Nigerian President Muhummadu Buhari writes of building an economic bridge
to Nigeria’s future (“The Three Changes Nigeria Needs,” op-ed, June 14).
It’s hard to see how his administration’s inflexibility, lack of vision
and reactive approach will achieve this.
Mr. Buhari notes that building trust is a priority for Nigeria. But an
anticorruption drive that is selective and focused on senior members of
the opposition party creates deep political divisions. Meanwhile, members
of Mr. Buhari’s own cabinet, accused of large-scale corruption, walk free.
Seventy percent of the national treasury is spent on the salaries and
benefits of government officials, who make upwards of $2 million a year.
As for Mr. Buhari’s ideas to rebalance the economy and regenerate growth,
his damaging and outdated monetary policy has been crippling. The
manufacturing sector, essential to Nigeria’s diversification, has been
hardest hit, exacerbating an already fast-growing employment crisis.
Foreign investors have started to flee en masse.
Mr. Buhari makes only brief mention of the country’s deteriorating
security situation. But security and stability are precursors to economic
growth and development. Boko Haram has been pushed back for now, but
little attention is paid to the structural issues that have spurred its
rise.
Instead, the Nigerian government has diverted much-needed military
resources to the Niger Delta, where rising militancy has reduced Nigeria’s
oil production to less than half the country’s capacity, and half the
amount required to service the national budget. Much of these tensions
arise from Mr. Buhari’s decision to cut amnesty payments to militants and
an excessively hard-line approach in a
socially and politically sensitive environment.
Other ethnic tensions are also growing. In the country’s south, protests
have been met by a bloody response from the Nigerian military, stoking the
fire and galvanizing support for an independent state of Biafra. Rising
tensions could again pose one of the greatest threats to Nigeria’s
stability and future.
Pete Hoekstra
Senior Fellow
The Investigative Project on Terrorism
Washington
Mr. Hoekstra was the former chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence
Committee from 2004 to 2007.