Many failed promises of President Muhammadu Buhari

In 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari made several promises to Nigerians, but four years down the line, and two days to the commencement of his second term, most of these promises have remained unfilled.

As a result of these failed promises, instead of creating additional middle-class, more people have slipped into poverty to an extent Nigeria has overtaken India in the poorest of the poor index and is now considered the world headquarters of poverty.

The promises were contained not only in the APC Manifesto but also in other campaign documents made available to the media, and were canvassed by the party publicly.

From investigations, National Daily has been able to pick some of the promises in which the Buhari-led administration has failed woefully despite using the promises to curry votes in 2015.

The issue of insecurity topped the agenda in 2015. The All Progressives Congress told Nigerians that if voted into power, it would stop the Boko Haram insurgents. However, four years after, the group is still unleashing terror on many parts of the Northeast and has recently intensified attacks in Borno and Yobe states.

More soldiers have been killed by the insurgents than in the past while morale has gotten to its lowest ebb among troops resulting in protests and mutiny.

The administration also promised to create three million jobs per year which could have culminated in a total of 12 million jobs in four years, but after four years, the unemployment rate under the Buhari administration has risen from 18.8 per cent in Q3 2017 to 23.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2018.

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According to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the total number of people classified as unemployed- which means they did nothing at all or worked for a few hours (under 20 hours a week) rose from 17.6 million in Q4 2017 to 20.9 million in Q3 2018.

While campaigning in 2015, the APC promised to ban government officials from going abroad for medical treatment, however, President Buhari as of May 2018, had gone to the United Kingdom five times for the treatment of an undisclosed ailment.

Apart from treating himself in the London hospital against the promise he made to end medical tourism by improving the quality of healthcare delivery in the country, his son, Yusuf was flown in an air ambulance to the UK for treatment of injuries he sustained in a power bike crash in Abuja. After his treatment, the boy was flown back to the country in a chartered aircraft; a situation which triggered a public outcry.

There is also the promises of state policing which the government has largely paid lip service to in the last four years. Similarly, the Ajaokuta Steel Company is still moribund despite promises of revival in 2015.

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The APC led administration also promised to increase power generation to at least 20,000MW within four years.

As of December 2014, the total installed capacity of the country’s power plants was 7, 445 MW, available capacity was 4,949 MW and the average generation was about 3,900 MW. However, on August 3, 2018, while addressing a retreat for top officials of his ministry he said the generation capacity is 7000 MW while the distribution capacity stood at 5,222 megawatts, a situation that shows no improvement and far off the 4000 megawatts promised to be delivered yearly by the administration.