Posted on: 10:25 Fri, 17 Jun 2016



Nigerian President Muhummadu
Buhari writes of building an
economic bridge to Nigeria’s future
(“ The Three Changes Nigeria
Needs,” op-ed, June 14).

It’s hard to see how his
administration’s inflexibility, lack
of vision and reactive approach
will achieve this.

Mr. Buhari notes that building trust
is a priority for Nigeria. But an
anticorruption drive that is
selective and focused on senior
members of the opposition party
creates deep political divisions.

Meanwhile, members of Mr.
Buhari’s own cabinet, accused of
large-scale corruption, walk free.

Seventy percent of the national
treasury is spent on the salaries
and benefits of government
officials, who make upwards of $2
million a year.

As for Mr. Buhari’s ideas to
rebalance the economy and
regenerate growth, his damaging
and outdated monetary policy has
been crippling.

The manufacturing sector, essential
to Nigeria’s diversification, has
been hardest hit, exacerbating an
already fast-growing employment
crisis.

Foreign investors have started to
flee en masse. Mr. Buhari makes
only brief mention of the country’s
deteriorating security situation.

But security and stability are
precursors to economic growth and
development.

Boko Haram has been pushed back
for now, but little attention is paid
to the structural issues that have
spurred its rise.

Instead, the Nigerian government
has diverted much-needed military
resources to the Niger Delta, where
rising militancy has reduced
Nigeria’s oil production to less than
half the country’s capacity, and
half the amount required to service
the national budget.

Much of these tensions arise from
Mr. Buhari’s decision to cut
amnesty payments to militants and
an excessively hard-line approach
in a socially and politically
sensitive environment.

Other ethnic tensions are also
growing. In the country’s south,
protests have been met by a bloody
response from the Nigerian
military, stoking the fire and
galvanizing support for an
independent state of Biafra.

Rising tensions could again pose
one of the greatest threats to
Nigeria’s stability and future.

Source: Wall Street Journal