Assessing Critical Sectors of the Buhari Adminstration

Six years after the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration took over the helm of affairs in 2015, Rebecca Ejifoma assesses his administration in critical sectors

On Saturday May 29, the President, Muhammadu Buhari, marked his sixth anniversary since he was elected president of the nation, through his popular change mantra.

For the presidency, against all odds, they have recorded some milestones in the areas of finance, rails, roads, ports, housing, oil and gas, agriculture, power, social investment and poverty alleviation, sports, youth and creative industry, support to states, education, health, presidential assent to Legislative Bills, fiscal, trade, monetary and investment reforms, bilateral relations and asset recovery, among others.

Financing

In terms of financing, last year, the presidency approved the establishment of InfraCo Plc, a world class infrastructure development vehicle wholly focused on Nigeria, with combined debt and equity take-off capital of N15 trillion. This was managed by an independent infrastructure fund manager.

It also established the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) last year, with over $1 billion in funding so far. The Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) saw a total additional inflows from the government of around $2 billion under the Buhari administration – since the original $1 billion which the fund kicked off with in 2012.

Also, it further created the Nigeria Innovation Fund by the NSIA to address investment opportunities in the domestic technology sector: data networking, data centres, software, Agri-tech, and Bio-tech among others.

Education

Since assuming office, the Buhari administration said it has committed over N1.7 trillion of capital intervention to Nigeria’s tertiary institutions through various means, including TETFund – with the universities taking the lion share of the total amount, adding that it disbursed more than N170 billion in UBE Matching Grants to states and the FCT since 2015; N8 billion in Special Education Grant to states and private providers of Special Education; and N34 billion from the Teachers Professional Development Fund to states and the FCT.

The Buhari’s government also inaugurated the Alternate School Programme (ASP) designed to ensure that every out-of-school child in the country gains access to quality basic education, irrespective of social, cultural or economic circumstance in line with the aspirations of Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG-4).

The presidency also approved a new (extended) retirement age of 65 and Length of Service of 40 years for teachers in public basic and secondary schools in the country (both effective from january 1 this year. It further pioneered a new special teachers’ salary scale, effective from January 1 next year, and a new special teachers pension scheme.

Under the World Bank-supported Innovation Development & Effectiveness in the Acquisition of Skills (IDEAS) Project approved in 2020, the presidency noted that $200 million would be invested in six participating states including Abia, Benue, Ekiti, Gombe, Kano, and Edo, as well as 20 Federal Science and Technical Colleges nationwide.

In its record, the Buhari’s government approved the establishment of the Federal Maritime University, in Delta State; Nigerian Army University, in Borno state; six new Colleges of Education (one per geopolitical zone: Benue, Ebonyi Edo, Sokoto, Bauchi, and Osun States. Others are: six new Federal Polytechnics in Gombe, Oyo; Katsina, Plateau, Enugu, and Cross River.

Under the phased implementation of the National Youth Policy, six Federal Science and Technical Colleges (FSTC) were established last year. They are: FSTC Ogugu, Kogi; FSTC Hadeija, Jigawa; FSTC Umuaka, Imo; FSTC Igangan, Oyo; FSTC Ganduje, Kano; and FSTC, Amuzu, Ebonyi. Additional five FSTC will come on-stream this year, and will be located in Bauchi, Plateau, Sokoto, Enugu, and Cross River states.

Health

Giving a record of grants to state governments, the presidency hinted that at least $2.5 million was dished out to each state of the federation and the FCT, under the Saving One Million Lives (SOML) initiative to improve health outcomes.

Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF): For the first time since the National Health Act was passed in 2014, the federal government in 2018 began including the 1 per cent minimum portion of the Consolidated Revenue Fund – amounting to N55 billion in 2018 – to fund the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF). The fund, it emphasised, is designed to deliver a guaranteed set of health services to all Nigerians through the national network of Primary Health Care centers.

While listing the passage of enabling legislation for the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) for the first time since it was founded in 2011, it outlined that the president approved a grant of N5 billion for the NCDC last March as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the presidency, a number of key federal hospitals across the country are being upgraded to effectively manage cancer and other major health challenges. Cancer Radiotherapy machines and other equipment are being provided to these hospitals; the National Hospital in Abuja has already received two LINAC machines.

