London-based business newspaper, Financial Times, has berated President Muhammadu Buhari for running a government without well-defined direction in the last four years.
Lamenting that the Nigerian government has no clear economic policy like that of Rwanda and Ethiopia, the Financial Times urges the President to see his re-election as an opportunity to make things right
The editorial read in part, “With his renewed mandate, it is now Mr Buhari’s task to rebuild faith by running a dynamic and successful administration and by building the institutions that can lay firmer foundations than in his previous term.
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“The omens from his first four years in office are not good. During that time, the former military leader ran a lacklustre administration with no obvious sense of direction. There was no coherent economic strategy of the sort being attempted by the likes of Ethiopia, Rwanda or West African neighbours Ghana and Senegal to produce the rapid growth needed to haul tens of millions of people out of poverty. It is an indictment of its leadership — both military and democratic — that the continent’s biggest oil producer should have more people living in absolute poverty than any other country in the world.”
The newspaper also advised the President to appoint more technocrats in his second term who can help turn things around, adding that the anti-corruption war must be more holistic and less selective.