Man of the Year 2016

At the end of every year, I usually pick my Man of the Year. Today 31st December 2016 I am picking my Man of the Year 2016.

My Man of the Year is not necessarily a human being. It could be an idea, an issue, an object, a product or somebody or something I have found to have dominated the airspace within the year under review. My Man of the Year need not be good or bad, right or wrong. It is simply that person, or thing, that, in the course of a particular year, has touched as many lives as it has refused to be ignored. My simple criteria for picking Man of the Year is impact and effectiveness. In the year 2015, my Man of the Year was INEC’s card reader for its effectiveness in checking election rigging in Nigeria.

And so, after a careful consideration of the various competing issues, ideas and personalities including US President-elect Donald Trump in the out-going year 2016, I have come to the conclusion that my Man of the Year 2016 is PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI.

My reason for choosing the President as my Man of the Year shall be given presently, but before then, a warning. This is a fairly long piece, so I appeal to you to bear with me as I attempt to throw light on issues that informed my decision, top of which, perhaps, is the fact that the story of his second ascendency to power is well-known. Buhari of course is a man who never gives up. No leader in Nigeria has evoked extreme emotions on both sides of the political divide as Preside Muhammadu Buhari. For every rabid supporter of the President, there is perhaps two equally rabid opponents of his out there from the low, the high and the mighty. In spite of this, the President has soldiered on undeterred.

"With one word Buhari brought the former British leader to his knees when he demanded from him not an apology but a return of all Nigerian corruptly acquired assets stashed away in the UK and helping to sustain its economy."

One of his campaign promises was that he was going to end decades of fuel scarcity that had plagued the country since the 1980s. Every regime since Babangida has had to confront this monster but none was able to curb it aside President Jonathan who was able to tackle it in the first 3 years of his administration, but it soon resurfaced in 2014. Fuel scarcity normally got worse during the Yuletide season.

In December 2014, as President Jonathan geared up for re-election in February of the following year, fuel scarcity greeted Christmas celebrations. Oil marketers refused to import fuel due to the huge subsidy debt owed them by government. For the second successive Christmas celebrations after President Buhari took over fuel scarcity did not rear its ugly head. However in the first quarter of 2016 fuel scarcity returned for the first time under President Buhari when oil marketers again refused to import fuel due to a combination of factors including scarcity of foreign exchange and accumulated debt carried over from the Jonathan administration. It must be noted however that the Buhari’s administration was partly responsible for scarcity of foreign exchange at the time due to its (expectedly) initial missteps and flip-flop foreign exchange policy. The major factor responsible however was the sliding global oil revenue which affected the capacity of government to meet its obligations. Soon however the scarcity disappeared when government took some far-reaching decisions to stop fuel subsidy.

Fuel subsidy removal had been a touchy subject for successive governments since Babangida era. Regardless of plausible arguments in favour its removal, every regime that attempted to jettison it had met a brick wall due to stiff opposition from Nigerians. When former President Jonathan attempted to remove it in January 2012, a coalition of organized Labour and civil society organizations opposed it, and the country was brought to halt in what is today known as Occupy Nigeria 2012. What is more, over the years a cabal had formed around the subsidy to hold the country hostage while it milked her dry through bogus subsidy claims.

Today however, that fraudulent regime has been dismantled by President Buhari, and quite surprisingly most Nigerians welcomed the decision to discontinue fuel subsidy even with its attendant hike in pump price from N87 to N145 per litre. It is believed that Nigerians accepted Buhari’s decision because they trust him to honestly manage the gains that would be derived from its removal. Only time will tell. One thing is clear however. The dismantling of the subsidy regime has earned for President Buhari more powerful enemies as the cabal who lost out in the power game continue to find other ways to sabotage his government. But President Buhari has so far remained undeterred.

Also, prior to his inauguration on 29th May 2015, local and international media were awash with stories of Nigerians being killed in their hundreds by Boko Haram insurgents in the north-eastern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.  In fact, in the week of Christmas in December 2014 alone, no less than 100 Nigerians were killed in two simultaneous bomb blasts in Yobe and Borno States. Also by December of the same year, 14 local governments in the north east of Nigeria were firmly under Boko Haram control and alien rule imposed on them by the terrorist sect. Boko Haram had effectively established its caliphate complete with emirs in some of those 14 local government areas. A radical redrawing of Nigeria’s cartography was imminent – Boko Haram territory and Nigerian territory – in a manner of speaking. People fled in droves to neighbouring countries as Nigeria’s equivalent of Syria’s Aleppo was emerging. Bombs kept exploding on daily bases.

"A radical redrawing of Nigeria’s cartography was imminent – Boko Haram territory and Nigerian territory – in a manner of speaking. People fled in droves to neighbouring countries as Nigeria’s equivalent of Syria’s Aleppo was emerging."

