Hoping for a better second year-buhari

The election of a former head of state as president in 2015 made Nigerians

very optimistic that effective governance would start immediately after

President Muhammadu Buhari was sworn-in. The expectation was heightened

when the incoming government vowed to bring change.

However, it took a while for the administration to constitute a cabinet,

shortly after that, it signed the budget on May 6, 2016.

So many things went rapidly downhill. Many companies closed shop and

hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost. Many manufacturing outfits

operated below capacity. The organised private sector and concerned

economic watchers frequently implored the Buhari regime to unfold its

economic policies and direction to enable investors make informed decisions.

It came to a head when in February 2016, Nobel Laureate Prof Wole Soyinka,

urged the Presidency to call an emergency conference to address the nation's

dwindling economic fortunes.

The past one year, however, recorded giant strides in the war against terror,

as the Boko Haram insurgents were encircled in Sambisa Forest. The war is

far from over, but there is light at the end of the tunnel as the military

continues to liberate more enclaves and free captives from the terrorists.

Unfortunately,just as the military is degrading the capability of Boko Haram

new fronts of instability opened up, with the upsurge of the separatist

agitations of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra IPOB, the attacks of armed

herdsmen on indigenous communities around the central and southern states,

as well as the return of militancy in the Niger Delta through the activities of

the Niger Delta Avengers.

The regime also put a lot of effort on the war on corruption, with emphasis

on the forceful return of stolen or misappropriated federal funds by

officials of

the former President Goodluck Jonathan government and their associates.

On the whole, this regime's approach to governance has been inchoate and

lacking in direction and purpose. Perhaps, this owes to the fact that it is a

totally new regime run by a new ruling party. Coming at a time of a grave

economic downturn did not help matters.

We hope the second year will see a lot more action in infrastructural

development. We hope there will be more engagement with the people and

less emphasis on the military approach which is alien to our democratic

setting.

We hope that the second year will bring the change promised Nigerians, to

heal the multiple injuries of electricity and fuel price hikes as well

as the free

fall of the value of the Naira. We expect the economic diversification

programme and creation of jobs to put money in the pockets of the ordinary

people.

We hope for a better second year.