Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has delivered on just one of his
\n200-plus electoral promises during the first seven months of his
\npresidency,\u00a0 a report has claimed.<\/p>\n
Buhari defeated former president Goodluck Jonathan in an\u00a0 election in
\nMarch 2015 and was inaugurated in May. His election campaign was built on
\na number of key pledges, including\u00a0 reclaiming billions of dollars of
\ngovernment funds lost to corruption and ending Boko Haram\u2019s reign of
\nviolence in northeast Nigeria.<\/p>\n
The fourth Buharimeter report, which is the work of advocacy group the
\nCentre for Democracy and Development (CDD)\u2014tracked the implementation of
\n222 public electoral promises made by Buhari and his All Progressives
\nCongress (APC).<\/p>\n
According to the report, only one promise has been fully implemented:
\nBuhari\u2019s pledge to publicly declare his assets and liabilities and to
\nencourage all his appointees to do the same. The Nigerian president
\ndeclared in September 2015 that he had $150,000 in his personal account,
\nfive homes and two mud houses, and a few hundred cattle plus other
\nanimals. A further 27 pledges made by the president\u2014including the rescue
\nof more than 200 girls\u00a0 kidnapped by Boko Haram from Chibok, northeastern
\nNigeria\u2014are ranked as ongoing, while the vast majority have not yet been
\nrated due to a lack of action.<\/p>\n
In the war against Boko Haram, Buhari has failed to completely deliver.
\nDespite the president stating in December 2015 to have \u201ctechnically\u201d
\ndefeated the insurgents, the report said that Boko Haram has killed almost
\n2,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands more since Buhari took
\nover in May.<\/p>\n
According to Idayat Hassan, director of CDD West Africa, Buhari\u2019s emphasis
\non the military approach means that other root causes of the insurgency
\nhave been neglected. \u201cWinning the war against Boko Haram needs a very
\nholistic approach,\u201d says Hassan.<\/p>\n
The ongoing problem of alleged human rights violations committed by
\nNigerian troops, could serve as a recruitment tool for the extremist
\ngroup. Amnesty International has called for the\u00a0 investigation of senior
\nNigerian military commanders for allegedly overseeing the murder of more
\nthan 8,000 people\u2014mostly young men and boys accused of being members of
\nBoko Haram. While a preliminary report released by the International
\nCriminal Court in November 2015 identified\u00a0 two possible instances of war
\ncrimes committed by the military, as well as six by Boko Haram militants.<\/p>\n
In addition to fighting Boko Haram, Nigeria faces a range of other
\nsecurity threats including the renewed\u00a0 agitation for an independent state
\nof Biafra. This unrest was in part sparked by\u00a0 the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu,
\nthe leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) group,\u00a0 in October
\n2015 on charges of ethnic incitement and sedition. The charges were later
\ndropped but Kanu remains in detention after the Nigerian authorities filed
\nfresh charges of treason against him. Thousands of protesters have
\ndemonstrated in the months since. According to the Buharimeter report, the
\nsecurity services\u2019 response to the agitation has stoked fears that if the
\npro-Biafran agitation is not properly managed, the issue \u201cmay degenerate
\ninto a low-level insurgency.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buhari has taken important steps in tackling corruption in Nigeria, Hassan
\nsays. These include executing a probe into an arms scandal that saw more
\nthan $2 billion of government funds earmarked for fighting Boko Haram go
\nmissing. Nigeria\u2019s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes
\nCommission (EFCC), has taken a lead role in this, ordering the arrest of
\nnumerous prominent figures, including\u00a0 former national security advisor
\nSambo Dasuki and\u00a0 ex-defense minister Bello Haliru Mohammed on corruption
\ncharges. Both Dauki and Mohammed deny the charges against them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have lots of big fishes being arrested and now they are facing trial,\u201d
\nsays Hassan. \u201cFor quite a long time, we have not had this political will
\nin terms of fighting corruption. There has been so much impunity, but now
\nwe are seeing people held to account.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newsweek contacted the Nigerian presidency for a response to the report
\nbut received no reply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has delivered on just one of his 200-plus electoral promises during the first seven months of his presidency,\u00a0 a report has claimed. Buhari defeated former president…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n