Sunday, May 29 marks exactly seven years since the emergence of the current Nigerian government under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari took the oath of office as the civilian leader of the country, promising to serve Nigeria faithfully in all spheres of national life.
He concluded the first four years, and Nigerians in a show of confidence massively renewed his term for another four years in 2019, which lapses this time next year.
The seven years milestone presents a major landmark and opportunity to review the service of President Buhari to the country, and its people.
New Laws
The highpoints in terms of legislation include the signing of many bills into law, thus creating a salutary impact on the nation.
Under President Buhari, Nigeria has seen the most ambitious legislative programme in its history. Several landmark Bills have been passed or amended in the last seven years, including the following:
-Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2022 – Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Bill, 2022, which repeals the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 as amended, and provides a comprehensive legal and Institutional Framework for the prevention and prohibition of money laundering in Nigeria, while also conferring on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the legal status of the Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering. – Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Bill, 2022, which repeals the Terrorism (Prevention) Act, 2011 as amended in 2013, and 2 provides for the effective implementation of international instruments on the prevention and combating of terrorism and suppression of the financing of terrorism.
Also in the landmark bills are; Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Bill, 2022, which makes comprehensive provisions for the seizure, confiscation, forfeiture, and management of properties derived from unlawful activity.
Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contracts Act, 1993 (Amendment) Act, 2019, which will deliver increased revenues to the Federation. – Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON (Amendment) Acts of 2019 and 2021. – 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. – Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) Establishment Act, 2018 – Act 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.
– Not Too Young to Run Bill (2018) – a Constitution Amendment Bill, to reduce the age of eligibility for running for elective office in Nigeria. – Nigerian Correctional Services Bill, 2019, among others.
Infrastructure
The administration has also done well in the area of infrastructure development, achieving many strides in the process, by constructing roads, bridges, rail, air and seaports, housing, and many others.
The major ones include: The Infrastructure Corporation of Nigeria (InfraCorp) was established by President Buhari in February 2021, with initial seed Capital of N1 Trillion, provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) and the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC).
InfraCorp’s goal is to “to catalyse and accelerate investment into Nigeria’s infrastructure sector by originating, structuring, executing and managing end-to-end bankable projects in that space.”
– In addition to the 1 trillion Naira equity seed capital, InfraCorp is expected to mobilise up to an additional 14 trillion Naira of debt capital. Establishment in 2020 of the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF), with more than $1 Billion in funding so far.
RAIL
– 156km Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge Rail completed and inaugurated, within a Nigerian-record-time of 4 years (2017 to 2021).
– 8.72km extension to Lagos-Ibadan Rail Line, to Lagos Port Complex, completed in 2021.
– 186km Abuja-Kaduna Standard Gauge Rail Line, completed and inaugurated in 2016.
– 327km Itakpe-Warri Standard Gauge Rail completed and commissioned in 2020, 33 years after construction began.
– Commencement of the E-Ticketing concession process for the Lagos-Ibadan and Warri-Itakpe Standard Gauge Rail Lines. The scope of the project is to Design, Finance, Build, Operate and Manage Secure Ticketing Solution systems (Hardware and Software) for the two lines.
– Completion of the E-Ticketing concession process on Abuja-Kaduna Route in 2021, which increased the monthly generated revenue from less than N200 Million to N400 Million.
– Abuja Light Rail completed in 2018.
– Construction has commenced on Kaduna-Kano Standard Gauge Rail Line, following the ground-breaking by President Buhari in July 2021.
– Ground-breaking done by President Buhari for construction of 284km Kano-Maradi Standard Gauge Rail (with branch line to Dutse), preliminary works started 2021.
– Ground-breaking done by President Buhari for complete revamp of Port Harcourt–Maiduguri Narrow Gauge Rail. Work has kicked off in 2022.
– 377 Wagons, 64 Coaches, and 21 Locomotives (including DMUs) purchased for the Standard Gauge network, between 2016 and 2021.
– Jobs, Training and Capacity Building: More than 11,000 new jobs created from the on-going rail modernization projects in the country. More than 100 qualified young Nigerians awarded full international scholarships for undergraduate/graduate courses in rail engineering and transport in China, from 2018. In addition, dozens of Nigerian Engineers have been trained as part of the railway modernization projects.
– Establishment of a new Transportation University in Daura, Katsina State, and establishment of a new Rail Wagon Assembly Plant in Kajola, Ogun State – both nearing completion of construction.
– Three thousand tons of cement are transported monthly through train freight service from Lagos to Kano.
