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Years of Blood, Rascality, Corruption, and Economic Retrogression: How Nigerians Remember Buhari

Years of Blood, Rascality, Corruption, and Economic Retrogression: How Nigerians Remember Buhari

Sunday July 13, around 4 p.m. Conversations on social networks in Nigeria, especially on X, have taken on a dramatic change. This followed the news of the disappearance of the former Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, who, according to his media assistant, Garba Shehu, died in a London hospital, where he had received medical treatment.

“The family announced the death of the former president, Muhammadu Buhari this afternoon in a London clinic,” said Shehu.

The Nigerian Social Media Space thus broke out in a frenzy of mixed reactions underlined by the memories of the people of Buhari. For some, it stems from their knowledge of him during the eight years of his presidency – from 2015: to others, he dates back to around 42 years, when he was the Nigerian military leader. Food by what many believe they are an agony emanating from recent memory, the former had the noisiest voices – not that the latter in any way shared the sweet memories of the deceased president.

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“Buhari prohibited X (Twitter) because of his fragile ego. He refused to transmit power to his vice as the constitution required despite being in good health or in the country for months. I do not even want to talk about the massacre of the Lekki toll gate,” the human rights lawyer, Insibehe Effiong, wrote.

“He did nonsense of the economy and allowed criminals to operate freely in his office. After destroying the country, he supervised a fraudulent election which brought a terrible successor who continued from where he stopped in their program of destruction of Nigeria,” he added.

The second coming to power of Buhari in 2015 was preceded by several unsuccessful attempts, which were characterized by violence and blood effusions but were overshadowed by “messianic emotivity” which enveloped Nigeria – and have supported largely along the ethnic and religious lines. In 2011, around 11 people, largely of the members of the National Youth Service Corp. (NYSC) were killed in Kano by Buhari supporters, after losing a presidential election.

Buhari was supposed to be the response to the long desire of Nigeria for a country without corruption – a belief supported by his position perceived against corruption in 1983.

Although its 1983 dictatorial and economic history is available in black and white so that everyone could see, many have voted for him because he was renamed as a “reformed democrat”. It was said that the Nigerians, stimulated by emotion and feeling, jumped on his “change”, (a campaign slogan his political party – the train of the Progressive Congress (APC) does not care.

However, a few months after taking an oath on May 29, 2015, emotion began to be diluted by its actions and inactions in all areas of Nigeria well -being – and it accelerated quickly, creating impacts that Nigerians will not forget any soon.

Buhari has promised Nigerians to fight insecurity and put an end to Boko Haram terrorism. But months after taking oath, the Nigeria security situation went from bad to worse, with the birth of Fulani killer shepherds – which were described as one of the most deadly terrorist groups in the world. It was a bloodbath almost every day. Many thought that the government’s response was as exasperating as terror itself. Buhari, addressing the shepherds’ massacres, only exhaus the Nigerians to welcome “your compatriots”, then said that they were “foreigners of Libya”. This created the conviction that his administration has favored and protected his Peuls parents, throwing a fragile unity of Nigeria in deeper chaos.

Then, in what his administration said a solution to the problem, which was nicknamed the breeding crisis, Buhari proposed Ruga – a proposal for a breeding policy designed to demand the regulations of the shepherds in the 36 states of the federation. Politics was suspended as a result of heavy upheavals.

In addition to the dozens who die every day from the cannons and swords of the terrorists were other than the Nigerian security forces, under the supervision of Buhari, were massacred. In 2015, more than 300 Shiite Muslims were killed by the army, in what was later known the Zaria massacre. There were also the Agatu massacres of 2016, which set the tone to the large -scale murders with impunity which darkened the central belt of Nigeria until today. In 2016, Amnesty International reported the death of more than 150 members of the Aboriginal people of Biafra (IPOB), which was part of a self-determination campaign in southeast Nigeria.

The blood spill was capped by the massacre of the Lekki toll door in 2020, where the security forces killed dozens of peaceful demonstrators against police brutality.

“My bank account was blocked. I lived in a safe house for 7 months. My car was slaughtered. I saw bodies. I was injured by ball. I can continue again and again, prosecuted the Buhari government,” said Ibrahim after the Lekki massacre.

