In 2015, after Muhammadu Buhari emerged winner of the presidential election, there was a cool sensation and relief throughout the country that his administration will bring change as it had promised during its campaign.

However, before Buhari assumed office in 2015, Nigeria has been battling insecurity, corruption, unemployment, and inflation for a long period.

The regime of Buhari that ended on May 29, 2023, will not be forgotten in a hurry because Nigerians have never suffered this much in any tenure since the inception of democracy. During his tenure, Nigeria battled with insecurity, poor governance, corruption, and poor economic performance.

One of the worst economic recessions in Nigeria's history was witnessed during his tenure in 2016-2017 which led to the devaluation of the naira, a decline in foreign investment, and a rise in inflation and unemployment.

The question now is how was the economy when Buhari assumed office and how is the economy after the power shift. 

Bola Tinubu, his successor was sworn in as Nigeria's new president on May 29, 2023, after emerging as the winner of the 2023 general election which was held in February same year.

With the current state of the nation, it’ll be a huge task for Bola Tinubu and his cabinet to revive the economic breakdown. Although his administration has also given lots of promises and we hope this turns out well for the good of the Nigerian people.

Without further ado, let's have a look at an overview of the economy Buhari met in 2015 and the state of the economy he is leaving for Tinubu in 2023.

An Overview of the State of the Economy Buhari Met and That Which He Is Leaving for Tinubu

This overview shows the performance of the Buhari-led administration on the economic revitalization of Nigeria. The scorecard is as follows.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

One factor to always consider when checking for the performance of a country is its GDP report. This factor shows the performance of a country and other relevant information on the growth of that country. 

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said that the Buhari administration grew by an average of 1.40 percent compared to the 6.07 percent in the administration before Buhari. It also added that the nation’s GDP fell to 2.31 percent in the first quarter of 2023 due to the naira redesign policy and naira scarcity which led to economic hardship. 

For the past eight years, major sectors in Nigeria (agriculture, finance, insurance, and transport) have been experiencing major economic breakdowns according to reports from major statistical bodies. 

In the Buhari regime, there have been heavy attacks on farmers which have reduced food production. While the oil sector has suffered low oil production because of oil theft and poor management of pipelines which have caused oil leakage.

The 2022, World Bank public finance review report, said that “Nigeria’s development has stagnated.”

Inflation

As of the time when Buhari assumed office, the country's inflation rate was 9.01 percent in 2015. According to the NBS, the country’s inflation grew in the first quarter of the transition year to hit 22.22 percent in April, making it the fourth consecutive increase in 2023.

In 2015, a 50kg bag of rice was sold for N8,000 while a liter of petrol was sold for N87. Now the prices have gone up with a bag of rice being sold for N40,000, while a liter of PMS is more than N200.

Foreign exchange

When Buhari assumed office in 2015, a dollar was exchanged at N198/$ in the parallel market. Despite all promises from the Buhari-led administration to revive the economy, one dollar still exchanged at N306/$ in 2018 and in 2019 it went to N360/$ while it skyrocketed to N520/$ in 2021.

Since 2021 till now the dollar has been fluctuating between N600 to N760 to $1. Although, experts have called for the government to look into the country's exchange rate, cash flows, interest rate, and forex availability which will boost business growth and local production if properly managed.

It's disappointing that an administration that promised to revive the economy couldn't add a boost in the 8 years it held office. Now naira is exchanged for N460 to a dollar at the official rate and exchanged at N760 at the parallel market (black market) leaving the country in a worse state than it met in 2015.

Debt

Debt is another significant way of knowing a staggering economy and Nigeria has always shown its limelight in this area. In Buhari’s administration, the country's public debt rose to N71 trillion in 2023 Q1 far from the N12.1 trillion debt in 2010 Q1.

The rise in debt places a country at a greater economic risk thereby increasing the burden of the masses and restricting the government's effort to invest in important sectors.

However, It’ll be a great task for the Tinubu-led administration to clear the current debt and boost productivity because the country if not revitalized will suffer more economic breakdown.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the past government has come and gone. Here we have a new president in the person of Bola Ahmed Tinubu who emerged winner of the 2023 general election which was done in February same year. Now that he is elected as the 16th president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is there hope for us as a people? Let's see how it turns out as we also put him in our prayers as he chooses his cabinets. The tasks of getting this country to normalcy will require a great effort from a corporate government that has its citizens at heart.