The Economist Magazine Calls Jonathan ‘An Ineffectual Buffoon And That Buhari Is Making A Bad Situation Worse

The enormously influential weekly magazine, The Economist, headquartered in the United Kingdom, described the former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan as an “ineffectual buffoon” during this week’s print article titled Crude Tactics.

                    Muhammadu Buhari and President Goodluck Jonathan

The publication of this article comes during Mr. Jonathan’s global tour. Earlier this week he spoke in Geneva, Switzerland to members of the press club. Last week Mr. Jonathan visited the United States where he met with supporters and attend the Presidential Precinct which was held in Virginia.

According to The Economist, the Buhari “government has cracked down on corruption, which had flourished under the previous president, Goodluck Jonathan, an ineffectual buffoon who let politicians and their cronies fill their pockets with impunity.”

The remainder of the article focuses on the struggles of the Nigerian economy, which they argue stems mainly from the drop in price of oil and ineffective monetary policies. The article noted that economic growth in Nigeria for 2015 was about 3 percent, half that of 2014, and that the stock market has also halved in value since 2014.

The Economist noted that President Buhari’s challenges, which include security concerns from Boko Haram, mirror the same he inherited when he removed the former government in the 1908s in a coup. “The problems are almost identical,” the magazine wrote.

The article concluded by saying that the economic crunch Nigeria is currently feeling “is one that Nigeria has been through before—under the then youthful Mr. Buhari. Then, as now, he refused to let the market set the value of the currency. Instead he shut out imports, causing the legal import trade to fall by almost 50% and killing much of Nigeria’s nascent industry in the process.”

“Today, as in the 1980s, the president is making a bad situation worse,” according to the Economist.

Hmmmmmmm.