For now, Nigerians give Buhari benefit of doubt
Reuters – Nigerian beautician Rasheedat Lawal has seen sales at her
cosmetics salon plunge since President Muhammadu Buhari came to power but she
still thinks the 72-year-old former dictator is the right person to fix Africa’s largest economy.
The ascetic, sandal-wearing general’s first four months in power have
coincided with a renewed slide in global oil prices, which has slowed economic
growth in Africa’s top crude producer and
weakened the naira currency.
For Lawal that means a 20 percent price hike for the imported makeup and other beauty products at her small Lagos salon – an increase most of her customers cannot afford.
Yet after five years of ineffective and corrupt government under former President Goodluck Jonathan, she is pinning her hopes on Buhari’s pledge to end the corruption that has kept Nigeria’s oil wealth in the hands of a tiny, hyper-rich elite.
“You need to give Buhari some time,” said Lawal, standing in a salon almost devoid of customers. “We want changes. We don’t want to continue what was left behind by Jonathan.”
Buhari made history in March by becoming the first candidate to defeat an incumbent at the polls.
Improving security in a country where violence has torn both north and south was one of his key pledges, but since he took over as president on May 29, it has been two steps forward and one step back.
On the plus side, the oil-rich and volatile southern Niger Delta, the back yard of Jonathan, a Christian like most of the Delta population, has stayed calm since the accession of Buhari, who hails from the predominantly Muslim north.
The same cannot be said of the bloody Islamist insurgency in the northeast led by Boko Haram that Buhari vowed to crush.
Since he took over, the group has killed at least 900 people and efforts to find some of the 200 schoolgirls kidnapped in the town of Chibok more than a year ago have come to nought.
Check the PM NEWS newspaper for the full story.
For Lawal that means a 20 percent price hike for the imported makeup and other beauty products at her small Lagos salon – an increase most of her customers cannot afford.
Yet after five years of ineffective and corrupt government under former President Goodluck Jonathan, she is pinning her hopes on Buhari’s pledge to end the corruption that has kept Nigeria’s oil wealth in the hands of a tiny, hyper-rich elite.
“You need to give Buhari some time,” said Lawal, standing in a salon almost devoid of customers. “We want changes. We don’t want to continue what was left behind by Jonathan.”
Buhari made history in March by becoming the first candidate to defeat an incumbent at the polls.
Improving security in a country where violence has torn both north and south was one of his key pledges, but since he took over as president on May 29, it has been two steps forward and one step back.
On the plus side, the oil-rich and volatile southern Niger Delta, the back yard of Jonathan, a Christian like most of the Delta population, has stayed calm since the accession of Buhari, who hails from the predominantly Muslim north.
The same cannot be said of the bloody Islamist insurgency in the northeast led by Boko Haram that Buhari vowed to crush.
Since he took over, the group has killed at least 900 people and efforts to find some of the 200 schoolgirls kidnapped in the town of Chibok more than a year ago have come to nought.
Check the PM NEWS newspaper for the full story.
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