LAGOS (Reuters) – With Christmas just weeks away, Dolapo Beckley was among<\/p>\n
a throng of shoppers haggling at a market in Nigeria’s commercial capital
\nLagos, where the prices of some goods have doubled in the last year.<\/p>\n
Beckley voted for President Muhammadu Buhari in the election that swept
\nhim to power last year on promises to fix endemic mismanagement and
\ncorruption.
\nBut 19 months into his term, public support is crumbling as people like
\nthe 34-year-old baker blame Buhari for Nigeria’s first recession in 25
\nyears and a rise in inflation to an 11-year high of 18.3 percent.<\/p>\n
“I do regret voting for Buhari. We wanted a better economy and things are
\nturning upside down, even worse than the way it was before,” said Beckley,
\nwho was at the Lagos Island market to buy gifts for her children.<\/p>\n
Buhari’s aides say the woes of Africa’s biggest economy stem from the
\nprevious government’s failure to set money aside in the years when
\nNigeria’s crude oil fetched over $100 a barrel, before the price plunged
\nin late 2014. It now stands around $56.<\/p>\n
The OPEC member relies on oil sales for two-thirds of state revenue, and
\nBuhari has said his government is working to diversify the economy by
\nboosting manufacturing and farming. On Wednesday he will submit a record
\nbudget worth 7.2 trillion naira ($23.6 billion) to lawmakers, drawing
\npartly on foreign borrowing to pay for a boost in capital spending.<\/p>\n
But in a country where the U.N. estimates that 70 percent of the 180
\nmillion inhabitants live on a dollar a day, anger at the state of the
\neconomy is tangible.<\/p>\n
“We are no longer asking President Buhari to develop Nigeria,” states a
\nmessage shared widely on social media. “At this point, we are only asking
\nhim to return Nigeria to the state it was before he became president.”<\/p>\n
Despite a 40 percent devaluation of the naira currency in June, a shortage
\nof dollars persists, and they fetch a premium of up to 40 percent on the
\nblack market. In Nigeria’s import-driven economy, this has pushed up the
\ncost of everything from rice to spare machine parts.<\/p>\n
“Everything has skyrocketed. It’s just too expensive for the masses,” said
\nVictor Adinye, a civil servant at the Lagos market.<\/p>\n
Surrounded by makeshift stalls, some adorned with tinsel, Beckley said she
\ncould only afford one piece of clothing to give each of her two children
\nfor Christmas. Last year they got four items each.<\/p>\n
Even the Buhari government’s successes against the Islamist militants of
\nBoko Haram have come at a cost. Its advances have revealed mass hunger in
\nliberated areas, which the U.N. said could see 75,000 children starve to
\ndeath in the coming months.<\/p>\n
And a wave of arrests of former officials, part of a promised
\nanti-corruption drive, has yet to yield any convictions.<\/p>\n
“This is not the change we bargained for,” said Beckley.<\/p>\n
Fellow shopper Ayo Omope, a 27-year-old make-up artist, said she was
\ncontemplating joining the thousands of Africans who leave each year to
\nseek a better life in the United States or Europe because “there is no
\nhope any more” in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
(Editing by Ulf Laessing and Mark Trevelyan)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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