ABUJA, Nigeria — Here in the Nigerian capital, the rows of campaign billboards promoting President Goodluck Jonathan have been ripped down. In some places, images of the soon-to-be ex-president have been defaced. Mr. Jonathan, with his legacy of economic and military disasters, cannot leave soon enough, in the eyes of many Nigerians.

But at this critical time, with Nigeria battling terrorists, fuel shortages and growing state debts, who exactly is replacing him?

In many ways, the former military ruler who is set to be sworn in as Nigeria’s president on Friday, Muhammadu Buhari, remains an enigma. He seems composed of two such thoroughly contradictory strands — a former strongman who espouses democratic change — that it is hard to know which one will prevail when he takes over the government of Nigeria this week.

Will the Muhammadu Buhari of 30 years ago show himself — the harsh military dictator who jailed journalists, inflicted physical humiliation on civil servants and expelled thousands of immigrants?
In a country that has taken much punishment from bad rulers and continues to do so, he was one of the worst, critics say. As with Mr. Jonathan this week, few Nigerians were sorry to see him go when Mr. Buhari was overthrown in a coup in 1985 after about a year and a half in office.
The Mr. Buhari of today shows little to no contrition for his younger self. He simply says that he has changed with the times and that he is now a thoroughgoing democrat. As proof, he cites the fact that he has submitted himself, as he likes to put it, to the democratic process four times, losing three presidential votes before finally winning in a historic transfer of power from the governing party to the opposition this year.

This Jekyll-and-Hyde transformation that Mr. Buhari implicitly insists he has undergone can be hard to reconcile.

Still, there is a palpable feeling of hope in Nigeria as Mr. Buhari gets set to take over. Mostly, it is simply relief that the hapless Mr. Jonathan is finally exiting.

With Boko Haram still virulent in the northeast, the economy cratering and a crippling fuel shortage stemming from Nigeria’s costly system of oil subsidies, Nigerians are glad to know that Mr. Jonathan can no longer do any damage. Mr. Buhari’s distaste for corruption in general — and the flagrant variety of the Jonathan administration in particular — is also well known.

Despite being one of the world’s leading oil producers, Nigerians have lined up miserably at gas stations because of the fuel shortage, which has been choking the Nigerian economy, the continent’s largest, for weeks.

Some of the country’s mobile phone companies warned that fuel shortages could impact their services because it was hard to supply their base stations. On Monday, one of Nigeria’s biggest banks said it was closing branches early because of the fuel crisis, news reports said.
Though Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer, generating thousands of barrels a day, it has to import its fuel because its refineries are dysfunctional.

Instead, the nation relies on dozens of oil importers who buy fuel on the global market, at market price. The government then gives them millions of dollars in subsidies so that the fuel can be sold cheaply at the pump — 43 cents a liter, about $1.62 a gallon.

This has led to large-scale abuses. A parliamentary committee last year found that the subsidy system, with its ever-increasing number of importers licensed by the government, was “fraught with endemic corruption and entrenched inefficiency. Much of the amount claimed to have been paid as subsidy was actually not for consumed” fuel, the committee found.

In recent weeks, the importers stopped distributing fuel because they claimed the government owed them $1 billion, creating the fuel shortage. The situation began to ease Monday, with fuel depots reopening and gas finally making its way to the pumps, after the exiting Jonathan government agreed to pay the oil importers.

“Never in the history of our country has any government handed over to another a more distressed country: No electricity, no fuel, workers are on strike, billions are owed to state and federal workers, 60 billion dollars are owed in national debt and the economy is virtually grounded,” said Alhaji Lai Mohammed, a spokesman for Mr. Buhari’s All Progressives Congress party, in a statement on Sunday.

Two weeks ago, the country’s governors came hat in hand to the president-in-waiting, Mr. Buhari, pleading for money to pay state employee salaries. Their stated impoverishment is due partly to the drop in the price of oil, Nigeria’s dominant source of revenue, but also to their own profligacy.

Most of our state governors are irresponsibly corrupt and reckless and govern without any due consideration to the public good,” the country’s leading political scientist, Jibrin Ibrahim, wrote this month.

The new president’s response was cool. He did not promise to bail them out, indicating that Mr. Buhari is less interested in currying favor with these local power brokers than in being realistic.

