President Buhari made Nigeria a poor country

When President Muhammadu Buhari told a visiting UN delegation that “suddenly we are a poor country”, Nigerians knew what he meant. 

While he was speaking, local media was awash with reports of more economic woes – four blue-chip companies (Nestle Nigeria, Nigerian Breweries, Dangote Cement and Lafarge Africa) recording profit losses of 51.8bn naira ($162m; £125m) in the first half of this year and South Africa overtaking Nigeria as Africas biggest economy.

Undoubtedly, Nigeria is now going through what some analysts describe as the worst economic downturn in decades.

Many people are struggling to buy food. 

Nigeria has suddenly become a poor country, President Muhammadu Buhari had lamented.  

His comments came as South Africa yesterday regained the title of Africa’s largest economy, two years after the West African state rebased its GDP to claim the spot. 

Speaking at a meeting in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, yesterday, Mr Buhari said:

It has been a very difficult year for Nigeria. Before we came to office, petroleum sold for about $100 (£77) per barrel. Then it crashed to $37, and now oscillates between $40 and $45 per barrel.

“Suddenly, we’re a poor country, but commitment to transparency and accountability is not making people know that there is severe shortage.”

Mr Buhari took office last year after winning elections by a convincing margin. He promised to tackle corruption and boost Nigeria’s economy.  

The economy depends on revenue from the sale of crude oil. When oil prices fell from more than $100 a barrel to about $40, the naira lost more than a third of its value.

Nigerians are feeling the effects. Many civil servants have not been paid for at least a year and others live with the fear that their monthly salaries will also stop.

Said economist Jibrin Rabi’u: “People now buy only food.”

While the government talks of measures to cushion the effects of poverty, people are increasingly sharing tips on how to survive and and are questioning how they are being governed.

There are stories of families going for days without food, of husbands absconding because they are unable to meet the basic needs of their families, and there have even been reports of a few young men taking their own lives after their efforts to earn a living ended in failure.

But how did we come to this sorry pass?

Crude oil prices fell sharply in the fourth quarter of 2014 as robust global production exceeded demand. After reaching monthly peaks of $112 per barrel (bbl) and $105/bbl in June, crude oil benchmarks Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell to $62/bbl and $59/bbl in December, respectively.

2016 Crude Oil Prices. The monthly average spot price of Brent crude oil decreased by $3/b in July to $45/b, which was the first monthly decrease since January 2016

One big lie Buhari and his ruling APC have come up with is that former president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan caused our current economic woes by allowing those who served under him loot the treasury.

This is a very big lie and according to Charles Ogbu here is why: Corruption alone don’t kill an economy. Else, our economy would have died a long time ago because they’ve always been corruption in the system right from the very first post-independence govt of Nnamdi Azikiwe and Tafawa Balewa.

Leaders of every military coup have always cited corruption as the reason for their intervention. There was systemic corruption during Jonathan’s era just as there has always been systemic corruption but the big question Mr Ogbu asked is: 

How come the only two times Nigeria has gone into recession was in1984 when Muhammadu Buhari was in power and 2016 when the same Muhammadu Buhari is in power again?? Despite all the looting in Abacha govt, Nigeria didn’t go into recession. Despite all the looting by all the other military rulers, we didn’t go into recession. The only two times was 3 decades ago and now…..all under thesame Buhari. Haba! Even if you are incapable of any sort of intelligent reasoning, you should be able to figure this one out at least

Let’s even look at the two reasons advanced by IMF as the reasons for the recession:

1) Plunging oil revenue as a result of the crises in the Niger Delta which is the location of the oil the economy is heavily depended on

2) Weakened investors confidence in the country/economy.

It is on record that barely two weeks after being sworn in as president, Buhari resurrected the Niger Delta crises by bombing the region, cutting the amnesty budget drastically and terminating the oil pipeline contracts given to the ex-militants.

The rush with which those actions were taken tend to suggest that public interest was the last thing on the president’s mind. In addition, Buhari went to America and made it clear he would discriminate against those who didn’t give him 97% of their vote.

Whatever lies we chose to believe, we must not forget that these reckless ill-conceived actions of president Buhari were hugely responsible for the current crises in the Niger Delta which has led to plunging oil revenue blamed as one of the reasons for the recession.

Weakened investors confidence: When Buhari took over from GEJ, rather than hit the ground running, he abandoned not just the economy but the entire country. He left the whole country on autopilot. No government in place, no minister, no economic direction. No nothing! For over 6 months. Six whole months! Now tell me, if you were an investor looking for where to invest your money, would you invest in such an economy.. Would you?

After every election, investors always wait for the new government to reel out her economic policy to enable them consider their chances of getting favourable return should they invest in such an economy. These guys are businessmen, not some bunch of “money miss road”. Buhari single handedly weakened their confidence by leaving the entire country and the economy on autopilot for over six months.

Is this even debatable?

How exactly did Jonathan cause our current economic woes?

Even if we must lie to ourselves, how can we believe our own lies?

He (Buhari) complained he met a treasury that was almost empty which is a lie because a man who met a virtually empty treasury would not start building a helipad in his hometown in daura. Such a man would not start traveling all over the world in company of governors from his APC party.

Jonathan had one of the best economic team. What Buhari have in place of economic team is a bunch of sycophants who are mostly lawyers like the V.P, the national planning minister, the president’s chief of staff who are all lawyers by profession and the trade and investment minister who is a medical doctor. The economists in the so called economic advisory team are not up to 4. Please don’t take my word for it. Do your own research.

The over six months Buhari wasted before forming his govt, the fact that he doesn’t have a competent economic team and his reckless action in bombing the Niger Delta, the reckless manner he terminated the oil pipeline contract which was part of the amnesty deal with the militants and slashing the amnesty budget were the main reasons why our economy went south. Jonathan didn’t cause all these, did he?

Now, let us even assume that Jonathan looted everything, did he loot Buhari’s brain and his economic management abilities, did he?

Isn’t it 15 months already? Is 15 months not long enough for citizens to start feeling the impact of a government headed by a man who spent 12 solid years begging for the job and promising that he had studied all our problems and was already to solve them all if only we would elect him president?

Ogbuefi Ndigbo