While Nigeria was soaked in the blood, Buhari’s economic policies were destroyed, reversing the gains made under former President Goodluck Jonathan. In August 2019, Buhari announced the closure of Nigerian land borders, a protectionist policy which, according to him, would stimulate local production and smuggling of weapons. The decision, among other economic policies, saw Nigeria inflation pass from simple to two figures, food inflation leading more than 300%. Finally, the country has undergone a double recession – marking the end of the enviable economic growth of Nigeria – plans to be the third fastest economy in the world for the year 2015 – and the start of the economic agitation which will linger for years after the management of Buhari and possibly death.

Today, the inflation of the sky of Nigeria has been largely attributed to the illegal impression of 30 billions of Nairas in a way and means that Buhari ordered the printing of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Economists have noted that the most disappointing part is not illegality but that there is nothing to show for money. The printing of 30 Billions of Nairas has not even reduced the loans.

Unemployment increased from 10.4% in 2015 to 33.4% in 2020 to five years after its eight -year rule. According to the Office Budget, between 2016 and 2022, the Buhari government increased total income by 26.67 Billions of Nairas and spent N60.64 Billions, leaving a deficit of 33.97 Billions of Nairas. In the end, he moved the profile of the Nigeria public debt of 42 Billions to 77 Billions of Nairas by May 2023.

“I had never heard of the concept of being a care worker in the United Kingdom until Buhari became president, destroyed the economy and tens of thousands of Nigerians began to find where to run away,” Ogbonmwan wrote in Ogbonmwan.

While the Nigerians criticized his actions and his inactions, Buhari activated his decree number 4 of 1983, which he used as a military dictator to silence dissent. The decree criminalized any report considered to be critical of the government. Thus, the media houses were targeted, journalists and certain criticisms of his government fled the country. But his repression went beyond civic space to all those he considered as an enemy.

The 2021 Twitter ban, after the platform removed one of Buhari’s publications threatening the igbos in the Southeast region, lasted seven months. It was not a surprise for many of those who had known him for a long time, even if he was considered a clear representation of the authoritarian impetus, in disagreement with the democratic principles that he was elected to defend.

Politically, his administration has shown disturbing erosion of judicial independence, illustrated by the prolonged illegal detention of figures like El-Zakzaky and Sambo Dasuki, despite the judicial orders for their release. The suspension of chief judge Walter ONNOGHEN, who has been widely described as a blatant basastarde of the rule of law, has saved faith in the government’s ability to follow regular procedure. The kidnapping of Nnamdi Kanu, the chief of the iPob, Kenya, and his illegal detention in defiance of the judicial orders, were also cited as an example of the breeding of the Buhari government.

While all this took place, Buhari was seen spectacularly failing in an area in which people thought they would excel – fighting corruption. With allegations of nepotism and unbalanced appointments – mainly promoting – people from the North, those responsible for his government were largely accused of corruption.

“He had a appalling dashboard on internal security and a generalized boring corruption that we have not seen since the mid -1990s. He has almost no heritage that is worth applauding,” wrote Abubakar.

Among the many features that people said they noted that Buhari collapsed, there was hypocrisy. For a man who had defended a campaign for local consumption, with slogans such as “buying naija to promote naira”, Buhari spent months in a London hospital. This despite billions of nairas allocated to the State House clinic. For example, 3.94 billion was allocated to the clinic in 2015, 3.87 billion nairas in 2016 and 3.2 billion Nairas in 2017, the allowances were increased in the following years. This disparity underlined a chief who failed to repair the system even supposed to serve him, not to mention the ordinary Nigerians.

“A man who closed the borders to encourage the consumption of local products, but ended up dying in a British hospital where he was a regular consumer of British health care. Summarizes the contradiction of a man who was loved by many computers, but did not care to use his image of integrity to advance the lot of the ordinary man,” wrote another Nigerian named Neto.

During his eight years of leadership, Buhari was accused of carelessness towards the difficulties of the Nigerians – without presenting himself or expressing himself when the country most needed him. His lack of empathy has been underlined in many cases of murders across the country, in which the president did not sympathize with people, visit them or even recognize their test.

In the context of bitter memories that characterized Buhari’s time in power, some Nigerians – the news of his death at 82, believe that the former president lived so long for a man who caused so much pain to his country.

“There is no joy in Buhari dying. Certainly no pain, but there is no celebration of the death of someone who ruined the country, and who has always died at an advanced age. If there is justice in the world, there should be disastrous consequences to damage future generations to come,” wrote Chidi Okereke.

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