President Muhammadu BuhariThe same day Theresa May, the new British Prime Minister assumed office, she named her cabinet. President Muhammadu Buhari,who had won an election two months before assuming office, took another four months, only to appoint the same people many had suspected he would appoint the day he took over from President Goodluck Jonathan on 29 May 2015.
Those people were mainly party loyalists, former governors and state politicians. There were little surprises and some of them had petitions written against them to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
With Nigeria facing epileptic power supply, many had expected that President Buhari would appoint a qualified person to head the Ministry of Power. Instead, he gave three Ministries to Babatunde Fashola, including the Ministry of Power.
Months after, it appeared the former governor of Lagos who was accused of building a website for over N70 million and a borehole for twice that amount, seemed to be overwhelmed.
This week, the court cancelled an increase in electricity tariff he imposed on Nigerians without any increase in electricity supply or distribution, a rebuke to the man many tagged elitist.
Just weeks ago, Theresa May did not know she would become British PM. It was only on June 23 after Britons voted to leave the European Union, that the then Prime Minister David Cameron, resigned. May only became Prime Minister on Wednesday and on Wednesday, she already had a cabinet.
Things are taking off again. The British Pound gained some value on Thursday, even though it is still 11 points below the day before the British referendum. But the cabinet is in place, meetings are already taking place and everything seems to be running normally.
But in Nigeria, even after taking six months to appoint a cabinet, Nigerians did not seem to have seen any concrete benefit. More than a year after, the wrangling within the ruling All progressives Congress, the APC, seems to have paralysed the Senate where a faction in the party wants Senate President Bukola Saraki, out of office.
Saraki is a member of the All Progressives Congress who was not the choice of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu-APC faction.
It is not only the the executive does not seem to have an economic blueprint and the naira is now the worst performing currency in Africa, according to a report on Thursday.
As an import dependent economy, businessmen find it hard to import things into the Nigerian market at high prices because of the collapse of the naira.
In the Niger Delta, a failed negotiation with the Avengers, a new group of militants that announced itself in March by blowing up oil and gas installations, has crippled Nigeria’s oil production to a 20-year low.
Angola has overtaken Nigeria and many states find it hard to pay workers’ salaries. Capital projects such as roads and schools and hospitals have been halted.
The war against Boko Haram is not over yet. The terrorists in recent weeks have killed more than 50 people in Nigeria and Cameroon. Since President Buhari came to power, more than 3000 Nigerians have been slaughtered.
President Buhari had said on 29 May last year during his inaugural speech that the war against Boko Haram would not be considered won if the Chibok girls were not rescued, alive.
So far, only one girl was found after she walked her way away from Boko Haram. About 275 girls remain missing, more than two years after they were abducted in Chibok, triggering global outrage and sending former President Goodluck Jonathan out of power.
The National Bureau of Statistics released daunting figures recently, saying that unemployment among Nigerian youth was almost at 50 percent.
With banks and other financial institutions and factories sacking workers in drove, and the price of fuel pump price now almost double of last year, many are yet to see the concrete achievements of the APC, a party that rode to power promising change.
That change has not come. Not yet.
Simon Ateba is the publisher of TheSimonAtebaNews. He is famously known to be independent and often blasts colleagues who take sides and behave as if they are defenders of the government instead of being impartial.