“The expectation is too high,” he was cryptically quoted as saying afterward. Only a few of the governors were smiling in the group portrait taken later, and Mr. Buhari decidedly was not.

Last week, Mr. Buhari dropped another hint that it would not be business as usual once he assumes office.

In an interview published Friday in the Daily Trust newspaper, the president-elect said that instead of allowing the powerful state governors to pick cabinet ministers — the color-by-numbers approach of the defeated party, a tactic to mollify these local kinglets — he would be his own man on the ministerial appointments.

“We are hoping that we’ll get good people to be in charge of ministries who can apply themselves to their responsibilities,” the newspaper quoted Mr. Buhari as saying.

It would be a revolution — and not of the brutal type the former general tried to put in place as a much younger man in the early 1980s.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/world/africa/former-strongman-taking-over-presidency-raises-hope-in-nigeria.html


Cc lalasticlala

All these stupid foreign journalists only know how to mock anything African. They prefer an africa with dying kwashiorkor children begging for food from oyinbo people. They should leave Nigeria alone and stop speculating doom. Nigeria is focusing on building our nation right now. Other noise makers should keep shut and go and die. That is how they were rejoicing over our failure in the disastrous marketer drama. We are the largest black nation, any step we make to improve ourselves bites them. Upon all the speculation, we are still one country and chose our own president. They should choke on that. They have all not recovered from the shock. They underestimated Nigerians. This government coming in needs to focus on immigration before immigrants start coming to claim they can show us how to run our country. Tufiakwa. First world opportunists

Nigeria, by the special grace of the good Lord, is on the march again towards greatness.

Without mincing words, this is the first time I have real hope in Nigeria getting it right. I have always believed in Buhari hence he is the only one I've always supported and voted for (apart from Olu Falae in 1999 which GMB did not contest in anyway).

Buhari remains the only Nigeria who has held positions that could have made him as rich as IBB, OBJ. GEJ, Atiku, Tinubu and many more BUT chose not to corruptly enrich himself.

Is he a perfect man? No, far from it. Will he serve selflessly? I have no doubt in this.

I pray that almighty God guide Buhari to be able to provide the right leadership for Nigerians irrespective of our religious, ethnic and political differences.

SenseiX:

A parliamentary committee last year found that the subsidy system, with its ever-increasing number of importers licensed by the government, was “fraught with endemic corruption and entrenched inefficiency. Much of the amount claimed to have been paid as subsidy was actually not for consumed fuel", the committee found.

@ the boldened, this was part of the findings of the subsidy report and some dumbs here keep arguing that there is subsidy!

Very soon, we all will be amazed that when the so-called "subsidy" is removed, we will very likely still buy fuel at about the current pump price. The cabals in PDP have pulled cotton wool over our eyes for long.

Good thing is "Change" is here already.

New Nigeria begins

.

One thing I know for sure about this incoming government is that corruption will go down to total halt but mind you other things I can not guarantee you


God bless NigeriA

.

For Some people its; Leave Nigeria alone as if they are the reason we are so stagnant.
We think they hate us so much, when they don't even have our time... Mtcheeeeeeeeeeeeewwwww

militry zone...keep off

May 29 shaaa

Balanced piece, the author was right to state that Nigerians are more relieved about the end of Jonathan's years of military and economic disasters, than excited at the swearing-in of a former ruler. Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.

"there is a palpable feeling of hope in Nigeria as Mr. Buhari gets set to take over. Mostly, it is simply relief that the hapless Mr. Jonathan is finally exiting."

"With Boko Haram still virulent in the northeast, the economy cratering and a crippling fuel shortage stemming from Nigeria’s costly system of oil subsidies, Nigerians are glad to know that Mr. Jonathan can no longer do any damage."

These two quotes nailed it

baby124:
All these stupid foreign journalists only know how to mock anything African. They prefer an africa with dying kwashiorkor children begging for food from oyinbo people. They should leave Nigeria alone and stop speculating doom. Nigeria is focusing on building our nation right now. Other noise makers should keep shut and go and die. That is how they were rejoicing over our failure in the disastrous marketer drama. We are the largest black nation, any step we make to improve ourselves bites them. Upon all the speculation, we are still one country and chose our own president. They should choke on that. They have all not recovered from the shock. They underestimated Nigerians. This government coming in needs to focus on immigration before immigrants start coming to claim they can show us how to run our country. Tufiakwa. First world opportunists

What exactly is your problem?