ROADS
– Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF), investing over a billion dollars in three flagship projects: Lagos-Ibadan Expressway (for completion in 2022), Second Niger Bridge (for completion in 2022), Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Expressway (first phase for completion in 2023).
– Issued by President Buhari on January 25, 2019, Executive Order #7 of 2019, on the Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme, allows companies that are willing and able to spend their own funds on constructing critical roads, to recover their construction costs by paying reduced taxes, over a period of time, and in a transparent manner.
– So far, more than a trillion Naira has been mobilised through Executive Order 7, for road projects across all six geopolitical zones of the country, like Bodo-Bonny in Rivers and Apapa-Oshodi-Oworonshoki-Ojota in Lagos.
– Highway Development and Management Initiative (HDMI), a public-private partnership program 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.
– More than 600 billion Naira worth of Sukuk Bonds raised since 2017 for more than 40 critical road projects across all six geopolitical zones. Between November 25 and December 13, 2021, the Federal Government handed over to benefiting communities 941 km of completed Sukuk road projects connecting 10 states in five geo-political zones of the country.
AIR AND SEA PORTS
– Completion of New Terminals for International Airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt.
– Construction completed on New Runways for the Abuja and Enugu International Airports. The Abuja International Airport Runway was reconstructed in 2017, for the first time since the Airport was built in the early 1980s. In 2019 President Buhari approved a special fund of 10 Billion Naira for the reconstruction of the Enugu Airport Runway; it was completed and reopened in August 2020).
– Presidential approval for four International Airports as Special Economic Zones: Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Port Harcourt.
– President Buhari approved funds for the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) to build a world-class Flight Safety Laboratory (FSL) in Abuja, and train personnel to run it. Now Nigeria no longer has to send aircraft Cockpit Voice Recorders and Flight Data Recorders (“Black Box”) abroad for downloading and analysis.
– The Nigeria College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) in Zaria, has undergone a transformation under President Buhari: A new Boeing 737 Full Flight Simulator has been installed in the College, as well as a fully-automated Fire and Smoke Aircraft Training Simulator. Prior to the installation of the Fire and Smoke Simulator, Nigeria was sending personnel to Cameroon for the relevant training.
Power
– An incremental 4,000MW+ of power generating assets will be completed during the life of the Buhari Administration, including the Zungeru Hydro, Kashimbila Hydro, Afam III Fast Power, Kudenda Kaduna Power Plant, the Okpai Phase 2 Plant, the Dangote Refinery Power Plant, and others.
– Energizing Education Programme: Taking clean and reliable energy (Solar and Gas) to Federal Universities and Teaching Hospitals across the country. Four Universities completed and commissioned already: BUK (Kano), FUNAI (Ebonyi), ATBU (Bauchi) and FUPRE (Delta); others ongoing.
– Energizing Economies Programme: Taking clean and reliable energy (Solar and Gas) to markets across the country.
Completed projects include Sabon-Gari Market in Kano, Ariaria Market in Aba, and Sura Shopping Complex in Lagos.
– National Mass Metering Programme: Nationwide rollout of electricity meters to all on-grid consumers, launched in August 2020. The Central Bank of Nigeria is providing 200 billion Naira for this, and so far, more than one million meters have been rolled out, in the first phase. This first phase generated more than 10,000 new jobs in meter installation and assembly.
– Solar Power Naija (SPN): Launched in April 2021 to deliver 5 million off-grid solar connections, impacting more than 20 million Nigerians, and financed through Central Bank of Nigeria loans, as well as through partnerships with NDPHC, NNPC and the NSIA. The program is expected to generate an additional N7 billion increase in tax revenues per annum and $10 million in annual import substitution.
– Under Solar Power Naija and NDPHC’s partnership, ASolar is rolling out 100,000 Solar Home Systems across the country, while the NSIA (partnering under SPN) has announced a N10 billion fund for developers, targeting more than 250,000 solar connections.
– In May 2021, the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) announced the planned deployment of solar-powered grids to 200 Primary Health Centres (PHC) and 104 Unity Schools nationwide.
– Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP) is a $550 million programme being implemented by the Federal Government of Nigeria in partnership with the World Bank and African Development Bank. NEP is a combination of subsidies, direct contracts and technical assistance to support Electrification across Nigeria.
Housing
– The Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, has completed or is completing housing projects in 34 States of Nigeria, under the National Housing Programme, with the support of the State Governors who provided the land. So far more than 5,000 houses are at various stages of completion and thousands more are planned.
