Despite scoring itself high on its achievements in the past three years, a new poll conducted ‘amongst 4,000 Nigerians’ has rated President Muhammadu Buhari’s performance below average.
Last Friday, the presidency in a document made available to Premium Times scored Buhari’s government high on economy, infrastructure, investment in people, among others.
But according to the new poll, Buhari failed Nigerians in his three cardinal campaign promises: Corruption, Security and Economy.
The assessment of the president is a yearly activity in commemoration of Nigeria’s Democracy Day on May 29.
After 16 years of rule by a party which accused of massive corruption and failing to tackle the Boko Haram insurgency, Nigerians had enough of the erstwhile ruling Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) which they voted out of power in 2015.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) government was voted in, bringing about the first democratic power transfer between parties at the federal level in the country’s history in 2015.
After three years in office, Nigerians, according to the poll, accused the Buhari-led administration of not living up to those promises, the report showed.
The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) launched ‘Buharimeter’ to track the delivery of President Buhari’s campaign promises to Nigerians.
According to CDD, this year’s poll was conducted in May by telephone amongst 4,000 respondents across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
The poll revealed that 40 per cent of Nigerians approve of the president’s performance while 44 percent disapprove with the remaining 16 per cent neither approving nor disapproving his performance.
“This implies that the president is rated below average by Nigerians. The president’s approval rating of 40 per cent marks a decline of 17 per cent from 57 per cent rating recorded in the 2017 Buharimeter National Survey,” it said.
The survey further revealed that the federal government received ratings below average on the three cardinal campaign promises – Corruption, Security and Economy.
About 67 per cent of respondents rated poorly, the president’s performance on economy, a setback to the 39 per cent of respondents who rated his economic performance as poor in 2017, the poll indicated.
“This is notwithstanding the country’s economic recovery arising from the increase in her Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and a decrease in inflationary rate.”
According to the survey, 57 per cent of sampled Nigerians rated the president’s performance as poor in the fight against corruption.
On security, the poll revealed that only 21 per cent of sampled Nigerians rated the government’s performance as good while 24 per cent and 55 per cent rated it as fair and poor respectively.
Buharimeter is an independent monitoring tool that enables Nigerians, scholars and political analysts around the globe to evaluate the implementation of the campaign promises of President Buhari and his party made in the prelude to the 2015 general elections.
… don’t bother addressing Nigerians – PDP tells PMB
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) not to address Nigerians on the occasion of the 2018 Democracy Day scheduled for tomorrow (Tuesday).
The PDP in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said “in the last three years, such addresses had contained deceits, falsifications and unfulfilled promises”.
Nigerians have become frustrated with these “lies,” said the party.
Democracy Day in Nigeria is usually celebrated yearly on May 29 to mark the restoration of democracy in May 1999 after decades of military interregnum.
Nigerian presidents usually use the occasion to enumerate the strides recorded in the democratic sojourn and achievements by their administrations.
But the PDP advised Buhari via its statement yesterday not to bother to use the occasion to “feed Nigerians with lies” over its perceived lack of achievements.
It said the Buhari Presidency and the APC since assuming power “has only violated all tenets of democracy, and trampled on citizens rights”.
The PDP said the APC should not be associated with democracy under any guise.
“Indeed, this administration should not come close to the emblem of democracy, as such would be an unpardonable spat on the faces of millions of suppressed Nigerians and the graves of victims of extra-judicial executions under this administration, as catalogued by international bodies including, Transparency International (TI), Amnesty International (AI) and even the United States Department of State.
“Where is democracy when government tends towards military fiat: where citizens are wantonly arrested, locked up and dehumanised just for expressing political opinions considered to be at variance with views held those in power?
“Where is democracy when our National Assembly, the very bastion of our democracy, is under siege; where federal lawmakers are daily blackmailed, hounded, harassed, intimidated, detained and dehumanised; where strange elements invade the hallowed chambers of the Senate, threatened our senators and forcefully cart away the mace, yet nobody has been prosecuted?
“Where is democracy when court judges are arrested in the middle of the night by agents of state; top government officials engage in actions and speeches that promote division, hatred and bloodletting; when journalists and media houses are being harassed and intimidated and our nation, in the last three years, ranking among the most hostile to free press?,” the party asked.
However the PDP saluted the courage and resilience of Nigerians in the face of “despotism, drive towards anarchy and totalitarianism”.
The party called on Nigerians to use this year’s democracy celebration to reinforce commitment to rescue the nation and “restore democratic rule”.
