A day before he takes over power to his successor, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday defended his record on the economy and the results of a contentious presidential election, saying he was leaving a legacy of legitimate and fair voting.
When Buhari initially took office in 2015, he campaigned on a platform of reviving the economy, fighting corruption, and reducing insecurity. However, many Nigerians claim that these problems have become worse under his leadership.
His two closest challengers in the opposition are contesting Bola Tinubu’s win, and a tribunal will start hearing the major points of the election lawsuit on Tuesday.
The austere 80-year-old former general Buhari said that Tinubu, who campaigned on the platform of his governing party, was the greatest candidate to win the election in February and that the vote had aided in establishing democracy in Africa’s most populous country.
In a farewell national broadcast, Buhari said, “I am leaving behind an electoral process which guarantees that votes count, results are credible, elections are fair and transparent, and the influence of money in politics reduced to the bare minimum.”
Tinubu inherits slow economic growth, record debt, and declining oil production. One of the major problems he will face after being sworn into office is double-digit inflation, which has devastated savings and earnings.
Buhari, however, acknowledged that his administration had made some challenging decisions to restart the economy, some of which had “led to temporary pain and suffering for which I sincerely apologized to my fellow countrymen, but the measures were taken for the overall good of the country.”
Nigerians have a difficult time getting by, and a confusing web of protectionist economic regulations and interventions involving foreign currencies has terrified investors and led to a lack of dollars.
Reuters
