Bola Tinubu, former governor of Lagos State, home of Africa’s most populous city, has been sworn in as Nigeria’s president after a hotly contested election.Tinubu’s promises of economic growth and strengthening national security have been compared to those of his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, who had been criticized for largely failing to deliver on them.“There is already a very substantial loss of confidence in the government as a protector of citizens,” noted International Crisis Group adviser Nnamdi Obasi. “If the new government doesn’t act very decisively, we’re going to have more people looking for their own help and protection.”
Nigeria’s Bola Tinubu has been sworn in as president of Africa’s most populous country in a period of unprecedented challenges, leaving some citizens hopeful for a better life and others skeptical that his government will perform better than it did.
The 71-year-old former governor of Lagos, Nigeria’s economic hub, Tinubu, was sworn in as Nigeria’s president in Abuja, the capital, in the presence of thousands of Nigerians and several heads of government. He succeeds President Muhammadu Buhari to lead a country that is projected to become the world’s third most populous nation by 2050, tied with the United States after India and China.
He has promised to build on Buhari’s efforts to deliver democratic dividends to citizens in a country where deadly security crises, widespread poverty and hunger have left many frustrated and angry. And with his election still contested in court by opposition parties and among many young Nigerians, Tinubu has also vowed to bring the country together.
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Symbolic of a transition of power and loyalty to the new president, General Lucky Irabor, Nigeria’s Chief of Defense Staff, presented old Nigerian national and defense flags to Buhari and received new ones from Tinubu, who he is also the head of the Armed Forces. .
Following national elections in February, newly elected governors were also sworn into office in many Nigerian states on Monday.
At the inauguration venue, neither of the two main opposition candidates challenging Tinubu’s election to the court was present and many Nigerians tweeted in protest at Tinubu’s inauguration. The outcome of the legal challenge is due in about three weeks. If the opposition’s challenges are upheld, it would be the first time a court would nullify a presidential election in Nigeria’s history.
Tinubu’s “renewed hope” manifesto prioritizes creating sufficient jobs and increasing local production of goods, investing in agriculture and public infrastructure, providing economic opportunities to the poor and vulnerable, as well as creating better architecture of national security to address all forms. of insecurity
However, Tinubu’s ambitious plans could be threatened in his first 100 days in office by a mountain of challenges, from insecurity to a fiscal crisis, poverty and deepening public discontent with the state, said Mucahid Durmaz, senior analyst for West Africa at risk intelligence company Verisk. Maplecroft.
Some analysts also say that the promises made by Tinubu and the hope they bring are reminiscent of when Buhari was first elected president in 2015 as a former military head of state. His priorities were to fight insecurity and build the economy, but he ended up falling short of the expectations of many.
Bola Tinubu, seen here speaking at a March 1, 2023 ceremony in the capital Abuja, has been sworn in as Nigeria’s 16th president. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)
“No Nigerian president has come into office with as much goodwill from the citizens as President Buhari, but no other president has squandered it as quickly as President Buhari,” said Dr. Seun Kolade, a Nigerian development expert and associate professor at De Montfort University. in the UK “In terms of expectations and what’s possible, it’s been a very mediocre eight years, to put it mildly.”
In Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, locals identified economic hardship and insecurity as the biggest challenges they grappled with during Buhari’s eight-year rule. “People have really suffered (during) this period. People have been dying for lack of money, and I pray and hope that we will not experience this kind of thing again under the new president,” said Princess Taiwo, a fruit seller .
Long before Buhari came to power in 2015, Nigeria’s development has slowed for many years under the weight of poor governance and endemic corruption, making it difficult for citizens to benefit from the country’s high income as a major producer of oil from Africa.
Although he has reduced the power of Islamic extremists in the northeast and built key infrastructure with the help of foreign loans, many believe that quality of life and living standards have declined under Buhari. They cite growing insecurity in other parts of the country, growing poverty and an economy struggling with record unemployment, inflation at an 18-year high of 22.2% and rising debt.
“When you combine the lack of opportunity in a crippling environment with a strong youth population that is frustrated, this is a ticking time bomb and this has been the story of Nigeria for the last 50 years and Buhari has made it worse,” he said. development expert Kolade.
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Hailing from the All Progressives Congress government, which has been dogged by allegations of corruption, Tinubu’s emergence as Nigeria’s president-elect has also raised concerns about the transparency of his tenure.
Although he has often talked about bringing together the best hands to lead Nigeria, the nation’s problem has never been about the quality of public servants but about accountability, said Leena Koni Hoffmann-Atar, associate fellow in the Africa program at Chatham House think tank.
“What we despise is that to strengthen the institutions of the State, beyond the character and competence of the individuals, it is necessary to have processes of accountability. And we need to see if the accountability in the institutions of the State will be strengthened under his administration,” he said. Hoffmann-Atar.
Tinubu must also act swiftly and decisively to address Nigeria’s security crises with the country already in critical condition, analysts said.
“There is already a very substantial loss of confidence in the government as a protector of citizens,” said Nnamdi Obasi, senior adviser on Nigeria at the International Crisis Group. “If the new government doesn’t act very decisively, we’re going to have more people looking for their own help and protection.”
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Among those now contemplating self-protection are residents of the Mangu district of north-central Plateau state, where gunmen killed more than 100 people in a nighttime attack in early May. Yaputat Pokyes, one of the survivors, said all they want from the incoming president is to help them stay alive.
