The eight years of the administration of President Mohammadu Buhari has wrought hardship, senseless killing, hunger and more cleavages among the ethnic nationalities in the country, thereby making the administration the worst since 1999, according to political analysts
By Chibuike Chiemerie
In the twilight of 2014 when President Mohammadu Buhari mounted rostrum to canvass for the votes of Nigerians at the 2015 presidential election, he pretended to have been a born again democrat because his activities in the past showed that he does not believe in democracy. His handlers dressed him in a borrowed robe to hoodwink the electorate that he is coming to right the wrongs perceived to have been brought to bear on Nigerians by the administration of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the past 16 years that the party held sway in the affairs of the country. Buhari rode to power on the mantra of fighting corruption to a halt in the country, making sure that the lives and properties of the citizenry are secured and making sure that there is a peaceful co-existence among the various ethnic nationalities scattered all over the nation. However, political analysts are of the opinion that all these promises by Buhari were kept in breach, and in the wake of the administration the country had been taken back 40 years in the progressive ways things are supposed to go.
Corruption
Political pundits stressed that the administration of Buhari failed woefully for eight years in the area of fighting corruption to a halt. These pundits revealed that Buhari’s administration instead of fighting corruption aided and abetted it. Records that are verifiable posit that this administration is going to leave the country more corrupt than it met it. For instance, the school feeding programme of the administration was another cesspit of corruption because the amount dished out by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Umar Farouk to have been expended in that venture does not add up. Most of the states in the federation do not know what school feeding programme of the Federal Government is all about but the electorate were hoodwinked that the programme was spread across the 36 states of the federation. It was gathered that corruption walked in four in that ministry, and there was no consequences. Ditto for the Ministry of Labour that deceitfully made Nigerians to believe that in the 774 local council areas in the country, Federal Government will provide employment for the teeming youths, fact checking monitored by this medium revealed that the programme was a scam as there was no employment anywhere, even those who were given employment were allegedly shortchanged.
The Minister of State for Labour, Mr. Festus Keyamo who supervised the phantom employment of youths in 774 local council areas has a case to answer. It has been established that he bought house worth millions of naira in the United States of America, USA in 2021. In his feeble defence, Keyamo said that he bought the house from the proceeds he made from his law chambers. The question that he has not answered was why did he not buy the house when he was a private citizen until he was appointed a Minister in the administration of Buhari? Information has it that Keyamo allegedly has not properly accounted for the money mapped out for the employment of youths in all the local council areas of the federation. The tainted handling of the employment saga in all the local council areas in the country appears to be the metaphor for most of the ministries in the eight years rule of Buhari and no consequences.
Insecurity
Since the inception of the administration of Buhari insecurity in the country had grown in leaps and bounds. From Ogoja, to Sokoto, Benue to Imo and all over the country, blood of innocent Nigerians have been used to make road show. Insurgents were bolder in the past eight years than before in the history of the country. Non state actors took over the administration of the country in some states in the northern part of the country. Farmers in these states according to informed source pay loyalties to the non state actors to enable them go to their farms. These non state actors are known to the government thanks to the information made available to the security operatives but there were no consequences. It got so worse that the government of Buhari engaged them on dialogue thereby emboldening them to even be fiercer in reigning terror on the populace.
Investigation orchestrated by this medium revealed that the escalation of insecurity in the country was placed on the door steps of the government of the day in the way and manner it pampered the non state actors in the country whose agenda is to maim and kill innocent citizen for no just cause. A case in mind according to investigation is the pampering of the Fulani herdsmen who have been in a killing spree of farmers across the 36 states of the country with impunity. In Benue State for instance, the Fulani herdsmen have been on the killing spree with impunity without any consequences. On daily basis, according to investigation, citizens of the state are being mowed down in cold blood by the Fulani herdsmen. Across the nation, travelling is a dangerous risk because of the activities of the kidnappers who are on the prowl in all the roads of the federation, insisting that they are the alternative government since the administration of Buhari has failed in its duty to protect the lives and properties of the citizenry. Serially, the rail lines have remained easy targets for the operation of the kidnappers. After passengers of the train going from Abuja to Kaduna were kidnapped last year, there has been other train kidnapping as witnessed in Edo.
Hunger
Before the advent of Buhari’s administration, the prices of foodstuffs were within the reach of an average Nigerian, today the reverse is the case. Inflation according to the information dished out by the Nigeria Bureau of Statics, NBS, is growing at a rapid speed. The prices of foodstuff are so unpredictable that what people buy today may not wear the same price tag when they want to buy the same thing hours later. For instance a bag of rice that went for N8, 000 in 2014, today the same bag of rice goes for N40,000 and the administration had assailed citizens’ ear drums with the mantra that since the advent of the administration, the country has been self-sufficient in rice production. Market analysts said that it beggars the question that you cannot be self-sufficient and still have the price of such commodity to be on the roof top. What fails to add up is that the administration promised that its major focus would be in agriculture so that food would be surplus for the citizenry but all that is a scam because Nigerians are more impoverished than before. The prices of foodstuffs are steadily rising and there is no plan on the part of the administration to ameliorate the sufferings of the populace.
It is not surprising when the country has been designated as the poverty capital of the world. Those who are in the know told this medium that the way things are going it would not be long when Nigerians would begin to pick food from the dustbin if there is any anywhere in the country. According to them, famine is looming in the country.
