Three factors that prove Buhari’s change is for the worst

Muhammadu Buhari’s victory against Goodluck
Jonathan in the 2015 general election was one many
pundits never saw coming.
Buhari, a retired major-general who contested on the
platform of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) polled
a total of 15,416,221 votes to defeat the incumbent and
candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP)
President Goodluck Jonathan, who got 12,853,162
votes.
Muhammadu Buhari promised to bring about change
during his inauguration.
After three previous failed shots at the presidency,
Muhammadu Buhari was finally moving into Aso Rock,
Nigeria’s presidential palace, as the president of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria.
But this time, the former head of state had secured
victory by tapping into the much desired change
Nigerians sought for decades after suffering in the
midst of plenty.
Buhari and the APC had sold the change mantra to
Nigerians who desperately needed a better life at all
cost, even if it involved voting in a former tyrant who
once ruled the country with iron fists.
In the weeks leading to the election, Buhari had asked
Nigerians not to lose hope because change was
imminent in the country. In a report in the Nation
newspaper dated January 01, 2015, the APC presidential
candidate listed a five-point change agenda which he
promised to implement if elected president. According
to Buhari, the change meant:
– A country that you can be proud of at anytime and
anywhere: where corruption is tackled, where your leaders
are disciplined and lead with vision and clarity; where the
stories that emerge to the world from us are full of hope and
progress.
– A Nigeria in which neither yourselves, nor your parents,
families or friends will have to fear for your safety, or for
theirs.
-A Nigeria where citizens get the basics that any country
should provide: infrastructure that works, healthcare that is
affordable, even free; respect for the environment and
sustainable development, education that is competitive and
outcome-oriented in a knowledge-economy.
– A country that provides jobs for its young people,
reducing unemployment to the lowest of single digits and
providing safety nets so that no one is left behind.
– A Nigeria where entrepreneurship thrives, enterprise
flourishes and the government gets out of your way so that
you can create value, build the economy and aggressively
expand wealth .
Muhammadu Buhari at a campaign rally in the weeks
leading up to the 2015 general elections.
Buhari also emphasised that the above five-point
change agenda was possible to realise through
exemplary leadership.
But having been the slogan with which the APC
achieved tremendous success at the last general
election, it has come as a surprise to many that the
change mantra is yet to translate into socio-economic
prosperity for Nigeria.
Some Nigerians are beginning to feel the change
promised by the current administration is elusive; this
has been heightened by three factors which have made
the change promised by the APC  mirror a change for
the worst.
1. The CBN recruitment scandal
Recent findings that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
secretly recruited children and close relatives of public
office holders and politicians into sensitive and highly
lucrative jobs has been described as a betrayal of the
change mantra of the Buhari administration.
A top official of the CBN, told Sahara Reporters that the
governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, had arranged the
hiring as way of endearing himself to the presidency and
in return for saving his job.
Investigation by Daily Trust revealed that the Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN) recruited 909 staff in two years
without advertising the vacancies. It is certain that this
clandestine recruitment began before the inception of
the APC administration, but continued after Buhari
became president.
However, what came as a shock to Nigerians was a
story by news website, Sahara Reporters, showing that
among the children and relatives of some of the
influential Nigerians who were dubiously and secretly
hired by the CBN was a nephew of President
Muhammadu Buhari, the so called advocate of the
change mantra.
Other top government officials and party members
whose children or relatives were secretly hired by the
bank include former vice president Abubakar Atiku;
Mamman Daura, a close ally of the president; Inspector
General of Police (IGP) Solomon Arase; the minister of
state for petroleum resources, Ibe Kachikwu, whose
sons were hired, and the minister of interior,
Abdurahman Danbazzau.
The recruitments have drawn widespread
condemnations from Nigerians who suggest that this
shady employment of a select few wouldn’t have come
as a surprise had it occurred under the Jonathan
administration, but the fact that it occurred under the
watch of Muhammadu Buhari who promised a change
to the old policy of ‘man know man’ has left many
disappointed.
In reaction, the Socio-Economic Rights and
Accountability Project (SERAP) has sent an open letter
to Godwin Emefiele, governor of the CBN, requesting
him to “immediately withdraw hundreds of letters of
employment issued following a seriously flawed recruitment
process and to put in place a system of recruitment and
hiring based on the principles of non-discrimination,
transparency, participation and objective criteria such as
merit, equity and aptitude.”
Likewise, the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), a
coalition of over 400 civil society organizations, has
described the shady recruitment exercise conducted by
the CBN as a betrayal of a change mantra of the Buhari
administration
The group called on President Muhammadu Buhari to
fish out the perpetrators and punish them according to
the law of the land, adding that the reasons given by the
apex bank to embark on secret recruitment exercise
was not acceptable.
