Pres. Muhammadu Buhari |
The Wall Street Journal yesterday June 16, shared an article
on its website titled 'Buhari is Nigeria’s problem, not its solution.' In the
article, the international news says, it’s hard to see how President Buhari’s
policies are good for Nigeria’s future.
Read the article after the cut…
Nigerian President
Muhummadu Buhari writes of building an economic bridge to Nigeria’s future
(“The Three Changes Nigeria Needs,” op-ed, June 14). It’s hard to see how his
administration’s inflexibility, lack of vision and reactive approach will
achieve this. Mr. Buhari notes that building trust is a priority for Nigeria.
But an anticorruption
drive that is selective and focused on senior members of the opposition party
creates deep political divisions.
Meanwhile, members of
Mr. Buhari’s own cabinet, accused of large-scale corruption, walk free. Seventy
percent of the national treasury is spent on the salaries and benefits of
government officials, who make upwards of $2 million a year. As for Mr.
Buhari’s ideas to rebalance the economy and regenerate growth, his damaging and
outdated monetary policy has been crippling.
The manufacturing
sector, essential to Nigeria’s diversification, has been hardest hit,
exacerbating an already fast-growing employment crisis. Foreign investors have
started to flee en masse.
Mr. Buhari makes only
brief mention of the country’s deteriorating security situation. But security
and stability are precursors to economic growth and development. Boko Haram has
been pushed back for now, but little attention is paid to the structural issues
that have spurred its rise.
Instead, the Nigerian
government has diverted much-needed military resources to the Niger Delta,
where rising militancy has reduced Nigeria’s oil production to less than half
the country’s capacity, and half the amount required to service the national
budget. Much of these tensions arise from Mr.
Buhari’s decision to cut amnesty
payments to militants and an excessively hard-line approach in a socially and
politically sensitive environment.
Other ethnic tensions
are also growing. In the country’s south, protests have been met by a bloody
response from the Nigerian military, stoking the fire and galvanizing support
for an independent state of Biafra.
Rising tensions could
again pose one of the greatest threats to Nigeria’s stability and future.
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