President Muhammadu Buhari was elected as Nigeria’s president in 2015 to fanfare and celebration. It was the first time in the country that an opposition candidate will be beating an incumbent in Nigeria’s election. As he leaves office on May 29, 2023, eight years, let’s take a lotok at President Muhammadu Buhari’s scorecard performance from 2015 to 2023.
On the process of the campaign process of 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari had made lots of campaign promises. He rose to power with the mantra of fighting corruption. Buhari also promised to run a socialist-leaning type of economy. Did he achieve this?
President Muhammadu Buhari’s Scorecard and Performance from 2015 to 2023
1. Security deteriorated under President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. Good security is supposed to be a vital part of a strong economy, improving the lives of the people, but Buhari failed woefully at it. From just a the threat of Bolo Haram in 2015, when he took over, the security issue spread and got worse.
In 2023, there is practically no safe place in Nigeria. There are rampant cases of kidnapping, armed robbery, even in Abuja, assassination, farmers and herders crisis and so on. The Cable reports that over 60,000 Nigerians lost their lives violently in Buhari’s administration.
2. Nigeria’s economy has retrogressed ever since Buhari took charge in 2015. From one the best performing economy and fastest growing in the world, Nigeria’s economy is a shadow of itself. The GDP growth rate is an average of below 2%. The country is heavily in debts. The unemployment rate is over 33%. The country witnessed double recession. The inflation rate of the country is one of the highest in the world at over 21%.
With all of these, we can say the economy is in tatters.
3. Education witnessed a massive hit by Buharincomics. The infrastructure and level of learning in Nigeria’s public universities have reduced greatly. The staff members went to strike for a combined period of close to 2 years in his administration. The primary and secondary schools are also not properly funded.
Even though Buhari promised to reduce the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria, it increased. The homegrown school feeding program that was meant to lure the children to school wasn’t successful in anyway.
4. In terms of infrastructure, it can be asserted that President Muhammadu Buhari performed above average considering what he met and the works of the former presidents. He has worked on bridges, dams, railway, public buildings, and other public infrastructure than any other Nigerian president since 1999. A good number of capital projects were executed in his administration.
This is the shiny light of his administration. However, he has accused several times of nepotism in the execution of his capital projects. Some sections of th country get more projects than others.
5. President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration equipped the Nigerian Military Forces than any other president since 1999. His administration procured fighter jets, helicopters, war ships, gun boats, trucks, armored tanks, and a whole lot for Nigerian Military and Paramilitary Forces. The administration also improved the standard of living of these personnels. However, all of these added little effects to stemming the bad security situation in the country.
6. His administration added little to nothing to what they met on ground in the power sector. At the point of leaving, Former President Goodluck Jonathan handed over a privatized power distribution sector with over 4,000 megawatts distribution capacity. The country generates close to 8,000 megawatts but can only distribute 4,000. The power sector is still in the same state with little or no improvements.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has claimed that the power distribution is the problem and claims to have procured Siemens transformer capable of distributing 25,000 megawatts but the impact hasn’t been felt in anyway.
This affects the economy in a great way as there is no sufficient power supply for industries and residential houses.
7. In terms of policies and improvement of democratic process handed over history to him, administration can be graded on the average or close to being poor. From a smooth and transparent electoral process, Buhari is handing over a compromised Independent Electoral Commission to his successor.
There have been countless accusations of abuse of power and high-handedness in his administration. Some of the events that prompted these accusations include the killing of members of a Muslim sect in Kaduna, the indiscriminate killing of members of IPOB, the massacre at Lekki Gate of innocent young protesters, and a whole lot of others.
However, Buhari worked and approved some good policies that pushed for the devolving of power from the center. He also pushed to have the State House of Assemblies, Local Governments, and State Judiciaries to be totally free from the respective State Governments; this did not work.
8. There are also other points worth mentioning like the ease of doing business in Nigeria was very poor under him. Nigeria became the world poverty capital of the world under him. The corruption in Nigeria increased under him as Nigeria became more corrupt under him. There are many frauds exposed in his government. The surprising thing is that Muhammadu Buhari goes on to protect people accused of corruption and fraud in his government.
Conclusion and Verdict
President Muhammadu Buhari’s scorecard and performance from 2015 to 2023 is below average. He is the worst President to have led Nigeria since 1999. From security to economy to policies to destroying Nigeria’s unity, President Muhammadu Buhari performed abysmally.