On Thursday, August 27, it will be 30 years that Major-General Muhammadu Buhari was overthrown as Military Head of State by top officers in his administration. He is now back in government as elected president. In this report, Associate Editor, Sam Egburonu, compares his style as military and civilian leader and asks if the president has changed
When he served as Nigeria’s Military Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, between 1983 and 1985, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari’s image, especially amongst common Nigerians outside the seat of power, was that of a tough, no-nonsense disciplinarian who was not bothered with civil diplomacy or primary tenets of democracy.
This image, in a way received what some may call official stamp when his colleagues, led by General Ibrahim Babangida, who overthrew him in a palace coup, on August 27, 1985, brought many of his popular critics into the new military government. One of such critics was the late Prof Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, late Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s brother who had led a strike against Buhari to protest declining health care services.
Besides Kuti’s criticisms, Buhari, whose major programmes then were anchored on war against indiscipline, was criticised by human rights activists who dismissed him as ‘rigid,’ ‘unfeeling,’ ‘undemocratic’ and ‘too tough.’
Today, as an elected civilian president, a close associate of Buhari said he has changed in some areas but “remains the man courageous enough and principled enough to lead the war against indiscipline and corruption in Nigeria.”
So, within the 30 years, when he exchanged his well starched army uniform with the overflowing babanriga, what has changed?
To understand what may have changed in the style, personality and approach of the president within the last 30 years, when he labored hard to return to the seat of power, it may seem necessary to take a peep at his military career and his long sojourn in the Nigerian political theatre.
Military career
Born on 17 December 1942, in Daura, Katsina State, President Muhammadu Buhari joined the Nigerian Army in 1961 when he enrolled in the then Nigerian Military Training College (NMTC). The college was upgraded to an officer commissioning unit of the Nigerian Army in February 1964 and renamed the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA). From 1962 to 1963, he underwent officer cadet training at Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot in England.
He was commissioned a second lieutenant in January, 1963, and appointed Platoon Commander of the Second Infantry Battalion in Abeokuta.
Thus began a brilliant military career that saw him occupying top command positions like General Officer Commanding, 4th Infantry Division, (Aug. 1980 – Jan. 1981); General Officer Commanding, 2nd Mechanised Infantry Division, (Jan. 1981 – October 1981); and General Officer Commanding, 3rd Armored Division, Nigerian Army, (October 1981 – December 1983).
His military career peaked between 1983-85, when Major-General Muhammadu Buhari served as Military Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria. It however came to an end in August 1985, when he was overthrown in a coup led by General Ibrahim Babangida and other members of the ruling Supreme Military Council (SMC), who had worked with him.
Buhari’s involvement in political leadership
As a military officer, his first major appearance in the country’s political theatre was in July 1966, when he, as a Lieutenant, was identified as one of the young officers that participated in the coup that overthrew General Aguiyi Ironsi’s regime.
Other participants in the coup on 28 July 1966, according to reports, included the then 2nd Lieutenant Sani Abacha, then Lieutenant Ibrahim Babangida, then Major Theophilus Danjuma, then Lieutenant Ibrahim Bako, among others. That coup ushered in the military government headed by General Yakubu Gowon.
In the mid 1970s, he also featured in the coup that overthrew General Yakubu Gowon. As a Lieutenant Colonel then, Buhari was among a group of officers that included Colonels Ibrahim Taiwo, Joseph Garba, Abdulahi Mohammed, Anthony Ochefu, Lieutenant Colonels Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, Ibrahim Babangida and Alfred Aduloju, who overthrew the then Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon on July 30, 1975. After the coup, the then Col. Buhari was appointed the Military Governor of the North Eastern State.
That state was, in February 1976, divided by the Military Government into Bauchi, Borno and Gongola states.
He continued his sojourn in the political leadership of the country as the then Head of State, General Olusegun Obasanjo, in March 1976 appointed him the Federal Commissioner (Minister) for Petroleum and Natural Resources. When the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was created in 1977, he was also named its Chairman. He held this position until 1978.
Again in December 1983, he was identified as one of the leaders of the military coup that overthrew the democratically elected government of President Shehu Shagari, Nigeria’s Second Republic which kicked off in 1979 after almost two decades of military dictatorship. Buhari was, at the time of the coup the General Officer Commanding (GOC), Third Armored Division, Jos. With the success of the coup, the then Major- General Buhari emerged the Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces with the equally unsmiling Major-General Tunde Idiagbon emerging the Chief of General Staff (the de facto No. 2 in the military regime).
It was within this period, when he served as the Head of State that Buhari’s image as a strict disciplinarian became public knowledge. While this earned him admiration and respect among some Nigerians, others complained bitterly of alleged extremism and or rigidity on his part.
Criticisms of his military administration
When Buhari took over government in 1983, the country was facing severe austere time in spite of the abundant oil resources. So, there was general outcry for the new government to revive the economy. To do this, Buhari decided to implement strict policies that included removal or cutting back of “excesses in national expenditure,” fighting corruption, discouragement of mass importation and encouragement of mainly raw materials for local production.
