The Year Ahead 2023
Six Charts Show Fearsome Challenges Facing Nigeria’s Next Government
Oil output fell under President Buhari’s watch, while poverty and violence went up, fueling a brain drain.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.
Photographer: Tiksa Negeri/ReutersThis article is for subscribers only.
Nigeria’s next president will have a lot on his plate. Whoever wins the Feb. 25 election will have to deal with a security crisis that’s spread to every corner of Africa’s most populous country, with terrorists carrying out mass killings and abductions.
Much of the increase in criminality and violence has been driven by Nigeria’s stark economic deterioration over the course of President Muhammadu Buhari’s eight years in office. Production of oil, the lifeblood of the economy, has nearly halved; inflation has roughly doubled; and economic growth has slowed, averaging just 1.1% annually from 2015 to 2021.