High hopes for change carried Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari into office. Eight years later, as his two-term period comes to an end, the West African nation is in tatters.
If we are to judge Buhari on his achievements as a president, Tukur Abdulkadir, a professor at Kaduna State University, suggests examing the three fundamental issues Buhari vowed to address: Insecurity, the economy and corruption.
In terms of security, there were some achievements to speak of, Tukur told DW.
"In 2015, substantial parts of the northeast, especially Adamawa, Yobe and Borno States, were under the control of Boko Haram insurgents," said Tukur. "Millions of people were displaced."
"Today, in 2023, tens of thousands of them are returning to their villages and local governments. Boko Haram are actually on the run in most parts of northern Nigeria."
But even when people were celebrating Buhari's achievements, a new, more destructive phenomenon of banditry emerged in the northwest, said Tukur.
Insurgents now controlled villages, he said, and again, tens of thousands have fled the violence.
"On that score, Buhari has failed woefully," Tukur added.
To further exacerbate the situation, more and more young Nigerians are left without a chance after finishing their studies. Creating jobs and boosting the economy was another one of Buhari's promises back in 2015.
Just how much did he achieve? Statistics could provide an indication, Lagos-based financial consultant Shuaibu Idris told DW.
"When President Buhari took over, our inflation rate was somewhere around 12% to 13%. Today we are talking about 21% to 22%," Idris said. "Can we say he has done well? Clearly the answer is no."
Similarly, he pointed out that exchange rates for the naira as well as the national debt load had gone up significantly, while unemployment figures were also increasing.
What did the Buhari administration do to counter these developments? Conditional cash transfers and loans to farmers were among the policies. But they often turned sour, not helping to create jobs, Shuaibu Idris pointed out.
"There are quite a number of policies that Buhari implemented, but the implementation was poor. And therefore, like they say in IT parlance: Garbage in, garbage out," said Idris.
The third in Buhari's catalog of election promises was curbing corruption. This was not to be.
"We have seen high-level corruption involving government officials that were hand-picked and appointed by either President Muhammadu Buhari or people that are believed to be in his kitchen cabinet, the inner circle of his government," Kaduna political analyst Tukur said.
A central bank strategy to roll out new naira banknotes has done nothing to better the situation.
"One of the cardinal objectives of currency redesign is to fight corruption so that stolen money will become useless," said financial expert Shuaibu Idris. "So, in itself it is an admittance that in my efforts to fight corruption, I have failed, that I want to do medicine after death."
Despite the chaos, political analyst Tukur Abdulkadir is fast to admit that there are things that Muhammadu Buhari got right.
"In terms of infrastructure, he has performed better than the record that the main opposition party, for instance, achieved for 16 years," Tukur said. "Road infrastructure, rail sector, aviation sector: He has performed very well."
"There are many projects that have been abandoned for decades in Nigeria that he has either succeeded in completing all his or he is on the verge of completing. Like the prominent Second Niger Bridge that links Northern Nigeria and South and eastern Nigeria."
On Saturday, Nigerians will go to the polls to elect Muhammadu Buhari's successor. Eighteen names are on the ballot papers. Whoever takes the lead, there's widespread optimism that there will be a departure from Buhari's style of governance.
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