Buhari's sweet-tooth revision
BY
IT was not until the past six years that Nigerians started seeing the true colours of the retired Major General Muhammadu Buhari, one of our former military Heads of State. I was still in the university when he committed a constitutional crime and overthrew the democratically elected government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari. He proceeded to rule for 20 months before he too was overthrown.
Many Nigerians, especially those at the lower strata of society, tended to remember his reign with some nostalgia, even though attention was focused more on his Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, and the late Major General Tunde Idiagbon. Even though it was a period of untrammelled suffering and the scarcity of what used to be called "essential commodities" (such items as milk, toilet paper, domestic soap and what have you) many common people still felt that the severe punishment meted out to politicians and the War Against Indiscipline (WAI) recommended that regime for some applause. But people at the higher level of society were able to see through the veil of puri-tanism to pinpoint the narrowness of mind among the chief proponents of the so-called social crusade for social re-orientation. They saw a duo that was out to wreak vengeance on selected targets while turning a blind eye to certain events. An example was the 52 suitcases belonging to an emir, which were passed through the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Ikeja from abroad without the security agents being allowed to examine their contents. Despite the wide coverage given to this gross violation of the laws of the land the administration ignored it and nothing was done till today.
The administration’s saving grace was that it was overthrown early enough and replaced by the Babangida regime, which had all the potentials of greatness but chose the path of evil. Because of Babangida’s avoidable failure, Buhari can afford to thump his chest and tell Nigerians: "well, you said I was dour and puritanical. You wanted a smiler and you got one. See where he took you!"
Buhari recoiled into a petulant shell when he noticed that Nigerians had cheered his ouster. When he was released from detention. He banished himself to his native Daura in Katsina State, sneaking into Kaduna occasionally and almost totally avoiding Lagos like a plague. He was not in talking terms with many people and institutions, including, particularly his targeted foe, the Nigerian Press, especially those based in the southern parts of the country. He believed the Press encouraged people to feel that his regime was unpopular due to his draconian laws and his deliberate use of them to "tamper" with it.
It was not until the coming to power of another narrow-minded northerner, Sani Abacha, that Buhari decided to step out once again into the sunshine of public life. When Abacha set up the defunct Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) in 1996 he made Buhari its Executive Chairman. The records show that Buhari used the PTF to show Nigerians where his love lay. He concentrated most of the activities of the Fund in the north. Majority of the contractors and consultants were northerners, even though 80 per cent of the money coming into the coffers of the Fund from the sale of petroleum products were derived from the southern parts of the country. Many people were angry with Obasanjo for folding up the Fund at a time it was said to be about to focus more operational attention to the south.
Buhari flashed another one of his hidden colours when this Obasanjo administration, the first non-northern one since independence, assumed office. Many northern elite members, who had gotten accustomed to freeloading on the Nigerian state found out that the feeding bottle had been placed into new mouths, mainly Yoruba ones. They started complaining of marginalisation. Before long, the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) sprang up in the West and started showing that their brother was now in Aso Rock. Their new found boldness led them to pitch battles with every ethnic group in sight – the Ijaw, the Igbo and the Arewa, especially the Arewa in parts of Yorubaland, mainly in Lagos and Shagamu. In reply, northern governors started what they described as the full implementation of Sharia laws. The power struggle between the Yoruba and Arewa elites was in full bloom. People like Buhari, who had ruled this country and made the inculcation of nationalism and patriotism a major goal of their regime, pitifully took sides with their Arewa people. In fact, Buhari became its ambassador plenipotentiary.
Many people did not believe their eyes that a person like Buhari could throw all caution to the wind and be seen to be championing the ethnic, sectional and religious causes of a section of the country against the others. It was not until they saw a picture of him and Alhaji Lam Adesina, the Governor of Oyo State, who his counterpart on the Yoruba side of the battle line, that they knew it was true. Buhari had come to Ibadan to plead with Adesina to prevail on his people to stop troubling his own people living in his state.
