On 29 of May, 2022, President Muhammadu Buhari clocked Seven years as the President and Commander in Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. As expected, this year’s celebration provides yet another time for the sober reflection of those that voted this administration into power while the government rolled out its achievements since assumption of office.
Riding the crest of ‘change’ and ‘Next Level’ mantra into his first and second administrations, President Muhammadu Buharimade significant promises to the Nigerians electorate, presenting the dividends the country stands to gain through his leadership. The President believes he has not reneged on his promises on security, the economy and improving the overall quality of citizens’ lives by lifting millions out of poverty.
However, such self-assessment begs certain questions: Could this stance be a political pretence or stem from a genuine insensitivity to the plight of the masses? With seven years already gone by, things are really not getting better for Nigerians under his administration.
On seventh anniversary that this administration has come on board, Nigerians expressed their opinions on some of the most important problems facing Nigeria today that the government is yet to address which are crime and security, unemployment, electricity access, infrastructure and roads quality, education, health and standard of living of the people among others. Virtually all the respondents whose opinions were samples lamented the spate of insecurity, high level of corruption, poverty, injustice, and lack of respect for the fundamental human rights as enshrined in the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria among other hardships bedeviling the country.
One of the respondents identified as Chris said he couldn’t think of any gain from this present administration as Buhari came in with promises of fighting corruption and making things better but evidently things have been worse by his regime. He said things keep getting worse and worse on a daily basis with insecurity in the country.
He went further to say nothing is moving in the country as people keep relocating abroad on a daily basis and all in all his administration has been terrible one for the country
Another respondent, Solomon said he did not gain anything in this President Buhari Administration, noting that if you are not into politics or a yahoo boy you cannot survive in this country. He said he regretted standing under the sun to waste his vote by voting for president Buhari.
Similarly, Mr Emmanuel Ayoade said to the best of his knowledge, Buhari did not perform well for him to credit him particularly in the area of education. According to him, “if our future tomorrow can be staying at home for months, closing the school, I don’t think the administration is doing good to us” .
He, however, applauded the government in the area of infrastructure, noting that the Buhari government still has to work more on the area of insecurity and education. He said the government needs to come to the round table with the lecturer and settle the strike issue because not everybody has the capability of sending their children to private university.
Also speaking in the same vein, Mr Olayinka Balogun also stressed that this present government has failed in insecurity.According to him “in this present administration, what is right is wrong and nothing good works for whatever reasons but corruption works, and if you are trying to come out to express yourself, you will be threatened.”
He cited the issue of dollar to naira in the market, comparing the exchange rate of one dollar to a naira in the market now and before this government came to office. He equally was lamenting the rise in food price and that of fuel which has turned many Nigerians to an angry man. This is not what the government promised when they wanted the masses to vote for them and it wasn’t as hard as this before the former government left office and this present administration took over.” He lamented.
He urged the youth not to allow any politician to use them at this period when another round of election approaches.
However, looking at his administration in the past seven years, President Muhammadu Buhari’s achievements can be traced to areas such as infrastructures, Agriculture, Health, Education and others which includes the following:
Presidential approval, in 2020, for the establishment of InfraCoPlc, a world class infrastructure development vehicle, wholly focused on Nigeria, with combined debt and equity take-off capital of N15 trillion, and managed by an independent infrastructure fund manager.
–The Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) has seen total additional inflows from the Government of around US$2 billion under the Buhari Administration – since the original US$1 billion which the Fund kicked off with in 2012.
Launch of the Nigeria Innovation Fund, by the NSIA, to address investment opportunities in the domestic technology sector: data networking, datacenters, software, Agri-tech, Bio-tech, etc.
RAIL
– 156km Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge Rail nearing completion
– 327km Itakpe-Warri Standard Gauge Rail completed and commissioned 33 years after construction began.
– Abuja Light Rail completed in 2018.
– Ground-breaking done for construction of Kano-MaradiStandard Gauge Rail, and revamp of Port-Harcourt-Maiduguri Narrow Gauge Rail.
Financing negotiations ongoing for Ibadan-Kano Standard Gauge Rail projecj.
ROADS
– Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF), investing over a billion dollars in three flagship projects: Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Second Niger Bridge, Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Expressway.
