3 Years Of Buhari: Fables And International Ratings

Uwuma Precious

Mohammadu Buhari promised Change, and true, things have never changed so horribly and so fast in Nigeria, not even during the war -except within Biafra.

Under Buhari, Nigeria ticks all the boxes in everything retrogressive as evidenced by the steady drop in ratings by international agencies.

Recently, Bill Gates was so disgusted at PMB’s woeful performance that he ignored host-guest etiquette and dropped the truth on his host. Immediately Aso Rock kicked.

Gov. El Rufai led the charge from Kaduna while VP Osinbajo covered the other flanks and they came at Gate’s statement with hordes of online Buharists matching unflinchingly like infantrymen. But the truth is like a boil atop the nose; you can’t hide it!

No sooner hard Gates dropped his truth than Nigerians started digging up other ratings by some international agencies. Here, I present you with just 10 of those ratings. I started with Corruption because that is PMB’s most talked about achievement.

1. Corruption

Transparency International on its Annual Corruption Perception Index said that Nigeria’s corruption perception worsened between 2016 and 2017 as the country dropped from 136 in 2016 to 148 in 2017. The Annual Corruption Perception Index ranks countries from 1-180 with 180 being the poorest performers.

It probably didn’t use the info on Babachir Lawal and his grass cutting skills; Abdulrasheed Maina and his sneaky come back; Buratai and his snakes and Dubai mansions; Magu and his wild claims and the CBN, FIRS etc and their rich kids-only employments galore.

When you factor in all these plus the Tucano jets story and re-do the ratings, you will realize that Mohammadu Buhari, the man said to be the greatest anti-corruption fighter since Jesus chased out the money changers from the Temple at Jerusalem, is presiding over the most corrupt system since Abacha.

We expect his followers to soon come telling us “eh PMB himself wasn’t corrupt, it was the people around him. Oya mention one instance where he stole money!”

2. Electricity

I heard the President in his May 29, Democracy day speech said that Power has improved. Well, the World Economic Forum disagrees.

Nigeria is ranked the 2nd worst nation in electricity supply according to a report released by The Spectator Index on the 15th of January, 2018. Even the extremely poor, war-ravaged Yemen, enjoy better electricity than Nigeria under PMB. Don’t talk about Ghana or South Africa.

Instead of generating power, the man who should have the facts and power to prosecute thieves is throwing allegations and quoting false figures and consequently making a Saint out of Obasanjo!

But come to think of it! has power supply improved in your area since Buhari? Who even needs the WEF’s rating to confirm the old man lied in his speech yesterday?

3. Security

Under Buhari, the Nigeria Police is currently ranked bottom in Africa and 127th in the world, making the country the worst policed in the world, according to the 2016 World Internal Security and Police Index (WISPI) released by the International Police Science Association (IPSA) and the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).

The WISPI ranks the police based on 16 indicators around their ability to address internal security issues across four domains:
1.Capacity; 2.Process; 3.Legitimacy and 4.Outcomes

Dear Nigerian, using these criteria to rank the Nigeria police as you know it to operate, what will you find under the leadership of IG Idris?

Everyone in Nigeria, from the top echelon of the NPF to the ordinary citizen know the NPF is an incompetent, nearly pseudo-criminal organization. It’s so bad that Nigerians started the #EndSARS campaign.

Did the president listen? No. He has no clue what to do other than have his kinsman man occupy the post of the IGP.

On that embarrassing ranking, Nigeria was followed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Uganda, and Pakistan. It is interesting to note that the report attributed Nigeria’s low ranking to the rising cases of corruption, etc. Corruption again!

But forget the insanity of SARS and think of what Nimbo, Agatu, Taraba, Adamawa, Miango, Omoku, Abua, Omoku… have gone and are going through while Buhari’s IGP fools around. Only then will you realize Nigerians don’t need international ratings to tell them they have seen the worst of their police under PMB.

It’s as if apart from the criminal SARS, the police does not even exist. The killings are brazen and still ongoing. Buhari seems more interested in protecting his kinsmen who are repeatedly fingered for the killings. First, they said it was about cattle routes and rustling, then they said the killers were from aliens, then they said they were Gaddafi’s men, now they are just ‘armed bandits.’ What’s important is not calling them Fulani cowherds men, not empowering the police to police Nigeria properly.

