non-violent movement has been mismanaged to fully metamorphose into a violent conflict. Many persons have lost their lives in circumstances that could have been prevented if intelligence is combined with raw kinetic power. To compound matters is the continued detention of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the group after the courts have cleared the way for his release.
There was a promise to fight corruption and the catchphrase became that if Nigerians do not kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria. There were the initial movements, which turned out to be movements in a barber’s chair and mainly targeted at the opposition. A few junior officials of government have been convicted and hardly has the fight claimed a major scalp. It became a little bit ridiculous when it was openly canvassed that all one needed to do to escape prosecution from corruption was to defect to the ruling party. A serving senator who came out for the senate presidency had his prosecution terminated as an inducement for him to step down and allow the candidate of the party to have his way unchallenged. Ibrahim Magu name was forwarded by the president to the Senate for approval as the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and thrice, they rejected him based on evidence from a sister agency that he was not fit and proper. But the president insisted on keeping him in office. He was eventually booted out of office on the same grounds of corruption in what appeared to be turf war in the executive arm of government.
The office of the Auditor General for the Federation is the foremost anti-corruption agency considering that it was established by the constitution which is the grundnorm and the fundamental law of the land. The office lacks the building blocks for the effective performance of its functions. The challenges include poor funding, no follow-up on recommendations to recover looted public funds or sanction officials who violate the norms. On two occasions, a new Audit Bill was passed into law and twice, the president failed, refused and neglected to grant assent so that a new audit regime can commence. Not less than N2tn in public funds have been identified by the Auditor General in various reports as mismanaged, misappropriated and outrightly stolen funds but no reasonable action has been taken to recover the funds.
An intersection between security and corruption which impacts on the economy is crude oil theft which escalated under the Buhari presidency. We have a scenario where throughout the Buhari years, the Federal Government never met the budget benchmark production for crude oil. As of April 2023, Nigeria purportedly produced less than 1million barrels per day against the 1.69mbdp provided in the 2023 budget. Cases of high-level conspiracy to steal crude oil from large export terminal pipes have been established. Furthermore, in relation to Nigeria’s consumption of petroleum motor spirit which is subsidised, the petroleum authorities directly under the watch of Muhammadu Buhari who is also the petroleum minister stole to the maximum of their energy. From 35 million litres per day declared as the country’s consumption under the Jonathan presidency, the Buhari regime increased it to 65 million litres per day. This is coming after two recessions, heightened insecurity, massive factory closures and the highest unemployment rate since independence. Despite being challenged by Nigerians to provide the evidence for the increased consumption, the authorities have maintained sealed lips. The performance in the two sectors was abysmal and has left Nigerians worse that Buhari met them in 2015.