– Executive Order 7 mobilizing private investment into the development of key roads and bridges like Bodo-Bonny in Rivers and Apapa-Oshodi-Oworonshoki-Ojota in Lagos
– Highway Development and Management Initiative (HDMI), a public-private partnership program to mobilise, in its first Phase, over a Trillion Naira in private investment into the development and maintenance of 12 Roads, amounting to 1,963km in length.
– More than 360 billion Naira worth of Sukuk Bonds raisedsince 2017 for dozens of critical road projects across all six geopolitical zones.
PORTS
– Completion of New Terminals for International Airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt
– Construction of New Runway for Abuja and Enugu International Airports
– Presidential approval for four International Airports as Special Economic Zones: Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Port Harcourt.
– Approval for new private-sector funded deep sea ports: LekkiDeep Sea Port (Construction already well underway, for completion in 2022); Bonny Deep Sea Port (Ground-breaking done in March 2021); Ibom Deep Sea Port; and Warri Deep Sea Port
– Development of capacity at the Eastern Ports:
In December 2017, Calabar Port commenced export of bulk cement to Tema Port in Ghana
In 2019, three container ships berthed at Calabar Port, for the first time in eleven years
Dredging of Warri Port (Escravos Bar—Warri Port channel) completed in 2018
On October 30, 2019, an LPG Tanker operated by NLNG, berthed in Port Harcourt – the first time ever an LPG ship berthed in any of the Eastern Ports.
On December 8, 2019, Onne Port received JPO VOLANS (owned by Maersk), the FIRST gearless and largest container vessel (265.07 metres) to call at any Eastern Port in Nigeria.
On August 1, 2019, Onne Port’s Brawal Terminal received MSC GRACE, its first container vessel since 2012.
AGRICULTURE
– Anchor Borrowers Program (ABP): The Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) of the Central Bank of Nigeria, launched by President Muhammadu Buhari on November 17, 2015, has made more than 300 billion Naira to more than 3.1 million smallholder farmers of 21 different commodities (including Rice, Wheat, Maize, Cotton, Cassava, Poultry, Soy Beans, Groundnut, Fish), cultivating over 3.8 million hectares of farmland.
– Presidential Fertilizer Initiative: Launched as a government-to-government partnership between the Nigerian and Moroccan Governments, in December 2016, the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI) produced ~12million 50kg bags of NPK 20:10:10 equivalent in 2020, bringing total production since inception to over 30 million 50kg bags equivalent; and number of participating blending plants increased to 44 from three at inception.
– Special-Agro Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ) Programme: A partnership between FGN, AfDB Group, and other stakeholders including IFAD and BOI. Under the SAPZ programme, agro-processing centres will be established across the country. The agro-processing centres will be provided with basic infrastructure such as water, electricity and roads as well as facilities for skills training. Seven (7) States and the FCT selected for the pilot phase, due to commence 2021: Ogun, Oyo, Imo, Cross River, Kano, Kaduna, Kwara.
– The Green Imperative – a Nigeria-Brazil Agricultural Mechanization Programme aimed at boosting agricultural production in Nigeria. The National Assembly has approved a loan for the financing of the program, which will involve the development of 632 privately-operated primary production (mechanization) Service Centers and 142 Agro processing (value addition) service Centres across the 774 LGAs, and the reactivation of 6 privately owned partially-operational or moribund tractor assembly plants nationwide. It will also train 100,000 new extension workers.
SOCIAL INVESTMENT AND POVERTY ALLEVIATION
– In 2016, President Buhari launched the National Social Investment Programme, currently the largest such programme in Africa and one of the largest in the world. Currently, the National Social Register of poor and vulnerable Nigerians (NSR) has 32.6 million persons from more than 7 million poor and vulnerable households, identified across 708 local government areas, 8,723 wards and 86,610 communities across the 36 States of the country and the FCT.
– From this number, 1.6 million poor and vulnerable households (comprising more than 8 million individuals, in 45,744 communities from 5,483 Wards of 557 LGAs in 35 states and the FCT are currently benefiting from the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program, which pays a bimonthly stipend of N10,000 per household
– In January 2019, President Buhari launched Nigeria’s Micro-Pension Scheme – which allows self-employed persons and persons working in organisations with less than 3 employees to save for the provision of pension at retirement or incapacitation.