We can't deny what is written on the article. It's a shame we live in mediocrity and what's more shameful is our tendency to always play the victim card when told the truth.

I sincerely pray and hope that in the next 48 months, Nigeria will be in the local and international news for good reasons only.

the truth is most nigerians are more relieved that jonathan is finally exiting.

"With Boko Haram still virulent in the northeast, the economy cratering and a crippling fuel shortage stemming from Nigeria’s costly system of oil subsidies, Nigerians are glad to know that Mr. Jonathan can no longer do any damage."

EOD.

baby124:
All these stupid foreign journalists only know how to mock anything African. They prefer an africa with dying kwashiorkor children begging for food from oyinbo people. They should leave Nigeria alone and stop speculating doom. Nigeria is focusing on building our nation right now. Other noise makers should keep shut and go and die. That is how they were rejoicing over our failure in the disastrous marketer drama. We are the largest black nation, any step we make to improve ourselves bites them. Upon all the speculation, we are still one country and chose our own president. They should choke on that. They have all not recovered from the shock. They underestimated Nigerians. This government coming in needs to focus on immigration before immigrants start coming to claim they can show us how to run our country. Tufiakwa. First world opportunists

Did you even read the article at all before spewing this?
Go back and take your time to read and comprehend, thank me later.

Despite being one of the world’s leading oil producers, Nigerians have lined up miserably at gas stations because of the fuel shortage,

K

Geez... That's sad...

baby124:
All these stupid foreign journalists only know how to mock anything African. They prefer an africa with dying kwashiorkor children begging for food from oyinbo people. They should leave Nigeria alone and stop speculating doom. Nigeria is focusing on building our nation right now. Other noise makers should keep shut and go and die. That is how they were rejoicing over our failure in the disastrous marketer drama. We are the largest black nation, any step we make to improve ourselves bites them. Upon all the speculation, we are still one country and chose our own president. They should choke on that. They have all not recovered from the shock. They underestimated Nigerians. This government coming in needs to focus on immigration before immigrants start coming to claim they can show us how to run our country. Tufiakwa. First world opportunists

Did u read d news at all?must u show how uneducated u r on this forum?U still av a chance to go back n read d news.This tyme,take ur tyme to comprehend what u read.

PDP is the devil's machination to ruin Nigeria..

I wonder what the saTANoids are fed with,that with glaring incompetence of the PDP,they still come out to shout "Transformation".

Nigeria will be great again..

Change is here.

Jonathan the damager,imagine Govt paying for fuel not consumed? Thunder fire Those marketers we need our refineries back @ least our boys who studied various forms of engineering related to crude oil production can get jobs and some needed experience.

I think its a balanced report. Showing both the bad sides of both the President and the President elect. Almost similar circumstances of most Nigerians not feeling sorry for GEJ leaving, same way they felt when GMB was overthrown.

The timing though? Is another thing. This week was bad for the GEJ's administration. Too many organizations think they can hold Nigeria to ransom whenever they want to make demands e.g NLC, NUPENG. NMA NUT, ASUU etc and it is the average Nigerian that suffers.


Well happy children's day to our fellow children on Nairaland. Dem many well well. God bless Nigeria.


#PeacefulNigeria
#UnitedNigeria

Just cant imagine some slowpokes wanted this fedora hat drunkard to continue for another four years.... such a pity nigeria would be as worse as somalia by then.


There's a popular saying that when solution is on its way, you first notice the problem and get it solved from there... The problem is now visible to the whole world.. May God grant PMB and PYO the wisdom, understanding and good health to solve the problems facing NIgeria.

I almost lost hope on 'one Nigeria' but the emergence of Buhari rekindled a new believe and a glowing aspiration. If no meaningful achievements is recorded in the next four years, then I will give up on this country's redemption.

After Olisah Metuh wil say New York times and USA are Apc stooges. Good piece. So happy that I wont be seeing Madueke, NOI, GEJs face on d news on a daily bases on TV again.

optimistic!! God bless Nigeria

cool

I believe in his dreams and seriousness. He needs our collective support.



TANOIDS, keep calm and believe in Change.

Change