Did we not hear that policemen buy their own uniforms and pay for their own shoes? Have we not heard how a policeman must be well connected if he must get guns and bullets? Look around you, what kinds of vehicles do police stations in your area use? Do they look like vehicles that are capable of helping the police do its job? Or equipping the police and making it more professional also takes the time it takes to build Rome? What exactly has Buhari achieved in 3 years?

During the 60s, Aguiyi-Ironsi, when confronted by the first coup, took refuge in a police command and used same as his post for months. When Murtala Mohammed led his mutiny and ethnic cleansing of the Nigeria Army, Ogundipe, Nigeria’s most ranking soldier and heir apparent as Supreme Commander (Ironsi was dead) also took refuge in a police command. These were soldiers. Today, civilians can’t take refuge in a police station. Police officers can’t even take refuge in their own stations! Yet, Buhari is working to build a safer country, IGP Idris is transmission, sorry, omission, sorry transmitting great ideas that will make Nigeria a well-policed state. Who even needs the ranking? We know our state.

4. Rule of Law

Do we need anyone to tell us how the rule of law works under Buhari even as we know of the Shi’ite issue and travails of IPOB? Nigeria under PMB dropped several notches according to the World Justice Project (WJP) 2017/2018 Rule of Law Index. We are currently ranked 97 out of 113. We were previously ranked 96. The index measures the adherence to rule of law across 113 countries worldwide.

5. Press Freedom

Press Freedom under Buhari is nibbled at the way rats nibble at hidden chocolate bars, and this has not escaped international attention as Nigeria’s ranking in the International Press Freedom Index dropped steadily since Buhari became president in 2015. The 2017 edition ranked Nigeria 122 out of 180 countries. We actually fell from 111 in 2015 to 116 in 2016, and finally to 122 in 2017.

Last year, a journalist was picked up by Buhari’s agents for publishing details of the €3million ransom paid to Boko Haram -the same story was already published by the New York Times. Recently, I also saw a Facebook post about the travails of 2 newscasters; one from the NTA and another from a private TV network who are being victimized for sharing their political views on Social Media. The NTA sometime ago, allegedly issued a circular warning its staff against making statements on Social Media that might be deemed unfavourable to Aso Rock. So much for a ‘reformed democrat!’

6. The Ease of Doing Business

Buhari’s online goons tell you “Buhari’s global recognition as a man of integrity has improved the ease of doing business in Nigeria and he has attracted investors from all over the world,” but on the Rand Merchant Bank’s Africa Investment Attractiveness Index (aka Where to Invest in Africa in 2018), Nigeria fell from No. 6 on the list to no. 13 under PMB. The Investment Attractiveness Index balances economic activity against the relative ease of doing business.

7. The Global Retail Development Index

Out of 30 nations surveyed in 2017, Nigeria’s ranking in retail development dropped from 19th to 27th. Our total sales from the retail sector dropped from $125bn in 2016 to $109bn in 2017. The GRDI measures retail investments based on all relevant macroeconomic and retail-specific variables in developing countries. Oh, Thailand is closing it’s rice factories because Nigeria under Buhari no longer imports rice! You would think Buharists are mad.

8. Network Readiness Index

This is another ranking by the World Economic Forum and it measures a country’s ICT development by its ability to implement and take advantage of ICTs. Here, Nigeria under PMB dropped 7 places in ranking. But Buhari never promised tech improvements. Ogbonnaya Onu promised to make pencils by 2018. This is almost June, we are still hopeful. Soon, the pencils will start coming. Damn the WEF and ICT!

9. The Global Competitiveness Index

This is another ranking released by the WEF on the set of institutions, policies, and factors that set the sustainable current and medium-term levels of economic prosperity. Nigeria’s ranking on the GCI dropped from 123-127 in 2016. We fell by 3 places from 2015/16 2016/17.

10. Budget

Nigeria dropped to position 90 behind Zimbabwe and Afghanistan in the global Open Budget index released in 2018. Nigeria’s score on the open budget index dropped from 24 in 2015 to 17 in 2017. Nigeria currently ranks 23 behind Liberia, Rwanda and Zimbabwe. Countries like Ghana, South Africa, Uganda all ranked far ahead of Nigeria.

This Index assesses the comprehensiveness and timeliness of budget information that governments make publicly available. Nigeria under Mohammadu Buhari blames the National Assembly for this, but then Buhari blames everybody but himself for everything.

