It is hard to pick the most urgent damage that President Buhari’s leadership wrought in Nigeria, but the harms he inflicted on freedom of speech and the rule of law deserve special attention.
Economic holes can eventually be dug out of with careful and thoughtful leadership. Global reputations can also be mended. But harms to freedom of speech and regressions in the rule of law, especially in a democracy as fragile as Nigeria’s has historically been, affect citizens’ trust in institutions and each other, making it harder for well-meaning attempts to build systems that work.
Media suppression was a hallmark of Buhari’s first term (2015 to 2019), despite his promise in his inaugural address that “the law-enforcing authorities” in the country “will be charged to operate within the Constitution”. One of the final acts of power of his presidential predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, was to sign into law the Cybercrimes Act of 2015, as part of a larger effort to address criminal activity using digital platforms. Buhari and some state governors used the law, though, to arrest journalists.
