President Muhammadu Buhari’s second term: Looking Back And Looking Forward

By FEMI ADESINA

To borrow the words of colourful First Republic politician, Chief Ozumba Mbadiwe, “come has finally come to become” for President Muhammadu Buhari, as he has won election to serve a second term in office, after a pulsating contest.

The country, nay, Africa, and the world looks forward to the inauguration on May 29, 2019. President Muhammadu Buhari What will be the priorities of the Buhari administration in second term in office?

Before we look forward, let’s first look back, as the future is often embedded in the past. The key to unlocking the future is usually in the palm of the past.

What did President Buhari do in the first four years? What did he promise, and what did he achieve? In 2015, the President pledged to secure the country, revive the economy, and fight corruption.

These were the three focal points, the fundamentals on which the administration was pedestaled.

And what is the report card? When the government took the reins of power in May 2015, the security of the country was in tatters. Insurgents ran riot, and bombs went off like firecrackers in many parts of the country.

North-west, North-east, North-central, including the Federal Capital Territory, were beleaguered. The insurgents were on their way to the southern part, and the whole country would have become history.

But the tested retired Army General took the war to Boko Haram.

Stressing that you can’t efficiently manage a country until you have secured it, he relocated the command centre of the war to Maiduguri, which is the epicenter of the insurgency.

Steadily and progressively, the insurgents were beaten back, till they got circumscribed in Sambisa Forest.

Even that was taken away from them, till they became like sheep without shepherd, mingling with the civilian population to attack soft targets.

Today, the insurgency is terribly degraded. Though not totally conquered, it is only a matter of time.

The situation today can in no way be compared to what we had in 2015. President Buhari is winning the security war.

Sudan’s junta bows to protesters, opts for dialogue Other theatres of insecurity like kidnapping, armed robbery, attacks by violent herdsmen on farmers, and other civil strifes, are also being addressed.

Eventually, calm will suffuse the entire country. The economy was comatose in 2015, and it was no surprise that it went into recession the following year.

Throw up the hands in resignation and bemoan the tough luck that saw oil prices plunging from above 100 dollars per barrel to below 30 dollars? Not the Buhari administration.

It rolled its sleeves, and set to work. Massive investments were made on agriculture and infrastructure, so as to jumpstart the economy.