“In March 2018, Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) invested $10 million to establish a world-class cancer treatment centre at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). It also invested $5 million each in the Aminu Kano University Teaching Hospital and the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia, to establish a modern Diagnostic Centre, adding, “These Centres have all been completed and are now operational”.

Rail

One of the plus of this administration is the construction of rails. Already, 156km Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge rail is nearing completion; 327km Itakpe-Warri standard gauge rail has been completed and commissioned 33 years after construction began. Abuja Light Rail was completed in 2018; ground-breaking was done for construction of Kano-Makurdi standard gauge rail, and revamp of Port-Harcourt-Maiduguri narrow gauge tail. Meanwhile, financing negotiations are ongoing for Ibadan-Kano standard gauge rail project.

Roads

For the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF), the government invested over a billion dollars in three flagship projects. They are: Lagos-Ibadan Expressway; Second Niger Bridge; and Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Expressway.

As listed in its achievements, the executive order of seven mobilising private investment into the development of key roads and bridges like Bodo-Bonny in Rivers and Apapa-Oshodi-Oworonshoki-Ojota in Lagos States. Moreso, the administration orchestrated a Highway Development and Management Initiative (HDMI), a public-private partnership programme to mobilise, in its first Phase, over a trillion naira in private investment into the development and maintenance of 12 roads, amounting to 1,963km in length. The Buhari-led administration boasts of the N360 billion worth of Sukuk Bonds raised in 2017 for dozens of critical road projects across all six geopolitical zones.

Ports

This administration has also completed new terminals for international airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, and Port Harcourt with construction of new runways for Abuja and Enugu International Airports and presidential approval for four International Airports as Special Economic Zones in Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Port Harcourt.

In its six years, it has approved new private-sector funded deep sea ports: Lekki Deep Sea Port (construction already well underway for completion next year); Bonny Deep Sea Port (Ground-breaking done this March); Ibom Deep Sea Port; and Warri Deep Sea Port.

On the development of capacity at the Eastern Ports, in December 2017, Calabar Port commenced export of bulk cement to Tema Port in Ghana. And in 2019, three container ships berthed at Calabar Port, for the first time in 11 years.

The dredging of Warri Port (Escravos Bar—Warri Port channel) was completed in 2018. On October 30, 2019, an LPG tanker operated by NLNG berthed in Port Harcourt – “The first time ever an LPG ship berthed in any of the Eastern Ports. On December 8, 2019, Onne Port received JPO VOLANS (owned by Maersk), the first gearless and largest container vessel (265.07 metres) to call at any Eastern Port in Nigeria. On August 1, 2019, Onne Port’s Brawal Terminal received MSC GRACE, its first container vessel since 2012.

Power

To energise education programme, the presidency took clean and reliable energy (solar and gas) to federal universities and teaching hospitals across the country. Four universities completed and commissioned already are: BUK (Kano); FUNAI (Ebonyi); ATBU (Bauchi); and FUPRE (Delta). IItis also taking clean and reliable energy (solar and gas) to markets across the country and has completed projects like Sabon-Gari Market in Kano, Ariaria Market in Aba, and Sura Shopping Complex in Lagos.

The administration proudly confirms nationwide rollout of electricity metres to all on-grid consumers initiated last August. The Central Bank of Nigeria is providing N60 billion for the first phase, with a target of one million metre installations. So far, more than 500,000 metres have been delivered to the Discos, and over 280,000 installed.

Solar Power Naija was unveiled this April to deliver five million off-grid solar connections to Nigerian households. The programme is expected to generate an additional N7 billion increase in tax revenues per annum and $10 million in annual import substitution. This May, the Rural Electrification Agency announced the planned deployment of solar-powered grids to 200 Primary Health Centres (PHC) and 104 Unity Schools nationwide.