When the Oputa Commission sittings started we got to know that Buhari, the great crusader against indiscipline was actually a gross epitome of it. Many Nigerians had written petitions to the Commission against successive regimes, all the way from Gowon to Abdulsalami, accusing them of one type of human rights abuse or the other. President Obasanjo was the only one who appeared to answer the charges of the Ransome-Kuti family over the destruction of Fela’s "Kalakuta Republic", an episode that was believed to have hastened the demise of Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti. People may say Obasanjo, usually a stubborn man, opted to appear at the Panel because he set it up and wanted to show some good example. May be if it were otherwise, he too would have disobeyed the summons. Well, what we know and what is on record was that Obasanjo did appear before the Commission TWICE. Why did his fellow ex-Heads of State and Presidents refuse to follow his example? In particular, why did Buhari, who was outstanding for presiding over an administration that felt a war against indiscipline was more important than a transition to civil rule programme, toe the path of indiscipline and refused Oputa’s summons? He even dared the authorities to come and arrest him if they had the courage. Of course, none of the disobedient and indisciplined former Presidents and Heads of State was arrested. And I don’t think it had to do with lack of courage on the part of the authorities. I think they exercised good sense of prudence by avoiding a step that was liable to ignite social problems. These chaps had already roused ethnic, religious and sectional sentiments of Arewa behind them. These men were left to their consciences and to the public to judge. And that is exactly what we are doing here.
What we are saying is that people like Buhari had no moral right to inflict a bogus war against indiscipline on Nigerians when they lacked discipline themselves. They had no basis to ask us to be patriotic and nationalistic when they had a psyche and mind that was no larger than the immediate cultural and political environment into which they were born. In other words, they had no business or qualification to preside over the affairs of this nation of exploding diversity and sophisticated configuration. They were misfits. The job was bigger than they were. And that was why they failed as heads of state. And that was why Nigeria was moving backward while they wasted our time in office by courtesy of their "break and enter" method of ascendancy.
Our focus is on Buhari because of a recent lecture he delivered at the Centre for Democratic Training, Mambayya House, Bayero University, and Kano. It was titled: Politicians Are Their Own Worst Enemies.
I give Buhari credit for his well-researched write-up. I also identify with his "clean English" and clarity of expression. I don’t like reading Babangida’s lectures and interviews. The contradiction that is in Babangida’s person reflects in his spoken and written words. A statement can be interpreted in ten different ways. You can’t hold him down to anything concrete. And I want to be able to hold my man to something. I don’t like grabbing air. But when Buhari says a word you are left in no doubt as to what he said. You may be dismayed or even shocked by it but at least you will surely understand it.
Today we will try and pick out the points he made. On Monday, we will discuss them.
Buhari says that Nigeria’s history, since independence, has been dominated by two types of political classes: the military class and the civilian class. And since the military ruled for bout 30 out of 41 years he discussed it first. According to him, the complex nature of British Parliamentary system made it difficult for politicians to cope. In the melee of confusion due to politicians’ win-at-all-costs propensity a group of army Majors led by Chukwuma Nzeogwu overthrew the government of Tafawa Balewa. They declared as their enemies, the "political profiteers and swindlers" and proceeded to murder the civilian and military leaders from the northern part of the country. A few days later, Major General Aguiyi-Ironsi "hijacked" the coup and started imposing a policy of "unification" of the federal structure into a central arrangement. Ironsi’s "undue haste" to unify the civil services of the regions, according to Buhari, led to his downfall. Buhari explained the motive of this first coup and first military rule this way: "with respect to the first coup it is difficult to discount the overpowering presence of an ethnic agenda, and the attempt to use the Nigerian armed forces to dominate the political affairs of Nigerian and execute that same agenda".
Without noting appropriately the vengeful nature of the counter-coup as a result of this convenient description of the Chukwuma and Ironsi adventures, Buhari mentioned that the first military rule was overthrown and Yakubu Gowon, after three days of power vacuum, assumed power. Gowon fought and won the ensuing civil war, reigned for nine years and reneged on his promise to return Nigeria to civil rule. As time went on his rule became unpopular among senior military officers and he was sent packing.
Murtala Muhammed took over power and mounted six months of an action-packed administration characterised by reforms before he was silenced by Col. B. S. Dimka’s assassin’s bullets. Obasanjo took over and carried out a faithful transition to civil rule programme. However, the Alhaji Shagari-led civilian regime that came in, built on the foundations of American presidentialism, was corrupt, undisciplined, intolerant of democratic principles and generally inept in meeting the aspirations of the people. Following its overthrow and replacement by a military regime led by Buhari himself; it was felt that the Nigerian society had to be re-engineered to restore discipline and ethical values before any political step would be taken. Because the administration was removed before it took any political step it was perceived as a "sit-tight" one, which Buhari averred, it was not. Babangida took over, laid out a political programme early but subverted the return to democracy and virtually everything else. No mention was made of the Sani Abacha or Abubakar military rule, though Abacha’s vision 2010 came in for favourable mention as the military class’ attempt to lay the track for sustainable development.
Very soon, we will complete the review of Buhari’s description of the civilian class and say why we think the former military ruler seized the auspices of this lecture to power his own role and place in Nigeria’s history.
January 2002