Nigerians react as president Buhari confirms contesting for a second term

Muhammadu Buhari GCFR (born 17 December 1942) is the President of Nigeria, in office since 2015. He is a retired major general in the Nigerian Army and previously served as the nation’s head of state from 31 December 1983 to 27 August 1985, after taking power in a military coup d’état.

Since president Buhari attained the presidency seat, many Nigerians have reacted differently to his tenure. As a matter of fact, many people believed he has failed while many still believe in him. While speaking with one of the government officials, it was confirmed that the agriculture sector has improved greatly in solving part problems of hunger in the country:

“We are happy that rice and beans importation into the country have gone down by 90 per cent, and visibly everyone can see how productive states like Kebbi have turned out to be and states like Lagos, Ogun and Ebonyi are following the exampe. He said Kaduna, Katsina and Sokoto states had already reported remarkable turnaround in the agricultural sector, with more youths taking interest in entrepreneurship.”

To mention a few, reports confirmed that the Naira stabilised against the dollar, after the Central Bank introduced a new forex window for Investors and Exporters. The stability has attracted billions of dollars in portfolio investments since April 2017. On the back of a stable Naira and increased investment inflows, Nigeria’s stock market emerged one of the best-performing in the world, delivering returns in excess of 40 percent.

Nigerians are hesitating to accept him for a second term. Speaking with Alade Temitope, a student of University of Lagos, he insisted that the president shouldn’t bother to contest for the forth coming election as he may end up losing due to his failure.

Contrary to this, Ngozi Etuk, a banker explained that she will vote for Buhari over and over again:
“I didn’t vote for Buhari in 2015, but I will surely vote for him in the coming election. The man has been able to tackle curruption. No president has never done that. I will vote over and over again for him.”

In support, another Nigerian, Joshua Igodalu explained that he has enjoyed power supply more during the Buhari tenure:
The Federal Government launched a 701 billion Naira Intervention Fund (‘Payment Assurance Programme’) aimed at supporting power generation companies to meet their payment obligations to gas and equipment suppliers, banks and other partners. The impact is being felt, the amount of power being distributed is now currently steady at around 4,000MW – higher than previously recorded.

Nigerians have mixed feelings with the present president’s delivery of service. Many feel he is on track, some feel he is way too backward. However, the country experienced hardship at some point where he was really dishing out his duties but at present, things are getting really better.