Presidential Power Initiative (PPI), also known as Siemens Power Programme, a government-to-government initiative involving the governments of Nigeria and Germany, and Siemens AG of Germany, to upgrade and modernise Nigeria’s electricity grid was initiated. The contract for the pre-engineering phase of the Presidential Power Initiative (PPI) was signed this February, following the 2020 approval for the payment of FGN’s counterpart funding for that phase.

Meanwhile, Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP) provided grants for the deployment of 200,000 solar home systems, impacting one million Nigerians. The NEP is also delivering mini-grids across the country.

Housing

The Family Homes Fund Limited (FHFL), incorporated by the FG in September 2016, is the implementing agency for the Buhari administration’s national social housing scheme. Over2,000 hectares of land with titled documents have been given by 24 states for the Buhari administration’s social housing programme with the capacity to accommodate about 65,000 new homes.

Under the National Social Housing programme, Nigerians will be given at least a 15-year period with a monthly payment at six per cent interest rate to pay for each housing unit. CBN is providing a N200 billion financing facility, with a guarantee by the FG.

Oil and Gas

In this industry, the Buhari administration declared this decade the “Decade of Gas”. This ground-breaking started from 614km Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano Gas Project, and successful completion of Nigeria’s first Marginal Field Bid Round in almost 20 years, which is expected to raise in excess of half a billion dollars, and open up a new vista of investment in oil and gas.

There was also the inauguration of National LPG Expansion Programme (including Removal of VAT from the domestic pricing of LPG); Financial close and signing of contract for NLNG Train 7, which will grow Nigeria’s production capacity by about 35 per cent.

Interestingly this year, Nigeria and Morocco signed an agreement to develop a $1.4 billion multipurpose industrial platform (Ammonia and Di-Ammonium Phosphate production plants) that will utilise Nigerian gas and Moroccan phosphate to produce 750,000 tons of ammonia and one million tons of phosphate fertilisers annually by 2025. It will be located in Ikot-Abasi, Akwa-Ibom state.

In December 2020, there was the commissioning of the new NPDC Integrated Gas Handling Facility in Edo state, the largest onshore LPG plant in the country, with a processing capacity of 100 million standard cubic feet of gas daily. It produces 330 tonnes of LPG, 345 tonnes of propane, and 2,600 barrels of condensate daily.

The Buhari’s administration says it established a $350m Nigerian Content Intervention Fund to finance manufacturing, contracts and assets in the oil and gas industry.

Among its strides is the financial close on the following the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)-involved projects: a 10,000 tonnes per day methanol plant and a 500 million standard cubic feet per day gas processing plant, in Odeama, Brass, Bayelsa state.

It also confirmed the ANOH gas processing plant, with a processing capacity of 300 million standard cubic feet of gas in Imo State. It is a joint venture between Seplat Petroleum Development company and the Nigerian Gas cmpany, a wholly owned subsidiary of NNPC, which has the potential to deliver 1,200MW of power when completed.

And in six years, this government introduced the Nigerian Upstream Cost Optimisation Programme (NUCOP) to reduce operating expenses through process enhancement and industry collaboration.

Agriculture

In this sector, the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) of the CBN pioneered by the president on 17th November 2015, made over N300 billion to more than 3.1 million smallholder farmers of 21 different commodities – rice, wheat, maize, cotton, cassava, poultry, soy beans, groundnut, and fish – cultivating over 3.8 million hectares of farmland.

The presidency recorded a government-to-government partnership between the Nigerian and Moroccan fovernments in December 2016 when the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative (PFI) produced 12million 50kg bags of NPK 20:10:10 equivalent in 2020, bringing total production since inception to over 30 million 50kg bags equivalent; and number of participating blending plants increased to 44 from three at inception.

The partnership among FGN, AfDB Group, and other stakeholders including IFAD and BOI. “Under the Special-Agro Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ) programme, agro-processing centres will be established across the country.

For the Green Imperative – a Nigeria-Brazil Agricultural Mechanisation Programme is aimed at boosting agricultural production in the country. According to the administration, the National Assembly has approved a loan for the financing of the program. This, it says, will involve the development of 632 privately-operated primary production (mechanisation) service centres and 142 Agro processing (value addition) service centres across the 774 LGAs, and the reactivation of six privately owned partially-operational or moribund tractor assembly plants nationwide. It will also train 100,000 new extension workers.

