High expectation as Buhari takes over today

The inauguration ceremony will start at 8 o’clock this morning at the Eagle Square in Abuja. Also to take the oath of office is Professor Yemi Osinbajo as Vice President of the Federal Republic.
Twenty nine re-elected and newly elected state governors are also to be sworn-in at separate ceremonies in their respective state capitals.
US Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to lead his country’s delegation to the inauguration. Leaders from fifty four countries around the world are also expected to attend today’s epochal ceremony.
They include AU Chairman President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, President Jacob Zuma of South Africa and ECOWAS chairman President John Dramani Mahama of Ghana.
Muhammadu Buhari is the fourth person, the second Army General, the second Northerner and the first non-PDP member to become President of Nigeria since the return to civilian rule in 1999.
His inauguration today follows his victory in the presidential election held on March 28, this year when he defeated PDP’s candidate President Goodluck Jonathan.
Buhari polled 15.4 million votes to Jonathan’s 12.8 million to clinch victory in an election widely seen as the most credible in Nigeria’s history.
He won a majority of votes in 21 states and also had the most votes in four of the country’s six geopolitical zones namely the South West, North Central, North East and his native North West.
The election also climaxed on a historic note when President Jonathan placed a telephone call to Buhari to concede even before the Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC] announced the final results.
Buhari contested in four presidential elections in the last 12 years. He lost to President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003, lost to the late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua in 2007 and also lost to President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011 before his triumph last March.
He contested the four elections on the platforms of three different political parties. He was ANPP’s flag bearer in 2003 and 2007, flew CPC’s flag in 2011 and was APC’s candidate in the March 28  election. Buhari is also the first person in the chequered history of Nigerian democracy since the First Republic to defeat an incumbent president at the polls.
The new president to be inaugurated today is not new to power in Nigeria. He ruled Nigeria as military Head of State for 20 months in 1983-85 following the coup that toppled the Second Republic.
His military regime inherited a broken down economy and society with empty public treasuries, high public debt and governments at all levels finding it difficult to pay workers’ salaries. 
He spent his entire tenure at the time grappling with these problems and his regime resorted to many unorthodox measures such as trade by barter, retrenchment of workers and imposition of new taxes.
Along the way he earned a reputation as a Draconian ruler but he also earned high marks for his prudence and incorruptibility.
His military regime also waged an aggressive War Against Indiscipline. These turned out to be his biggest selling point when he entered partisan politics 13 years ago.
Incidentally, the country that President Buhari is inheriting today bears a lot of resemblance to the one he once ruled in 1983-85. After 16 years of rule by three successive PDP Presidents, Buhari is inheriting a severely depleted public treasury. Many state governments have not paid workers’ salaries for one to several months now.
The Federal Government too has already borrowed about N600 billion so far this year in order to meet its salary obligations, according to Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala who is leaving office today.
While the immediate trigger for this situation is the near collapse of oil prices in the international market, Nigerians generally blame the outgoing regime’s profligacy for the economy’s sorry state.
Indeed, this inauguration week will be remembered for a long time as the sorriest in Nigeria’s history in a long time. It began with severe fuel shortages which continued for several weeks due to disagreements between government and fuel marketers over subsidy and other claims.
Matters were then compounded last week when oil sector trade unions embarked on strike actions. Apart from the resultant long queues at fuel stations all over the country, most motorists resorted to the black market for their fuel and the cost of a litre mushroomed from the official N87 to N250 in many places.
The oil workers’ strike then cut gas supplies to the nation’s thermal power stations. At one point up to 18 of the 22 power stations shut down; the national electricity grid shut down and power generation plummeted from about 4,000 megawatts to 1,300MW at some point.
Nigerian cities, towns and communities were in darkness all this week and many people could no longer go to work due to the acute fuel scarcity.
This soon had a ripple effect on airlines, schools, banks and telecom firms. Airlines suspended many flights. Many schools suddenly closed for what they called mid-term breaks. Banks sent text messages to their customers saying they will operate for only a few hours a day due to diesel scarcity. Telecom firms also warned customers to expect poor services because many telecom masts were not operating due to scarcity of diesel.
President Buhari is taking over in the midst of this chaos, yet Nigerians expect his regime to hit the ground running and to immediately begin to deliver on his party’s highly popular promise of Change.
While APC never properly defined the Change they are promising, Buhari’s record as a determined anti-corruption fighter made most Nigerians to believe that fighting corruption will be the central part of Change.
This promise is highly appealing to Nigerians because the PDP government is seen as a cesspool of corruption, incompetence and scandal.
Yet the full Change package will probably be defined in Buhari’s first 100 days in office, which will be very closely monitored by local and international media.
Among the issues that will be most watched is how he appoints his ministers and other key officials. He has already indicated that he is looking for men and women of the highest quality, integrity and dedication to appoint as ministers so the media is likely to scrutinise his appointees with an eagle eye. Outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan made many appointments in the closing weeks and days of his regime’s life and it remains to be seen if Buhari will allow or reverse some or all of these appointments. Jonathan also sacked some officials in his final days in office, including the Police Inspector General.
Appointments aside, President Buhari must immediately tackle the current fuel scarcity and the attendant collapse of power generation.
At some point he must take a decision as to whether or not to retain fuel subsidy, the fund for the payment of which has become one of the biggest cesspools of official corruption in Nigeria.
Buhari has already pledged to make tackling insecurity, in particular the fight against Boko Haram his highest priority. Even though the insurgents have suffered heavy defeats since the military launched an onslaught last March in collaboration with our neighbours, the war is still not over.
Facing the new president is an immediate decision as to whether or not to retain the services of the South African security firm that has supplied equipment and men to aid the war against Boko Haram.
Beyond that, there are innumerable cases of Jonathan-era sleaze and scandal that are yearning for probes. Top of these is the allegedly missing $20 billion NNPC funds.
There are also the fraudulent claims to the subsidy funds, ecological funds, defence and security contracts and pension funds.
Another issue that needs immediate tackling is the inability of many states to pay workers’ salaries. Unless a solution is found this issue could soon lead to labour unrests.
For today however, it is all glitz and festivity in Abuja as the new administration is inaugurated. Buhari is expected to spend most of the day attending to foreign leaders who came to grace the occasion.
There is also a state dinner tonight in honour of the new president. But the festivities must end quickly because there are too many dark clouds on the horizon and the new president must get down to work.