By KEN UGBECHIE

By this time tomorrow, it will be two years in the life of the APC-led Federal Government. It will also be another Democracy Day and exactly 18 years unbroken run of constitutional government in Nigeria. I will not lament the 16 years of roguish but somehow productive leadership foisted on the nation by the PDP. It is not worth the trouble anymore. Nigerians have cried and mourned over the failed expectations that the PDP government represented.

This day, it makes much sense to focus on the APC government, two years after. The APC rode to power on the crest of change. The birthing of the APC government was a huge relief for Nigerians who had been denied the basic things of life by an under-performing PDP regime. The frustration was so unbearable for Nigerians. The people simply wanted a change, a fresh lease. APC read the dashboard very clearly. Regime change was the inevitable terminus. APC offered hope to a people in despair. It offered a shoulder for the alternative social actors; the women, children and a growing beleaguered army of unemployed and underemployed youths.

And pronto, the people got their wish. Bola Tinubu, Muhammadu Buhari, Bisi Akande, John Odigie-Oyegun, Atiku Abubakar among other power mandarins in the party had their way. But two years in the saddle, has anything changed? Yes and No. Change has happened, both punitive change and pleasurable change. To effectively evaluate the performance of the Buhari-led government, it is apposite to contextualize this analysis within sectorial compartments.

Security: Buhari and his team promised to deal ruthlessly with insurgency in the North East which at that time had spread to Abuja and parts of North Central region. Looking back now, it is fair to say that this government has scored very high grade in that regard. Yet, while it has significantly tamed Boko Haram insurgency, the Buhari government has unleashed a more dastardly and pervasive plague of insecurity on the people: the Fulani gunmen (herdsmen?). They have killed more people than Boko Haram and worst of it all, the government pretends they are not a problem. So, Buhari has solved one security challenge but created a bigger one.

Anti-corruption: The APC government has been accused of fighting corruption with the dual face of Janus. One face sees corruption among the opposition and the other face looks away from corruption among APC folks and their fans. This seems true. But I strongly support the fight against corruption and I dare say that no government, not Obasanjo, not Yar’Adua or Jonathan took on the monster called corruption with such determined gusto than this government. The introduction of the whistleblower policy stands Buhari out among past Presidents who pretended to be fighting corruption.  It is a huge plus for the Buhari government for which I highly commend him and his team. But Buhari himself has come to epitomize the worst variant of corruption: nepotism. This government will end up as the most nepotistic in the nation’s annals. Buhari’s lopsided political appointments, recruitment into the Police, DSS and other agencies under his watch are disgusting emblems of corruption. Yet with all the noise about the fight against corruption, not much has changed in the larger society. You still bribe Immigration officials to obtain an international passport; contracts are still inflated in the public service, police and Customs still extort on the highways, the civil service is still a hotbed of corruption; importers still grease the palms of port officials including Customs to bring in contraband. Nothing really has changed in terms of corruption. But how can we justifiably applaud this government on war against corruption with the manner a certain Babacir David Lawal and others with moral queries standing against their names are treated even when an institution like the Senate has told the world that these men are character-challenged and therefore deserve the same treatment as the likes Dasuki, Sule Lamido, et al.

Economy: Buhari was unwavering when he said post-election that he would restore the nation’s sagging economy at that time. Two years after, this government has brought the economy to its knees, first by the President’s lack of political will to take and implement key economic decisions and second, by the raw incompetence that runs through his cabinet; a cabinet that took him six months to cobble but which turned out a choir of ill-prepared and poorly auditioned singers. The Buhari government so far is the worst in terms of macro and micro economic management. The matter is made worse by Buhari’s lack of understanding of modern economic dialectics and his inability, or lack of humility, to engage the services of those who know. Surrounding himself with a clannish tribe of ‘yes men’ has not helped his cause.

Under Buhari, Nigeria’s economy fell apart. Yes, the PDP government made a mess of the economy by its primitive plundering and despoliation of the treasury but the Buhari administration showed up with an even worse therapy to ease the pains. It showed incompetence of the type never before witnessed in this clime. A government that kept on whining and blaming its own obvious incompetence on its predecessor was not what Nigerians wanted. It was not what the economy and its peculiar challenges needed either. This government inflicted inertia on itself.  Why did it take the government so long to pump in dollar into the forex market to save the naira? Why take the route of previous government you so loudly blame by subsidising pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Mecca and elsewhere when manufacturers can’t find forex to engage in productive ventures?

There is no amount of spin that will wash this away. Two years of this government has caused the nation more pain than the 16 locust years of the PDP. If in doubt, take a trip to the nearest market. Prices of goods and services, including, pathetically, so-called home-grown goods, have nosed up and typical of Nigerian economics, have refused to respond to the latter day knee-jerk measures of the government.

But no matter, it’s only half time. Team Buhari can still spin a surprise by making up for its deficit in the first half of this game. My only worry is that the team and its leadership do not believe they have fared badly. It’s only when a coach and his players realize how horrible they were in the first half that they can switch to the next gear in the second term just to come good. Presidency officials last week took turns to score this government high mark. It should be expected especially when you mark the examination you set for yourself.

They berated those critical of the government as enemies; a bunch of ungrateful hoboes who have no idea where the rain started beating them. They might just be right. Nigerians, too, can sometimes be ungrateful. They are not grateful that they have a government that conned them into believing there was nothing like fuel subsidy but ended up jerking up the pump price of fuel; a government that promised parity between the naira and the dollar but worked very hard to raise the bar to an unprecedented N500 to one dollar; a government that spins propaganda and wears it like a finely embroidered Agbada including telling us that Nigeria is now the third largest producer of rice in the world yet the people can’t access the price, can’t afford it even when they see it.

The lesson here is that Nigerians have learnt no lesson. There is no difference between PDP and APC. The only difference is in the manner they share the loot. Their interest is the same: to turn public till to private treasury.

Yet, with all their failings, the worst democracy in Nigeria is still better than the best military dictatorship. At least, the politicians still allow us to freely talk and vent our frustrations as I have just done. Happy Democracy Day!

Culled from Sunday Sun…