Social Investment and Poverty Alleviation

In 2016, the president launched the National Social Investment Programme, currently the largest of such programme in Africa and one of the largest in the world.

Currently, the National Social Register (NSR) of poor and vulnerable Nigerians has 32.6 million persons from above seven million poor and vulnerable households identified across 708 LGAs, 8,723 wards and 86,610 communities across the 36 states and the FCT.

From this number, 1.6 million poor and vulnerable households – comprising over eight million individuals in 45,744 communities from 5,483 Wards of 557 LGAs in 35 states and the FCT are currently benefiting from the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programme, which pays a bi-monthly stipend of N10,000 per household.

In January 2019, President Buhari set up Nigeria’s Micro-Pension Scheme – which allows self-employed persons and persons working in organisations with less than three employees to save for the provision of pension at retirement or incapacitation.

Accordingly, the Buhari government established the Survival Fund, National Youth Investment Fund, and National Special Public Works Programme, which had 774,000 beneficiaries across 774 LGAs nationwide.

It soon established the Central Bank’s COVID-19 N300 billion Targeted Credit Facility (TCF) – higher than N150 billion disbursed so far to support millions of small businesses, households, and young people with federal grants, loans and stipends.

Of course, the Buhari administration highlighted that the Survival Fund provided its grants (Payroll Support, Artisan and Transport Sector grants, and General MSME grant) to over 800,000 beneficiaries since the last quarter of 2020. It has also provided free business registration to more than 200,000 MSMEs across the country.

It also listed the presidential approval for the establishment of the Nigeria Investment and Growth Fund (NIG-Fund) this year.

As at the end of 2020, Development Bank of Nigeria, which began operations in 2017 had disbursed N324 billion in loans to over 136,000 MSMEs through 40 Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs). This is as 57 per cent of the beneficiaries are women-owned MSMEs while 27 per cent are youth-owned.

And in January 2019, Buhari originated Nigeria’s Micro Pension Scheme, which allows self-employed persons and persons working in organisations with less than three employees to save for the provision of pension at retirement or incapacitation.

Creative Industry and Sports

Long overdue renovation of the Lagos and Abuja National Stadiums kicked off last year ahead of concessioning for private management. The list also shows that in 2018, the National Sports Festival was held for the first time since 2012. Nigeria National U-17 football team, the Golden Eaglets, won the FIFA U-17 World Cup for the fifth time in 2015. Their first ever win was 30 years earlier in 1985, when Buhari was the Head of State.

Nigeria’s participation at the 2016 Paralympic Games yielded her best gold medal result since Nigeria started taking part in the Games in 1992. D’Tigress, Nigeria’s Female National Basketball Team won the 2017 FIBA Africa Women’s Championship, the continental championship Cup, for the first time in 12 years, and earned qualification for its first FIBA Women’s World Cup appearance since 2006. In 2018, they earned its first-ever win at the FIBA Women’s World Cup, and went on to advance to the quarterfinals. The team finished in 8th place – the best ever performance by an African team.

Swiftly in 2019, D’ Tigress successfully defended its 2017 Afro Basketball Women Championship Title and in 2020, they became the only female African team to qualify for participation in the 2020 Summer Olympic games. Nigeria’s Women’s Football Team, the Super Falcons, won the African Women Cup of Nations (AWCON) in 2016 and 2018. In same 2018, Nigeria hosted a FIFA Executive Football Summit, one of 12 worldwide.

Meanwhile, in 2019, the Super Falcons advanced to the group stage of the Women’s World Cup, the first time in 20 years. Same year, Nigeria won its first Athletics World Championship medal in six years.

Youth and Creative Industry Support

Today, this administration boasts of the establishment of the N75 billion National Youth Investment Fund (NYIF) approved by the President, Buhari, last year. In 2019, the FG added creative industries to the list of qualifying sectors for Pioneer Status’ Incentives, which grants relief from Corporate Income Tax for a specified period of time.”

