After reading a recent Facebook post by Dr. Sam Amadi, the Harvard Scholar, and former Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), I started thinking about the cost of Muhammadu Buhari’s presidency. I thought about the bloodletting in the Middle Belt from Plateau to Benue State where land grabbing motivated genocide is taking place. I thought about how banditry and kidnapping have exiled northern elites from going to their hometowns. I thought about the continued free fall of the Naira and how it has killed many businesses. I thought about the double-digit inflation that is strangulating the common man and woman and eroding the middle class. I thought about youths who are finding alternative means of livelihood in advance fee fraud and the ones who have metamorphosed into ritual killings. I thought about the booming business of kidnapping in every part of Nigeria. And I returned to the post and the individuals Dr. Amadi mentioned in his post.

If we are to calculate the cost of Buhari’s presidency so far, it would be difficult to know where to start. If we use the lives lost as a metric, we could be talking six digits or more than one hundred thousand. If we use the current state of the Nigerian economy with regards to what Buhari inherited from the Goodluck Jonathan administration that helped to make Nigeria the largest in Africa and an investor haven, we would be talking about a decline in hundreds of billions in dollars. If we use the level of corruption that was one of Buhari’s campaign promises – it is an absolute disaster when you think about the large-scale theft going on in various government agencies from NNPC to state governors who are Buhari’s trusted confidants like Abdullahi Umar Ganduje – the Kano State governor who was allegedly caught on video collecting US dollar bribes.

Today, the staunchest Buhari supporters are on mute, after contributing to the enthronement of the worst leader in the history of Nigeria. We cannot bring back the life of those who have died because of the violence of Fulani Herdsmen, Bandits, Kidnappers, and Unknown gunmen which is a direct consequence of the incompetence of Buhari, the general that was supposed to be the solution to insecurity. We cannot undo the damage that his appointments, policies, actions, and inactions have done to the economy. But we can prevent the hemorrhage from continuing. A minor Buhari supporter – Charles Soludo was just installed as the governor of Anambra via APGA. The major supporters like Rotimi Amaechi from the South-South, Chris Ngige from the South-East, Nasir El Rufai from the North, and Bola Tinubu from the South-West are all strategizing to metamorphose into butterflies from the evil caterpillars that they have been. We must be vigilant. They must pay for their sins of helping to enthrone the catastrophe called Muhammadu Buhari. We must not sit down and look while they use the spoils from the Buhari years to start a new life from the blood of those killed. We must call them out and use the laws of the land to call them to justice to pay for the damage the Buhari years have done to Nigeria and Nigerians.

Ata Ukuta – Editor, Towncryyers