Are Nigerians Already Tired Of Buhari?

Buhari

Editor’s note: Political analyst, Adebayo Ademuwagun, believes a lot of Nigerians who voted for President Muhammadu Buhari three months ago, did so because they believed he could lead the army to finish off Boko Haram.

Story highlights:
– “The spate of bombings has increased “
– “The Buhari-led administration has been meddling with legislative power sharing deal, when it should get to work fully to fight back the terrorists who are killing the Nigerian people. “
– “President Buhari needs to understand that he won’t remain popular for very long if he doesn’t get results.”

 The people were dissatisfied with the way the former administration was fighting the war, and they thought Buhari was the man for the job, given his military record and his disciplinary reputation.

A suicide bomber killed dozens on Tuesday, July 7, at a government building in Kaduna where prospective civil servants were being screened.

There was another one in Kano on Monday and another one in Jos on Sunday. There’s been deadly attacks in the country nearly every day for some time now, and people are starting to wonder what the government is doing to stop these attacks

But now it’s been about two months since Buhari became president and the situation has worsened unimaginably. People are fleeing their homes. Hundreds of women and children are living in tents in overwhelmed Internally Displaced (IDP) camps with no food or medicine, and over 400 Nigerians have been killed by terrorists in the last one month alone. This is a massive disaster.

The administration has been meddling with a legislative power sharing deal, when it should get to work fully to fight back the terrorists who are killing the Nigerian people. This is completely unacceptable.

One thing that’s pretty clear so far is that the Buhari administration came in without a solid plan about how they’ll face up to the Boko Haram and stop this massacre. They watched as the Jonathan government struggled to contain the crisis and they lambasted the government for failing to win the war. But now that they’re in charge, things have worsened under them.

The president got off on a remarkable note at first, meeting regional leaders about Boko Haram and directing a shift in army base to Borno. But then what’s the result?

We’ve seen so many photo ops, meetings and ‘foreign endorsements’ since Buhari came in, but barely any tangible progress on the ground. The government has been doing a lot of PR to try and keep people on their side. But you don’t win a war against terrorism by trying to impress people online and in newspapers. You’ve got to equip your army and put your army to work.

People are getting disillusioned about the president and his government already and his ratings have obviously dropped. People aren’t as confident in the president as they were when they lined up to vote for him last April.

There’s growing apprehension in the public about if voting him was the right choice, and many people are starting to think his administration will be like the one they just kicked out. The word on the street now is that little will change over the next four years if President Buhari continues to run his government this way. Surely this government needs some fresh ideas.

It’s not campaign days anymore and President Buhari needs to understand that he won’t remain popular for very long if he doesn’t get results. Former president Jonathan was just as popular at first when he became president.

People got behind Jonathan nationwide at the start of his first term and he had a huge popular backing. But when people were getting killed by terrorists in the north frequently and he didn’t stop it, eventually the masses rose up against him and took him out.

Buhari could end up like that too if he doesn’t get better results. So he needs to disprove the people who think that voting him was a mistake. He needs to demonstrate that he can deliver the change he and his party promised the Nigerian people. He needs to justify the belief millions of ordinary Nigerians who voted him had, and a very urgent way to do this is to stop these killings in the north.



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