Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign, halfhearted, yielded no significant results —Report

The Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari has received a damning verdict across all indices in a report published on Sunday by the Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI).

BTI measured governance of political and economic transformation processes in developing and transitioning countries.

The study is released every two years by the independent organization Bertelsmann Stiftung, which was established in 1977 and is situated in Gütersloh, Germany.

137 countries were evaluated by more than 250 specialists from prestigious academic institutions and civil society organizations around the world.

Nigeria is ranked 108th overall; in the 86th position for political transformation, the 113th position for economic transformation, and the 99th position for governance index.

The 31-page report slammed the President Buhari administration for failing to fulfill campaign promises regarding the war against corruption.

It further noted that this was further exacerbated by the alleged electoral irregularities which served as a backdrop to the victory of President Buhari for a second term during the 2019 elections.

Read also:Buhari returns from two-week trip to UK

The report said after the lawsuits against the 2019 presidential and gubernatorial election results were dismissed, Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) consolidated power but have failed to meet expectations.

“Despite all these challenges Nigeria managed to hold presidential, gubernatorial and parliamentary
elections in February 2019, which were marked by widespread irregularities. The presidential election was in particular seriously flawed, paving the way for a second term for the incumbent Muhammadu Buhari.

“Under these circumstances, his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), won majorities in both houses of the National Assembly and most gubernatorial elections.

“The poor performance of President Buhari’s first term continued and even worsened because of
the pandemic and his inability to professionalize the military in its campaign against the Islamist insurgency. The military suffered repeated setbacks and faced new challenges in central Nigeria and in the northwest, where several thousand people lost their lives, killed by organized criminal gangs that specialized in cattle rustling, looting villages and kidnapping ordinary people and students for ransom.

“In addition, the only halfheartedly pursued anti-corruption campaign did not yield any significant results. The increase in violence and crime indicates that endemic corruption has reached new heights, and the militarization of state and society is increasing,” the report reads.

According to the BTI, the political system continues to struggle with fundamental issues related to economic transformation, institutional efficiency of the political and administrative system, internal security, democratic representation and attitude patterns, and state cohesion. Economic structure and performance also continue to have significant problems, including low rates of economic growth, a COVID-19-caused recession in 2020, bad management of economic and financial affairs, a high unemployment rate, and ineffective pandemic response.

“Significantly decreased crude oil and gas prices during the pandemic only began to recover on a
modest scale toward the end of the period under review. This may pave the way for a slow recovery
from Nigeria’s worst economic recession in its history, depending, however, on how quickly the
pandemic can be controlled globally and nationally,” it further predicted.

However, the BTI warned that the country’s macroeconomic conditions are unstable, its foreign reserves severely depleted, and its domestic and foreign debts have skyrocketed as a result of massive deficit spending. After the government and central bank depreciated the Naira twice to NGN381/$1 in 2020, the exchange rate on the black market dropped to approximately NGN 480.

It also noted that the accomplishments of the government under President Buhari are fairly meagre in terms of credibility and cooperation on the global stage.

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