Year 2020 is a year indeed, and as the year draws to a close, it is pertinent for Nigerians to score the President Muhamnadu Buhari administration performance in the year.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) interviewed a number of Nigerians and in this review presents areas where they say the policies of Buhari impacted badly on the generality of the citizens in the course of the year.
Management of COVID-19
Some Nigerians who responded to TNG argued that President Buhari was not proactive enough in handling the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Nigerians who responded believe that if the President was more proactive, at the onset of COVID-19 in other countries, he would have closed the country against international travels and properly managed essentials coming into the country.
This administration like that of Citizen Trump initially thought that the pandemic was strictly a Chinese disease not until it was almost getting too late.
In the wake of the pandemic, the National Assembly never deemed it necessary to include it in its agenda on resumption from a short break.
This clearly confirmed that even the legislative arm of government too was in a deep slumber until prominent Nigerians started dying from the disease.
The slow pace of response had given way for both the super rich and the downtrodden to die. A big failure, they said.
Common bandits taking over Nigerian forests
Another area where Nigerians say President Buhari failed is how he has handled the menace of bandits.
While the Nigerian borders were permanently closed and the lockdown was in enforcement, hungry looking foreigners loaded in trucks trooped into Nigeria and occupied the Nigerian forests.
From the Southwest to the South-South to the Eastern parts of the country, even up to the Northern parts, the truck loads of humans were seen in broad daylight and in the night roaming the country.
The whole essence of the lockdown and the sealing of our borders became a colossal waste of time as insecurity worsened.
The primary goal of any sane government is to provide security of lives and property but here our borders were sealed yet there was a massive influx of bandits from neighbouring countries.
The social media that played a prominent role in bringing Buhari on board in 2015 shouted but this administration looked the other way.
Today it is only courageous Nigerians that can travel by road because the fear of bandits and kidnappers is now the beginning of wisdom in Nigeria.
This is another fatal error Nigerians say of the Buhari’s administration in the year 2020.
ASUU strike:
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) embarked on strike, keeping Nigerian students at home for 10 bad months.
Dealing with eggheads is not an easy task but giving them reasons to trust you would have made negotiations easier.
The Buhari’s administration never made negotiations easier. ASUU never trusted the federal government as many promises were truncated before now.
Our children had to stay home for over 9 months because the government was not trusted and did not act on time. Maybe they capitalized on the COVID-19.
This is recorded as another failure of this administration in 2020.
Poor handling of palliatives
Palliatives meant for Nigerians were kept in warehouses while people remained indoors and some even died at home because they could not access necessities as a result of the lockdown.
After the lockdown, it took the ingenuity of some Nigerians to sniff out the palliatives kept in warehouses across the country and the sniffers were called hoodlums.
The question here is: is the government not for the hoodlums too because Buhari expectedly is the leader of all Nigerians, from bandits, kidnappers, armed robbers, ritualists, murderers, prostitutes, fake clerics, Yahoo Yahoo boys, Boko Haram, street urchins to decent Nigerians.
Yet, palliatives were hidden from all. This is another colossal failure of the government in 2020.
Poorly managed #EndSARS protest
The protest meant to make the government stand on its feet and address the endless killing of the youths by SARS was hijacked by some nasty elements but the government felt threatened by the simple protest which could have been addressed within 72 hours.
It got into a climax when the most peaceful area of the protest in Lekki was raided by soldiers and there were reportedly gunshots.
Soldiers do not leave their comfort zone until there is a directive from above and so who gave this directive?
This question has been begging for an answer since the various panels started their enquiries and it may remain unanswered till 2023.
Here again, the President failed woefully.
His response to address the citizenry came too late and when it came it added petrol into an inflamed situation.
Identified protesters got their accounts frozen and some even went on self exile in another colossal failure of the governor.
