ABUJA, Nigeria — President Muhammadu Buhari rode to victory in May on a promise to revive the country’s moribund economy, vanquish Boko Haram terrorists who controlled much of the northeastern part of the country and tackle the pervasive corruption that has stifled development in Africa’s most populous nation.
Five months later there is growing disenchantment that the president has not delivered on his lofty promises, while taking an unprecedented amount of time just getting his government staffed.
“I think he’s too slow,” said Innocent Lagi, a Buhari ally and former attorney general of Nasarawa State in central Nigeria. “He must have underestimated the problems of the country.”
Six months into office, Mr. Buhari had installed just half of the Cabinet and top-level appointments under his discretion, slowing the former army general’s ability to capitalize on his postelection honeymoon. Recently the Nigerian Senate approved the last of his Cabinet picks, but only after the president admitted he hasn’t figured out exactly which portfolios his new ministers will be given.
Mr. Buhari has complained that the country was “materially and morally vandalized” before he took power, but critics say that his slow start is undercutting the momentum to overhaul the government and economy in Nigeria, which Transparency International ranked as 136th — tied with Russia — among 176 countries in its Corruption Perceptions Index.
“The change was only in the new leadership,” said Mr. Lagi. “The courts, legislature and other institutions like the army, police, etc., have not changed. The president has no powers to fight corruption; the institutions do. He can’t take a corrupt person to court. He can’t arrest a corrupt person. The reality is that the country hasn’t moved forward.”
The Nigerian newspaper The Guardian editorialized recently that, “instead of whining and seemingly ruing why he chose to lead at this time, the president should consider the dire situation of the economy as an opportunity to demonstrate that Nigerians did not make a mistake by giving him the job he sought for 12 years.”
The paper continued, “All the citizens want is for him to translate his plethora of sweet promises into policies and programs that would improve their lot. All that Nigerians need now is his performance and not excuses.”
Inaction at the top levels of government has mirrored economic gridlock throughout the country.
Credit -Washington times
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