– Establishment of Survival Fund, National Youth Investment Fund, and National Special Public Works Program (774,000 beneficiaries across 774 LGAs nationwide), and the Central Bank’s Covid-19 300 billion Naira Targeted Credit Facility (TCF) – more than 150 billion Naira disbursed so far – to support millions of small businesses, households and young people, with federal grants, loans and stipends.
– The Buhari Administration’s Survival Fund has provided its grants (Payroll Support, Artisan and Transport Sector grants, and General MSME grants) to more than 800,000 beneficiaries, since the last quarter of 2020. It has also provided free business registration to more than 200,000 MSMEs across the country.
– Presidential approval for the establishment of the Nigeria Investment and Growth Fund (NIG-Fund), in 2021.
– As at the end of 2020, Development Bank of Nigeria (which commenced operations in 2017) had disbursed 324 billion Naira in loans to more than 136,000 MSMEs, through 40 Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs). (57% of the beneficiaries are women-owned MSMEs while 27% are youth-owned).
– The Bank of Industry has disbursed more than 900 billion Naira in loans to over 3 million large, medium, small and micro enterprises, since 2015.
– In January 2019, President Buhari launched Nigeria’s Micro Pension Scheme – which allows self-employed persons and persons working in organisations with less than 3 employees to save for the provision of pension at retirement or incapacitation
EDUCATION AND HEALTH
– Since assuming office, the Buhari Administration has committed more than N1.7 trillion of capital intervention to Nigeria’s tertiary institutions, through various means, including TETFund – with the universities taking the lion share of the total amount.
– The Federal Government has disbursed more than 170 billion Naira in UBE Matching Grants to States and the FCT since 2015, 8 billion Naira in Special Education Grant to States and private providers of Special Education, and 34 billion Naira from the Teachers Professional Development Fund to States and the FCT.
– Launch of the Alternate School Programme (ASP), designed to ensure that every out-of-school child in Nigeria gains access to quality basic education, irrespective of social, cultural or economic circumstance, in line with the aspirations of Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG-4).
– Presidential approval for a new (extended) Retirement age of 65 and Length of Service of 40 years for Teachers in Public Basic and Secondary Schools in Nigeria (both effective January 1, 2021), as well as a new Special Teachers Salary Scale (effective January 1, 2022), and also a new Special Teachers Pension Scheme.
– Reduction in the number of out-of-school children, by 3,247,590, as at 31st December, 2020, achieved through a World-Bank financed program known as ‘Better Education Service Delivery for All’ (BESDA). 1,792,833 of that number achieved through formal schools while 1,454,757 are through non-formal interventions such as Almajiri, Girl-Child, Nomadic/Migrant and IDPs Education).
– Under the World Bank-supported Innovation Development & Effectiveness in the Acquisition of Skills (IDEAS) Project, approved in 2020, US$200m will be invested in 6 participating States (Abia, Benue, Ekiti, Gombe, Kano, Edo) as well as 20 Federal Science and Technical Colleges nationwide. Implementation will be stepped-up in 2021 to afford millions of Nigerian youths the opportunity to acquire hands-on skills to effectively contribute to national development.
– Presidential approval for the establishment of the following.
Federal Maritime University, in Delta State
Nigerian Army University, in Borno State
Six new Colleges of Education (one per geopolitical zone: Odugbo, Benue State; Isu, Ebonyi State; Ekiadolor, Edo State; Gidan Madi, Sokoto State; Jama’are, Bauchi State; and Iwo, Osun State).
Six new Federal Polytechnics in Kaltungo, Gombe State; Ayede, Oyo State; Daura, Katsina State; Shendam, Plateau State, Ohodo, Enugu State; and Ugep, Cross River State.
Under the phased implementation of the National Youth Policy, 6 Federal Science & Technical Colleges (FSTC) were established in 2020, as follows: FSTC Ogugu, Kogi State; FSTC Hadejia, Jigawa State; FSTC Umuaka, Imo State; FSTC Igangan, Oyo State; FSTC Ganduje, Kano State; FSTC, Amuzu, Ebonyi State. Five (5) additional Federal Science and Technical Colleges (FSTC) will come on-stream in 2021, and will be located in Bauchi, Plateau, Sokoto, Enugu and Cross River States.
