All eyes are on the All Progressives Party and President Muhammadu Buhari to begin to deliver on election promises that will take Nigeria to the next level. However, early signs, typified by high level suspicions among members and hostilities between Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, the party’s immediate past national chairman, and Adams Oshiomhole, its current national chairman, particularly, appear to dampen morale and create apprehension in the polity that the next four years may not hold any hope for the long-suffering Nigerians, after all.

This is because, according to some political analysts, the party needs a united house to grow and deliver on its campaign promises to Nigerians, as some of the intrigues in the party currently, are capable of scaring investors.

For instance, NOIPOLLS, Nigeria’s leading surveying and polling firm, says that, the average approval rating of President Buhari in his first term in office stands at 49.3 percent with his latest rating of 36 percent in May 2019.

It noted that Buhari’s performance was rated lowest in his fourth year in office with an average of 41.3 percent.

“Similarly, Nigerians also appraised the performance of President Buhari on specific indicators using a Likert scale of 1 to 5, where 1 represents ‘Very Poor’ and 5 represents ‘Excellent’. Starting off with his three cardinal policy thrusts, the president was rated 36 percent on Security; 27 percent on Corruption; and 16 percent on the Economy.

Also, the country’s economic growth at about 1.9% in 2018 is far below the GDP growth rate we require for sustainable growth and as well below population growth of over three percent.

Besides, concerns over revenue and budget implementation challenges are deepening and some analysts say the sale of and proceeds from the government’s Joint Venture (JV) assets with the International Oil Companies (IOCs) may clear the country’s long-term revenue challenges, a situation that requires deliberate and concerted actions by the government.

•Excerpted from a report by Sunday Independent

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