Recently he has blamed the dead Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi for the killings in states like Benue, Taraba, Enugu, Adamawa…But according to BudgIT, the FGN provides citizens with insufficient budget information making it difficult for taxpayers to understand how elected officials utilize available resources. BudgIT also says the content of all budget documents produced in Nigeria falls short on the minimum acceptable global standards as itemized in the Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency Framework.

10 ratings and Nigeria under PMB is dropping in all! But do we even need these ratings to know we are worse than we were on May 29, 2015? How much was a card of Fidson Ciprofloxacin, Lonart DS, Emzor paracetamol, a bottler of Coca-Cola, a pack of Oriental Indomie, a cup of beans, rice or garri, a liter of kerosene or PMS just 3years ago under GEJ?

Things are getting worse and the explanation isn’t the escapist, “the PDP looted the country and left an empty Treasury”. The reason why things are bad is that Mohammadu Buhari is not cut out for leadership -especially not one with a multiplicity of problems and ethnoreligious plurality like ours.

The man is incapable of rising above primordial provincialism to start with. How can he then fight corruption and be able to make the security and welfare of Nigerians the primary purpose of his government?

While Fulani cowherds men were rated by the Global Terrorism Index as the 4th Most Dangerous terror group in 2014, long before they even became more murderous, President Buhari, a Fulani himself has not only refused to tag them as terrorists but moved military ops against Nnamdi Kanu’s IPOB.

While he announced a new pump price on PMS with Lai Mohammed saying the “country is broke” and Ibe Kachikwu suggesting they are removing subsidy on the product and market forces will bring down the price in no time, the NNPC and the government are tradings blames on who between them is actually paying subsidies for PMS! The fraud is just mind-boggling. The failure and incompetence alarming.

If there’s anything PMB ever succeeded in doing since May 29th, 2015, it is to repaint the mess that was Jonathan’s administration in hyperbolic strokes (a perfect cover for his own impending failure) and launch his reelection campaign. He is so successful that the PDP was said to have apologized to Nigerians.

Immediately the news of the apology came, he went for the kill by releasing what Lai Mohammed said was the List of Looters and barely a week after that, perceiving that Nigerians have finally accepted that the PDP was an nọ-no, he “declared” he is seeking re-election.

But who needs his declaration? We knew he would run. He lives for power and nothing else. Handed a gun to secure his country as a soldier, he carried out a coup instead and shot himself to power. Chased out later, he went home raising cows. When democracy was restored, he returned. Rejected, he whimpered blaming everyone but himself. After 4 years, he came again, rejected again he threw tantrums that resulted in the death of many innocent Nigerians.

When he finally realised that his provincialism and nepotism cannot help him get the presidency, he teamed with a bunch of unscrupulous desperadoes and aided by a well-oiled propaganda machine, the incompetence and magnanimity of a dazed GEJ, he got the phone call of his life, probably the first of its kind in the entire black world when Goodluck Jonathan telephoned him and conceded.

We knew he will run. Even after 2023, assuming he wins next year, he will seek a tweaking of the Constitution to run again! He thinks Nigeria owes him the presidency. Reasons why he goes about the job like he is doing Nigeria a favour. But many Nigerians are seeing through him now.

All the myths surrounding his personality, how he was said to have wept for love of the country, was incorruptible and austere, are now known to be lies. We all know now that while he went about cap in hand begging Nigerians to raise money for his party’s nomination form and created the impression that he was living poor (compared to his colleagues whom Nigerians believe live large on stolen funds), his kids were comfortably schooling overseas and he was enjoying all the privileges former heads of state enjoy in Nigeria since Gowon -free medicare, housing, cars, fuel, etc and was also spending several times the very amount he was begging and claiming to have taken loans on for his nomination form!

We heard a widow even donated her life savings of 1million naira to him! This man whose kids were spending the same amount probably every week took this money from this widow!

President Buhari is a hodgepodge of contradictions, lies, and deceit and is doing a poor job as president. That his party will attempt to rig the elections is certain. What is not certain yet is if Nigerians will sit back to watch them do that easily.

I wish him the good luck of Jonathan and I pray Nigerians know they owe themselves the responsibility of making an effort to remove him. He has ticked all the wrong boxes. He is several times worse than Goodluck Jonathan and he deserves to go home.