The administration of President Muhammadu Buhari came into power using the change mantra effectively to woo Nigerians into opting for the alternative. For sixteen years since the current democratic era, the people’s democratic party had a jamboree with the Nation’s common wealth and metamorphosed into the proverbial largest party in Africa. The PDP in their reign took corruption to a whole new level and because of that, Nigerians needed a change!
Buhari promised Nigerians “change” and Nigerians got “change begins with me” in return. Actually for 16 months the APC and President Buhari has been in power and certain things have changed for Nigerians.
Let’s take a look at 5 things that have changed since Buhari came into power:
Fuel price changed from 87 to 145 naira per liter: The first thing that changed when Buhari came into power was an outrageous increase in petrol price, Despite his electoral promise to reduce petrol pump price from the N87 per litre that he met it, President Muhammadu Buhari increased the price to N145! With this increment, Buhari has further impoverished Nigerians. Nigerians should be reminded that on April 14, 2015, President Buhari’s ally and former Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Prof. Tam David-West, told Nigerians that Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (who was then President-elect), will reduce the fuel pump price from N87 to N40 per litre. Buhari did not debunk this statement made by his friend and major supporter.
Naira lost it’s value: The naira stood at 197/$ when Buhari came into power, 16 months later the naira is now 315.75/$. Eight months ago — the naira was trading at 268 to a single dollar at the parallel market. Perharps change has swept away the value of Nigerian Naira.
Peace elude Niger Delta: Angered by the alleged statement accredited to President Buhari that “constituencies that gave me 97% cannot in all honesty be treated equally, on some issues, with constituencies that gave me 5 %, I think these are political realities, while certainly there will be justice for everybody, everybody will get his constitutional rights, but while the party in constituencies that by their sheer hard work they made sure that they got their people to vote and to ensure their votes count, they must feel that the government has appreciated the effort they put in putting the government in place. I see this as really fair.” Well our brothers from the south-south did not take the insinuation lightly, by demanding resource control, militants in the region took up arms and have since resumed hostilities in the region.
Freedom of speech is guaranteed, but not after: Under Buhari’s administration, freedom of speech is guaranteed, but there is no guarantee of freedom after speech. In the past couple of months, three journalist has been arrested and harassed by law enforcement agencies for being critical of government officials. That is change! Before now it was unheard of to arrest a Nigerian for being critical, now Nigerians can now be arrested even when you chose a name for your dog.
Nigeria changed from Africa’s largest economy into recession: A country once touted as the largest economy in Africa has been relegated to a country in economic recession. The PDP recently said: “Following this understanding, Nigeria’s economy is already near depression. The crass ineptitude and lukewarm-attitude of this All Progressives Congress government is no longer tolerable, and therefore, we are calling on President Buhari and his team to return Nigeria to its state of booming economy before they assumed office in May, 2015, and then quit immediately to allow other capable leaders recover our ailing economy”.
Obviously this is not the change Nigerians voted for, and now the Buhari’s change agenda can no-longer guaranty the “change” it promised; the work of change has now been shifted to Nigerians with the launch of “change begins with me” program. Nigerians voted for a change, if we are now the change agents, Buhari should first change the above mentioned points mentioned above.