Today however, two years after, bombs are no longer exploding on daily bases and Nigerians are returning to their homes in the North East. Those 14 local governments have been liberated by Nigeria forces and alien rule dismantled. Boko Haram is on the run. The insurgent group has been significantly decimated and Sambisa forest, its operational headquarters hitherto thought to be impenetrable, has been invaded by Nigerian forces and liberated. Since assuming office, President Buhari has waged a relentless war against the terrorist sect, securing in the process regional, sub-regional and western alliance. The result is that the insurgents no longer has the capacity to launch devastating attacks on Nigerians. The defeat of Boko Haram and the resultant mass return of displaced Nigerians has however created humanitarian crisis in the Internally Displaced People’s Camps (IDP) in the north east of Nigeria. But all things considered, the crisis in the IDP camps is certainly preferable to the mindless bloodletting and terror inflicted on Nigerians by the terrorist sect.

Equally important is the fact that the age-old regime of budget-padding has been brought to an end by the President Buhari administration, though not without some consequences. Also, those who were hitherto thought to be untouchables – judges and members of the National Assembly – have been touched and reigned in on corruption charges. Some justices of the Supreme Court and the nation’s Senate President are today being prosecuted in court. Erstwhile powerful personalities, ministers and other public office holders are today in the dock for corruption. Never in the history of democratic Nigeria were such high caliber Nigerians arrested, detained, and prosecuted for corruption. Buhari’s war on corruption is as relentless as his war on Boko Haram. Much however is still expected in terms of actual conviction, but that is not the duty of President Buhari insofar as the country’s operative manual, the 1999 Constitution, has prescribes the principle of separation of powers among the three arms of government.

On the economic front, Buhari administration’s effort is gradually being felt. In a manner reminiscent of the 1960s groundnut pyramids era, Nigeria is today awash with rice pyramids. Different brands of locally produced rice are today seen everywhere in Nigeria as against the case in our recent past when imported rice dominated the market. Though, the price of these locally produced rice is still high, it is expected that with time, the price will crash, as did happen in the telecoms sector revolution. The bottom-line is that there is a gradual rebound of the agricultural sector

Government appointment is gradually becoming unattractive as there is no more free government money to share. In the year 2016 at least two nominees rejected high federal appointments – one for personal reasons and the other on grounds that he had better things to do. Another also resigned her ministerial position to pick up a UN post. This development was unlike the norm in the immediate past and it could be said to be a result of the new regime of prudence and blocking of leakages in governance finances. This is given credence by the fact that President Buhari has vehemently refused to fund even his own political party (something that has never happened before), thus resulting in a barely concealed strained relationship between him and his party’s high command.

Also in 2016, the Federal Government under President Buhari created 200,000 jobs through N-Power scheme, and 10,000 successful Police recruitments without charging application fee and without any ugly incident as was recorded in the ill-fated 2014 Nigeria Immigration Service recruitment.

And on the international front, President Buhari stood up to a powerful world leader like former British Prime Minister David Cameron for the latter’s verbal indiscretion when he described Nigeria as a “fantastically corrupt” country. With one word Buhari brought the former British leader to his knees when he demanded from him not an apology but a return of all Nigerian corruptly acquired assets stashed away in the UK and helping to sustain its economy. In panic, David Cameron apologized to Nigeria but that has not stopped Buhari from seeking to repatriate from the UK all looted Nigerian Assets.   

But it is not all success for the Buhari administration in the year 2016. Chibok girls are still not home.  Power outage remains a perennial headache. It is in fact getting worse. The economy is also still in doldrums despite efforts of government to rescue it. Exchange rate, Inflation and Unemployment remain high in 2016. The refineries are still not producing optimally even as the country still rely heavily on imported petroleum products. While insecurity in the north east has abated, the Niger Delta region however still remain a hot zone occasioned by sustained bombing of oil and gas infrastructure by militants. This resulted in drastic reduction of the country’s oil output and oil revenue. The Biafra agitation is also a veritable flash point as the government continues to hold its chief proponent in detention.

The menace of the migrant killer herdsmen is another challenge the Buhari administration has not been able to effectively tackle. The government’s response to attacks on host communities by herdsmen often leaves much to be desired, thus forcing Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose to adopted a home-grown approach to solve the herdsmen challenge. Fayose’s approach has been widely applauded and is hereby recommended to other state Governors.

Also worrisome is the seeming intractable sore relationship between the Presidency and the leadership of the National Assembly – a situation that has negatively impacted the attitude of members of the National Assembly to any Execute bill or proposal tabled before the National Assembly. It is curious that the leadership of a national legislature controlled by the same party that produced the President cannot work hand-in-hand with the President. This is not helped by the flip-flop performance of many of President Buhari’s ministers – a situation that has made cabinet reshuffle imperative.   

These successes and short-comings notwithstanding, it is my opinion that for good or for ill, but more importantly for his commitment to curb corruption and his guts to step on hitherto powerful toes in the process, PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI dominated the airwaves in the year 2016 and it is on the strength of this that he is nominated as my Man of the year 2016.