President Muhammadu Buhari recently said that his administration had delivered on its campaign promises made to Nigerians in 2015. He stated this at the Seventh Convocation of the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, which was held on On February 11, 2023.
President Buhari was first elected in 2015 and then re-elected in 2019 under the All Progressives Congress (APC) platform. Before becoming the ruling party in 2015, the APC had been the main opposition party in Nigeria. To take over power from the then ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Buhari and the APC made several promises to Nigerians across different strata. Notable among the promises was putting an end to the country’s security challenges, particularly ones posed by the Boko Haram terrorists, who had captured some parts of the country’s territory in the North-East region.
Buhari and his party were also vocal in their displeasure about the country’s economic situation, literally promising Nigerians a “change,” which was their party mantra. He also promised to put an end to the menace of corruption, which was rife under the PDP and Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
With months left before the end of his second tenure, President Buhari has repeatedly claimed that he has delivered on all the campaign promises he made to Nigerians in 2015.
What are the promises?
A major problem bedeviling Nigeria is insecurity. During Jonathan’s administration, Boko Haram terrorists were the main perpetrators. They launched offensive attacks in public places and captured parts of some states, particularly in the North-East region. Perhaps, what may be regarded as the height of their activities then was the abduction of about 276 Chibok girls on April 14, 2014.
During the campaigns in 2014, Buhari stated that his administration would crush terrorists if elected. In fact, during his swearing-in, he vowed to crush Boko Haram within three months and recover all the territories it had seized.
Though the administration claims that as at today, no territory in the country is under the control of Boko Haram, several communities have been invaded and held hostage by bandits.
The deadly Boko Haram group has not been crushed as Buhari promised, and the North-East region, which is the epicenter of the Boko Haram terrorist group, is far from safe.
In a report by BBC, the World Food Programme (WFP) Country Director for Nigeria, David Stevenson, said that “insecurity is still raging here, and most importantly, it’s affecting the people we’re here to help.” He further said that the people of Borno State continued to be displaced and that there were new arrivals of people coming into Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps every time. “…They don’t feel safe in their homesteads and farms,” he added.
This, and the worries expressed by Mukhtar Garba Intini, show that the region is far from safe, contrary to the President’s claim of delivering on this promise.
Also, the killings have not stopped. Armed gangs, kidnappers, and other separatist groups have exacerbated the security situation, making it worse than it was eight years ago and placing Nigeria as one of the most insecure places in the world.
Wobbly economy
On the economy, Buhari also made several promises to Nigerians in 2015, one of which was making Nigeria one of the fastest-growing emerging economies with a real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of at least 10-12 percent annually.
The GDP growth rate has averaged 1.1 percent between 2015 and 2021, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Hence, under Buhari’s administration, the country’s GDP growth rate did not hit 10-12 percent.
In fact, his administration has supervised the worst economic decline, with Nigeria slipping into recession twice – in 2016 and 2020.
During the Goodluck Jonathan’a administration, a dollar was exchanged between N148 and N193 at the official rate, data gleaned from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) show. During the 2014 campaign, Buhari promised to equate N1 to $1. Dollar exchanges for naira at over N740 at the parallel market.
While the President recently stated that he had delivered on his promises, the current exchange rate data also says the contrary.
Using the CBN data, from an average of $1 to N193 in 2015, the exchange rate has more than doubled today under Buhari. As data show, this is the opposite of his claim that he has delivered all his promises.
Still on the economy, prior to his election in 2015, Buhari had also promised that his administration would make Information Technology, manufacturing and agriculture key drivers of the economy.
For most of the Buhari administration, these sectors have been the main drivers of the economy, being the largest contributing sectors to the economy. Particularly there has been growth in the sectors, especially in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors.
On the other hand, the ICT sector recorded a decline between 2016 and 2018.
Buhari was also vocal about the fight against corruption. During the inauguration of the APC presidential campaign in 2015, he lamented about the level of corruption in the country and promised to tackle it if elected. “The level of corruption in Nigeria is intolerable, and we will make sure we succeed in fighting corruption when we get there.”
At the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, where he spoke earlier this month, the issue of corruption was also one of the things Buhari boasted about having delivered on. But a review of Nigeria’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) under the Buhari government shows the contrary.
The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption on a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).
Since Buhari came into office in 2015, Nigeria has not ranked better. From its 136 position in 2015, Nigeria now ranks 150 place out of 180 countries on the CPI.
From this ranking, data show that corruption is far worse today in Nigeria than it was in 2015 when Buhari came into office, contrary to the recent claim of the president that he had delivered on all his campaign promises, one of which was fighting corruption.