But the presidency has not commented on the report,
neither has any of his ministers.
The scandalous recruitment by the CBN has been
viewed by some Nigerians who were sceptic of the
Buhari change mantra as evidence that the Buhari
administration is not different from past
administrations.
2. Perennial fuel scarcity
Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency ended with a biting
fuel scarcity that the suffering masses hoped would
never repeat itself under the Buhari administration. But
that scarcity they so despised is exactly what they’re
grappling with at the moment.
Fuel scarcity has lingered in Nigeria for weeks
The scarcity of petrol has persisted for weeks across
the country as motorists spend close to five hours at
filling stations queuing for the commodity which is not
forthcoming. As if that was not enough, the minister of
state for petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu worsened matters
when he said the current petrol scarcity will continue till
May, and that only “ magic ” could bring a quicker end to
the crisis that has already stretched beyond a month.
In his word: “One of the training​s I did not receive is that of
a magician, but I am working very hard to ensure some of
these issues go away.”
However Kachikwu has retracted his statement and
apologised after drawing scathing criticisms from many
Nigerians, including a senior leader of the ruling APC,
Bola Tinubu, who said the comments were “ insulting” to
the Nigerians facing hardship daily to get petrol.
But from the look of things, Nigerians appear to be more
in need of fuel than apology as evidenced by the queues
at petrol stations across the country.
Kachikwu has assured Nigerians that the queues will
disappear across the nation by April, but the queues
seem to be getting longer even as May approaches.
At a meeting with the Senate committee on petroleum
on Tuesday, March 29, the minister said there was no
immediate solution to the fuel scarcity, because 90 per
cent of Nigerian depots were not functional.
“Most fuel products into Nigeria come from Europe and it
takes 14 days for fuel to land here,” he said.
But Kachikwu made the statement more than 21 days
ago and yet fuel scarcity still persists and the long
queues at the petrol stations remain.
Many Nigerians, including civil society organisations,
analysts and individuals have expressed anger and
disappointment over the on-going scarcity, blaming oil
marketers and President Muhammadu Buhari, who
doubles as the minister of petroleum, for their plight.
Civil society groups, among other Nigerians, have said
that President Buhari, whose presidential campaign had
promised to bring change to the country, has failed to
deal with the problem of fuel scarcity.
Many have also accused Buhari of failing in his promise
to Nigerians to revive the oil sector. Nigerians who
embraced the change mantra preached by the APC
administration expected that things in the oil sector
would change, but the lingering fuel scarcity which
appears to have no end in sight depicts that things in
the oil sector have indeed changed for the worst.
3. Poor power supply
For many years, Nigerians have suffered immensely
from epileptic power supply, but the current the
situation is worsened by the fuel scarcity experienced in
the country. The energy crisis witnessed in most parts
of the country has cast doubts on the ability of former
Lagos state governor, Babatunde Fashola, who now
serves as the minister of works, power and housing to
restructure the power sector.
Some Nigerians have begun to question the rationale
behind appointing Fashola, who is a lawyer to head a
sensitive ministry like the power sector.
Apparently, displeased with the fact that the country
continues to grapple with the problem of power outage
almost a year after Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in
as president, some Nigerians have begun to question
the rationale behind appointing a lawyer to head a
sensitive ministry like the power sector, while others
have called on the president to urgently unbundle the
Ministry of Power, Works and Housing to ensure
productivity.
This was the position of a socio-political group, the
Rescue Nigeria Economy Project which said it was high
time the president realised his mistake and allow
Fashola to focus on one ministry.
In a statement signed by Dennis Alamu-George, its
executive secretary, the group said the current situation
in the country has clearly shown that Fashola lacks
what it takes to combine the three ministries, according
to a report on Daily Independent.
From the perennial power outage experienced across
the country, it is evident that the change President
Muhammadu promised is yet to have any positive
impact on the power sector, and what is baffling is that
despite the unavailability of electricity, the federal
government recently announced a 45% increase in
electricity tariff which led to protests in several states.
As if that were not enough, rather than step up to solve
the challenges of poor power supply, the Buhari
administration has hinged the power outage
experienced across the country on the activities of
vandals.
The presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina has even
asked Nigerians who are complaining about the
incessant black outs and almost non-existent power
supply in the country to go and fight the vandals if they
really needed power.
Below is a video of Femi Adesina asking Nigerians to go
and fight vandals.
It is on record that when Muhammadu Buhari
campaigned to bring change if elected he said his five-
point change agenda was possible to realise through
exemplary leadership.
But for now, the lack of due process witnessed in the
CBN recruitment, the perennial fuel scarcity across the
country and the power blackout have shown that the
much desired change promised by Buhari has not come,
but in a worst form.