(President Muhammadu Buhari)
When I was born, Muhammadu Buhari was Nigeria’s president. Now, he is back!
I do not remember Muhammadu Buhari being the president of Nigeria. I was an infant when this happened, when I was barely aware of my own existence. Today, our nation is back to where we were 30 years ago and Buhari is back to save her.
Nigeria’s democracy under Alhaji Shehu Shagari was deeply plagued with corruption and the society was said to be failing from October 1st, 1979 till it ended on December 31st, 1983. On that early Saturday morning, the voice of Major General Muhammadu Buhari reportedly came alive on radio and televisions across Nigeria.
The new military government accused the Shagari administration of so many acts of mismanagement, corruption and societal sabotage. Like real life déjà vu, I have witnessed the mess of 1979 – 1983, which I only read about, played out massively in present day Nigeria. For the last 16 years, the erstwhile ruling party and its successive governments did take Nigeria down the dark abyss. Interestingly, the same man, Muhammadu Buhari who proclaimed that the military had “dutifully intervened to save [Nigeria] from imminent collapse” is now back to save Nigeria from the same situation.
Many have argued that had the Muhammadu Buhari administration not been truncated only 20 months later by another military general who went on to mismanage Nigeria for the next eight years, Nigeria would actually have been reformed. The Buhari military administration of only 20 months was known for the heavy reforms it instituted. Those reforms were swiftly abandoned once he himself was toppled from power.
From 1983 till 1985, he forced his way in to rid Nigeria of gross constitutional abuses by politicians, electoral frauds and violence, corruption, high cost of governance, huge internal and external debt and general insecurity. In his own words,
"This government will not tolerate kick-backs, inflation of contracts and over-invoicing of imports etc. Nor will it condone forgery, fraud, embezzlement, misuse and abuse of office and illegal dealings in foreign exchange and smuggling. Arson has been used to cover up fraudulent acts in public institutions. I am referring to the fire incidents that gutted the P&T buildings in Lagos, the Anambra State Broadcasting Corporation, the Republic Building at Marina, the Federal Ministry of Education, the Federal Capital Development Authority Accounts at Abuja and the NET Building. Most of these fire incidents occurred at a time when Nigerians were being apprehensive of the frequency of fraud scandals and the government incapacity to deal with them."
In 2015, Nigeria has seen it all - corruption is everywhere, oil theft is rampant, petroleum subsidy is a billion dollar scam, politicians maim and kill to win elections at all cost, public buildings have mysteriously caught fire, Boko Haram (like 1985 Maitasine) is terrorizing and killing Nigerians and, Nigerians have elected Muhammadu Buhari to change all that, but will he?
Only time will tell.
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