– Grants to State Governments: At least $2.5 million disbursed to each State of the Federation and the FCT, under the Saving One Million Lives (SOML) initiative, to improve health outcomes.
– Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF): For the first time since the National Health Act was passed in 2014, the Federal Government in 2018 began including the 1% minimum portion of the Consolidated Revenue Fund – amounting to 55 billion Naira in 2018 – to fund the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF). The Fund is designed to deliver a guaranteed set of health services to all Nigerians, through the national network of Primary Health Care centers.
– Passage of enabling legislation for the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC), for the first time since it was founded in 2011. President Buhari approved a grant of 5 billion Naira for the NCDC in March 2020, as part of the response to the Coronavirus pandemic.
– Tertiary Healthcare Upgrade Programme: A number of key Federal Hospitals across the country are being upgraded to effectively manage cancer and other major health challenges. Cancer Radiotherapy machines and other equipment are being provided to these hospitals. The National Hospital in Abuja has already received two LINAC (cancer treatment) machines.
– Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) in March 2018 invested US$10m to establish a world-class Cancer Treatment Center at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), and US$5m each in the Aminu Kano University Teaching Hospital and the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia, to establish modern Diagnostic Centres. These Centers have all been completed and are now operational.
– Launch in 2019 of a Cancer Treatment Support Programme, ‘Chemotherapy Access Partnership’, as a public-private partnership between the Federal Government of Nigeria and a Private Sector coalition, to enable Nigerians access lower-cost, high-quality medications for the treatment of several types of cancer.
YOUTH AND CREATIVE INDUSTRY SUPPORT
– Establishment of the 75 billion Naira National Youth Investment Fund (NYIF), approved by President Buhari in 2020
– Establishment of the Creative Industry Financing Initiative (CIFI), by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in collaboration with the Bankers’ Committee, to provide single-digit financing to young Nigerians in the fields of Fashion, Film, Music and Information Technology.
– In 2019, the Federal Government added Creative Industries to the list of qualifying sectors for ‘Pioneer Status’ Incentives – which grants relief from Corporate Income Tax for a specified period of time.
SPORTS
– Long overdue renovation of the Lagos and Abuja National Stadiums kicked off in 2020, ahead of concessioning for private management.
– In 2018, the National Sports Festival will be held for the first time since 2012.
– Nigeria national U-17 football team, the Golden Eaglets, won the FIFA U-17 World Cup for the fifth time, in 2015. Their first ever win was 30 years earlier, in 1985, when President Buhariwas military Head of State.
– Nigeria’s participation at the 2016 Paralympic Games yielded her best gold medal result since Nigeria started taking part in the Games in 1992.
– D’ Tigress, Nigeria’s Female National Basketball Team won the 2017 FIBA Africa Women’s Championship, the continental championship Cup, for the first time in 12 years, and earned qualification for its first FIBA Women’s World Cup appearance since 2006.
– In 2018, D’ Tigress, Nigeria’s Female National Basketball Team earned its first-ever win at the FIBA Women’s World Cup, and went on to advance to the quarterfinals. The Team finished in 8th place – the best ever performance by an African Team.
– Nigeria’s Women’s Football Team, the Super Falcons, won the African Women Cup of Nations (AWCON) in 2016 and 2018.
– In 2018, Nigeria hosted a FIFA Executive Football Summit, one of twelve worldwide.
– In 2019, the Super Falcons advanced to the group stage of the Women’s World Cup, for the first time in 20 years.
– In 2019, Nigeria won its first Athletics World Championship Medal in six years
With less than a year to the second term tenure of the present administration, the question now is, what can President Muhammadu Buhari do to move the economy to the next level and thus regain the trust of Nigerians who have given him a second term chance? Nigeria urgently needs a massive economic stimulus programme. President Buhari should significantly increase spending in sectors, projects and programmes that will boost the economy, generate employment and promote inclusive growth. He should prioritise infrastructures, youth entrepreneurship, health and education.
President Buhari needs to be a great deal bolder, and to come up with a new set of interventions that truly can take Nigeria to the ‘Next Level’ mantra of his campaign slogan in 2019.