– The Family Homes Fund Limited (FHFL), incorporated by the Federal Government of Nigeria in September 2016, is the implementing agency for the Buhari Administration’s National Social Housing scheme.
– The Fund has now completed more than 13,000 homes across nine States, with another 20,000 commencing building works in 2022. In the process these housing developments have created more than 64,000 direct and indirect jobs.
Oil and Gas
– President Buhari’s assent to the Petroleum Industry Act on August 16, 2021 broke a two-decades-old jinx and is setting the stage for the unprecedented transformation of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
· Under the new Act, the NNPC has transformed into a Limited Liability Company which will be formally unveiled by the President in July 2022.
· The regulatory framework for the sector has also changed, with the establishment of (a) the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), and (b) the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), which merged the hitherto-existing Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Petroleum Equalization Fund (Management) Board(PEFMB), and the Midstream and Downstream Divisions of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
– Historic Signing Ceremony, in May 2021, of the Execution of Oil Mining Lease (OML) 118 Agreements between NNPC Limited and its Contractor Partners: Shell, Exxon Mobil, TOTAL and NAOC. These Agreements settled long-standing disputes that stalled development, and will unlock more than $10 billion of new deep-water investment in Nigeria.
The Buhari Administration has declared this decade the “Decade of Gas.”
– Construction ongoing on the 614km Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano Gas Project, the largest domestic gas project in the country.
– US$45 million financing secured from the Islamic Development Bank, for the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) Study for the Nigeria–Morocco Gas Pipeline (NMGP) project. The Agreement for the Pipeline project was signed by the two countries during President Buhari’s State Visit to Morocco in June 2018. When completed it will be the longest offshore pipeline in the world, and the second longest pipeline in the world, running across 13 countries, 11 of them in West Africa.
– Successful completion of Nigeria’s first Marginal Field Bid Round in almost 20 years, expected to raise in excess of half a billion dollars, and open up a new vista of investment in oil and gas.
Agriculture
-The Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) of the Central Bank of Nigeria, launched by President Muhammadu Buhari on November 17, 2015, has disbursed more than 800 billion Naira to more than 4 million smallholder farmers of 23 different commodities (including Rice, Wheat, Maize, Cotton, Cassava, Poultry, Soybeans, 27 Groundnut, Fish), cultivating over 5 million hectares of farmland.
– Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI): Launched as a government-to-government partnership between the Nigerian and Moroccan Governments, in December 2016, the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI) produced 30 million 50kg bags of NPK 20:10:10 equivalent in 2020, bringing total production since inception to over 60 million 50kg bags equivalent; and number of participating blending plants increased to 62 from the four that were operational in Nigeria at the inception of the initiative.
– Special-Agro Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ) Programme: A half-a-billion-dollar partnership between the FGN, AfDB Group, IsDB, and IFAD. Under the SAPZ programme, Agro-processing centres will be established across the country. The Agro-processing centres will be provided with basic infrastructure such as water, electricity and roads as well as facilities for skills training. Seven (7) States and the FCT selected for the pilot phase, due to commence in 2022: Ogun, Oyo, Imo, Cross River, Kano, Kaduna, and Kwara.
– The National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) is establishing Integrated Farm Estates across Nigeria. So far, new/revived Farm Estates have been commissioned in Katsina, Yobe and Imo, and others are under development.
· President Buhari has directed NALDA to establish these Integrated Farm Estates/Settlements in each of the 109 Senatorial Districts in the country.
· NALDA was originally established in 1992, but has been dormant since around 2000, until last year when President Buhari revived it, appointed a new Executive Secretary & CEO (June 2020), and directed that the Authority be domiciled in the Presidency for direct supervision by him.
· An Integrated Farm Estate is designed to fit the particular context of its host community i.e., cultivate crops and/or livestock peculiar to the community.
· NALDA has also launched the National Young Farmers Scheme (NYFS), to engage 1,000 youths in each of the 774 LGAs, in mechanized agriculture.
· Also, under the NYFS, NALDA is sending, in the first phase, 200 young Nigerian farmers, from the 36 States, to Israel and Morocco, for training in greenhouse farming and animal husbandry. The beneficiaries will, upon completion of their training and return to Nigeria, be tasked with the training of other young people, on NALDA’s Integrated Farm Estates in their various areas.
The Liberals would want to look at security challenges, which are being robustly tackled, alone. But we look at the entire gamut, and honest and fair Nigerians will admit that a lot has been done, and a lot more will still be done in the 12 months ahead.
Lateefah Ibrahim