The presidential approval for the handover of the National Theatre, Lagos to the CBN and the Bankers Committee for redevelopment into a world-class Creative Park serving the theatre, film, fashion, music, and ICT sectors dovetailed into a handover handover. Already, redevelopment work (valued at about 20 billion Naira) has now kicked off.

Fiscal, Trade, Monetary and Investment Reforms

The Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC) in 2017 completed a long-overdue revision of the list of activities that can benefit from Nigeria’s Pioneer Status Incentive, which grants beneficiary companies a three to five-year tax holiday. The revision, done above 10 years after the last one, has modernised the list, thereby, expanding the tax holiday incentives to qualifying companies in E-commerce, Software Development, Animation, Music, Film, and TV.

They also boast of restoration of federal budget to January-December cycle, with the 2020 Budget, for the first time in 12 years; introduction since 2020 of annual Finance (Reform) Bills to accompany the annual Federal Appropriation Bill; negotiation of the billions of dollars in arrears of Cash Calls inherited when the administration assumed office, resulting in an agreement for a significant discount of exceeding a billion dollars.

The Buhari government saw to the introduction of a Visa-on-Arrival Policy, as part of ease of doing business reforms. In addition, a comprehensive reform of the existing Visa Regime, leading to the rollout of a new and enhanced Visa Policy for Nigeria in 2020, including expansion from six visa categories to 79 – each tailored to a specific type of traveller – 36 temporary residence visas, 15 permanent residence visas, and 24 short visit visas among others.

Assent to Legislative Bills

Some of the presidential assent to Legislative Bills include the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contracts Act, 1993 (Amendment) Act, 2019; Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) Bill, the first legislation in Nigeria’s history focused on curbing anti-competition practices; establishing the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission; NCDC Establishment Act in 2018; Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill, an Executive Bill, was signed into law in 2019. It facilitates the identification, tracing, freezing, restraining, recovery, forfeiture and confiscation of proceeds, property and other instrumentalities of crime, as well as the prosecution of offenders in criminal cases regardless of where in the world they might be.

Part of its milestone is the bill establishing the Police Trust Fund, which will significantly improve funding for the Nigeria Police Force (2019). Nigeria Police Act 2020 – the first comprehensive reform of Police legislation since the Police Act of 1943; Repeal and Re-Enactment of the Companies & Allied Matters Act (CAMA), 2020 – the first comprehensive reform since 1990, and the Not Too Young to Run Bill (2018) – a Constitution Amendment Bill, to reduce the age of eligibility for running for elective office in Nigeria.

For this administration, it recorded Nigerian Correctional Services Bill, 2019 – the first comprehensive reform of prison legislation in close to five decades. Suppression of Piracy and other Maritime Offences Bill, 2019 – the first anti-piracy legislation in West Africa; and a Bill to grant financial autonomy to States’ Houses of Assembly and States’ Judiciary (2018), Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020; Finance Act 2019 and 2020, and the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2018.

Executive Orders

The Buhari Administration has since 2017, issued a number of landmark executive orders: executive order on promotion of Transparency and Efficiency in the Business Environment (2017), and the executive order on Promoting Local Procurement by Government Agencies in 2017.
Others include Executive order on Submission of Annual Budgetary Estimates by all Statutory and non-Statutory Agencies, including Incorporated Companies wholly owned by the FG in 2017; Executive order on the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme same 2017; the presidential executive order on planning and execution of projects, promotion of Nigerian content in contracts, Science, Engineering and Technology in 2018; the executive order (and Amendment) on the Voluntary Offshore Assets Regularisation Scheme (VOARS) same 2018; and executive orders on Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme in 2019 and implementing financial autonomy of state legislature and state judiciary in 2020.

BVN Deployment for Social Investment Programmes

Considering that personnel costs are the FG’s largest expenditure line, the FG gave priority to the deployment of the BVN for payroll and pension audits. The use of BVN to verify payroll entries on the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) platform has so far led to the detection of 54,000 fraudulent payroll entries.

The FG emphasised that it ensured the deployment of BVN system to serve as the verification basis for payments to beneficiaries and vendors in the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP), the N-Power Scheme, and the Homegrown School Feeding Programme (HGSFP).

