Executive Director of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) and Nigeria’s Chapter of Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), and Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), Comrade Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, speaks with KEHINDE AKINTOLA on the seven-years of President MuhammaduBuhari’s administration performance on Nigeria and the citizenry.
Nigeria has marked another May 29 Democracy Day, in your own perspective, what do you think should be the criteria to assess these seven years of the Buhari’s government?
Democracy as a system of governance in which power is vested on the people to choose those who will lead them is so far the best system of governance in the world. In a functioning democratic society, the people have the supreme power to exercise control over how they can be governed through their representatives either directly or indirectly.
According to the United Nations, the values of freedom, respect for human rights and the principles of holding periodic genuine, free, fair and credible elections are essential elements of democracy. In 2000, the United Nations Commission on Human rights recommended a series of legislative, institutional and practical measures to consolidate democracy.In 2002, the commission declared the following as essential elements of democracy: respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, freedom of association, freedom of expression and opinion, access to power and its exercise in accordance with the rule of law, the holding of periodic free and fair elections by universal suffrage and by secret ballot as the expression of the will of the people, a pluralistic system of political parties and organizations, the separation of powers, the independence of the judiciary, transparency and accountability in public administration and free, independent and pluralistic media. It is therefore based on the above criteria that every democratic government can be effective assessed, thus, it is on the basis of these [criteria] that we can as a leading civil society organization in Nigeria assess the seven-year Buhari administration.
Has President Buhari’s administration delivered on its campaign promises?
The MuhammaduBuhari-led administration has promised Nigerians change from inception; in fact, the cardinal points of his campaign promises are the things that convinced Nigerians to cast their votes for him during the 2015 general elections. The three campaign promises were fight against corruption, improved economy and fight against insurgency and growing insecurity in Nigeria. Fast forward to seven years after, theBuhari’s administration has little to nothing to show for it when it comes to delivering its campaign promises. But based on the three campaign promises and considering the criteria’s above, the Buhari led administration promised to fight corruption, but what we have witnessed over these 7 years period was nothing, but a surge in corrupt practices by high profile public officials, who are merely untouchable.
In 2020, the United States described the scale of corruption in Nigeria under President MuhammaduBuhari’s administration as “massive, widespread, and pervasive.”This is according to the 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released by US Department of State. In Section four of the report focusing on Nigeria titled ‘corruption and lack of transparency in government’, the United States noted that:“Although the law provides criminal penalties for conviction of official corruption, the government did not consistently implement the law, and government employees frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity.
The recent arrest of the Accountant-General of the Federation over 80 billion Naira fraud and many other incidences has made it abundantly clear that this government has woefully failed in its fight against corruption.
Earlier this year in January, CISLAC, the National Chapter for Transparency International (TI), Nigeria released the Corruption Perception Index (CPI), which ranked Nigeria 154 out of 180 among the most corrupt countries in the world, suggesting that Nigeria is still one of the leading countries in terms of corruption.
Another strategic area that the Buhari-led administration promised to tackle was insecurity. A report released on March 30, 2021 also touched on security situation in the country noting that, “The insurgency in the North-East by the militant terrorist groups Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa has continued.
“The groups conducted numerous attacks on government and civilian targets, resulting in thousands of deaths and injuries, widespread destruction, the internal displacement of more than two million persons, and the external displacement of somewhat more than an estimated 300,000 Nigerian refugees to neighboring countries as of December 14,” the report stated.
It is quite unfortunate for the government for failing to protect the lives and properties of the citizens despite the sacrifices they made with their blood, sweat and tears coupled with resources for this administration to come on board.
With the country battling multifarious issues of economic stagnation, social upheaval, among others, what are the solutions to these problems?
Due to corruption and impunity, the Nigerian government has had nothing good to show in the country’s economy in the past seven years of the Buhari-led administration, coupled with the growing debt and massive mismanagement of resources by public officials, a situation that created massive unemployment and a worrisome economic downturn. The uncontrolled borrowing by the President have plunged the country into a deeper economic mess, thereby leaving behind a massive debt that will take generations to repay.
What is the score sheet of the government by your assessment?
As far as we are concerned, there has been a massive failure of the Buhari-led administration inits seven years in office. So, based on my assessment above and the facts I presented, I would give the seven years of Buhari’s administration a score of 3% out of 10.
Has the current government been a blessing or a curse to Nigeria?
This current government has been more of a curse than a blessing to Nigeria, because it has given rise to massive corruption, rampant killings of innocent lives and properties, while a huge number of unemployed youths, who roam the streets of the country, have become susceptible to the evil of Boko Haram as a recruitment source is nothing more than a curse than a blessing to its people.
As outlined above and as we have been witnessing in the country and are still witnessing, the Buhari-led administration has not delivered on any of its campaign promises, rather what the administration has achieved is nothing, but an improved culture of recklessness and impunity where corrupt practices are being committed,yet those involved go unpunished, and even those who have been punished are being released by the President; this is a rather bad legacy for this administration.
Well, the solutions to Nigeria’s problems are multidimensional; we need strong and independent institutions and need to improve on good governance, especially on how the government delivers to the citizens; there is a need for the government to always engage with relevant stakeholders in key decision processes and matters that relate to the development of Nigeria.
Youths, religious and cultural groups must also be involved in key discussions and dialogues, because at the very core of our problems is lack of effective and efficient communications among various stakeholders. Closely related to that is the growing need for continuous education, awareness campaign, sensitization and dialogue among all and sundry.As Civil Society Organizations, we will continue to push for positive change through legislative advocacy, awareness campaigns, sensitization of citizens and relevant stakeholders on how we can collectively bring positive change in Nigeria.
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