Open Government Partnership

In May 2016, President Buhari attended and participated in the International Anti-Corruption Summit organised by the UK government. At that Summit, it stated, he pledged that Nigeria would join the OGP, an international transparency, accountability and citizen engagement initiative.

Now in July 2016, Nigeria became the 70th country to join the OGP. Following this, Nigeria constituted an OGP National Steering Committee (NSC), which went on to develop a National Action Plan (2017–2019) that aims to deepen and mainstream transparency mechanisms and citizens’ engagement in the management of public resources across all sectors.

In 2018, Nigeria was elected to lead the OGP alongside Argentina, France, and Romania. All four new members of the OGP Steering Committee would serve for three years starting on 1st October 2018.

Asset Recovery

Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), the administration hinted, has helped anti-corruption agencies devise clearer strategies for obtaining forfeiture of assets suspected to have been acquired fraudulently, mainly from state coffers, before prosecuting suspected culprits.

Part of this work has involved painstakingly reviewing existing Laws (like the Money Laundering Act, 2004; the EFCC Act, 2004; and the ICPC Act, 2000) to identify and highlight sections directly conferring powers of forfeiture on Nigeria’s anti corruption agencies.

ICPC scrutiny of practices, systems and procedures of MDAs’ personnel cost from 2019 to 2020, yielded N189 billion in recoveries from inflated personnel budgets. “In 2019 alone, ICPC also recovered N32 billion worth of land, buildings and vehicles. ICPC’s audit of Constituency Projects covering 2015 to 2018 helped recover N2 billion of diverted funds and assets.”

Security and Justice Reform

In terms of security, Nigeria’s recapitalisation drive has been phenomenal. Thr Nigerian Air Force acquired 26 brand new aircraft since President Buhari assumed office in 2015, and is expecting another 12 (the 12 Super Tucano currently on order from the United States Government, due for delivery starting July 2021). The NAF is also locally re-activating several previously unserviceable planes.

The Nigerian Navy has acquired close to 400 new platforms since 2015, including 172 Riverine Patrol Boats (RPBs), 114 Rigid- Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIBs), two Seaward Defence Boats (SDBs), 12 Manta Class/Inshore Patrol Craft (IPC), 3 Whaler Boats, 4 Barges / Tug Boats, 22 Fast Attack Boats, 14 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), 4 Helicopters, 14 River Town Class, 14 House Boats and 4 Capital Ships.

In line with the President’s directive, the Nigerian Navy has established a Naval Base Lake Chad in Baga, Borno State, as well as deployed 14 Naval Security Stations along the nation’s coastline in areas prone to criminal activity.President Buhari signed into law, in 2019, the Bill establishing the Police Trust Fund, which will significantly improve funding for the Nigeria Police Force.

As part of Criminal Justice Reforms, President Buhari in 2020 granted amnesty to 2,600 prisoners nationwide, representing about 3.5 per cent of all inmates, in a bid to decongest Nigeria’s prison population. The beneficiaries were those 60 years and above; those suffering from ill-health that might likely lead to death; convicts serving three years and above and have less than six months to serve; inmates with mental health defect; and inmates with a pending fine not exceeding N50,000 and with no pending cases.

Presidential approval for commencement of Community Policing Programme nationwide, and release of take-off funding. The Community Policing Programme has now been enshrined into the Police Act, 2020.

The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) is deploying a Migration Information and Data Analysis System (MIDAS) at five International Airports. MIDAS is a global real-time border management system developed by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), and is linked to INTERPOL & other watchlists. The implementation of MIDAS at the International Airport in Abuja was described by the IOM as “the largest deployment of MIDAS at any airport globally, to date.”

Bilateral Relations

Under the Buhari administration, Nigeria has successfully entered into bilateral relations with different nations. From rail, ports and roads, as well as other infrastructural projects, the bilateral relations with China, Germany, UK, South Africa, US, Morroco, Russia, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Despite all these achievements, the administration has also been faced with several challenges like insecurity, unemployment, housing deficiency and inadequate funding, among others, which they have vowed to surmount before the expiration of the tenure in 2023.