He was however criticised when some of these strict policies allegedly led to many job losses, closure of businesses and suffering of affected common Nigerians. His admirers however said criticisms of his bold economic policies were sponsored especially because he had broken ties with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) when the organisation asked the government to devalue the naira by 60 percent.
Besides his economic policies, Buhari as a military Head of State was also criticised by human rights activists who accused him of being a totalitarian.
For example, they criticised Decree Number 2 of 1984, in which the state security and the Chief of Staff were given “the power to detain, without charges, individuals deemed to be security risks to the state for up to three months.”
Under Buhari then, strikes and mass demonstrations were also banned and the then National Security Organisation (NSO) was given what activists described as “unprecedented powers,” as the secret police cracked down and jailed anyone that dared to disobey the alleged obnoxious laws. For example, Afro-beat maestro, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, was on September 4, 1984, arrested at the airport as he was about to embark on a tour in America, and charged for illegal exportation of currency. He was jailed for five years although he was eventually released after some months as the Buhari/ Idiagbon’s government was toppled.
Perhaps more than Decree 2, another of the laws under Buhari’s military regime that was widely criticised was Decree Number 4 of 1984. This decree was described as “the most repressive press law ever enacted in Nigeria.”
Section 1 of the decree, for example, provides that “Any person who publishes in any form, whether written or otherwise, any message, rumour, report or statement which is false in any material particular or which brings or is calculated to bring the Federal Military Government or the Government of a state or public officer to ridicule or disrepute, shall be guilty of an offense under this Decree”.
It provides for offending journalists and publishers to be tried by an open military tribunal, whose ruling is not subject to any appeal. It would be recalled that Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor, then of The Guardian, were among the journalists who were tried under this decree.
Another tough law that earned Buhari and his regime that image was Decree 20 on illegal ship bunkering and drug trafficking. Section 3 (2) (K) of that law provided that “any person who, without lawful authority deals in, sells, smokes or inhales the drug known as cocaine or other similar drugs, shall be guilty under section 6 (3) (K) of an offence and liable on conviction to suffer death sentence by firing squad.”
The matter became a major source of controversy in the case of Bernard Ogedengbe, when critics contended that the Decree was applied retroactively. He was executed. In April 1985, six Nigerians: Sidikatu Tairi, Sola Oguntayo, Oladele Omosebi, Lasunkanmi Awolola, Jimi Adebayo and Gladys Iyamah, were also condemned to death under the same decree.
As a result many critics, including Nobel Prize winner, Prof. Wole Soyinka, added their voices to condemn the alleged excesses of the regime. Soyinka, for example, wrote a piece entitled “The Crimes of Buhari.”
His achievements as military leader
These criticisms aside, the period brought about radical changes in the attitude of Nigerians. The War Against Indiscipline (WAI), which he launched on March 20, 1984, was very successful until he was overthrown. A report captured the success this way: “Unruly Nigerians were ordered to form neat queues at bus stops, under the eyes of whip-wielding soldiers. Civil servants who failed to show up on time at work were humiliated and forced to do “frog jumps”. Minor offences carried long sentences. Any student over the age of 17 caught cheating on an exam would get 21 years in prison. Counterfeiting and arson could lead to the death penalty.”
Like magic, people’s attitudes changed for the better overnight. This was because nobody needed to be told that Buhari and Idiagbon meant business. The crating of runaway former powerful Minister of Transportation, Alhaji Umaru Dikko, in London, in an alleged bid to repatriate him to Nigeria to answer questions on alleged looting of mega bucks, was enough examples to all that there would be no running away of any sacred cow so long as the two generals were in charge.
It is on record that within the 20 months of Buhari’s tenure as Military Head of State, about 500 politicians, officials and businessmen were jailed for corruption and related charges.
Partisan politics
When he first joined partisan politics and declared interest to contest for the seat of the president, his critics recalled his alleged anti-democratic tendencies, accusing him of truncating not only the Second Republic in 1983 but also of putting Nigerian democracy on suspension then for no just course.
But the New York Times had then quoted the officers who took power from Shagari alongside Buhari as arguing that “a flawed democracy was worse than no democracy at all”. Also, Buhari was quoted as justifying the military’s seizure of power by “castigating the civilian government as hopelessly corrupt.”
Buhari was also accused of religious bigotry, an allegation many said will always truncate his presidential ambition. Quoted as saying in 2001 that “I will continue to show openly and inside me the total commitment to the Sharia movement that is sweeping all over Nigeria”, and that; “God willing, we will not stop the agitation for the total implementation of the Sharia in the country,” he was labeled a religious fundamentalist.
These did not however discourage him for in 2003, Buhari ran for office in the presidential election as the candidate of the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP). He was defeated by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) nominee, President Olus?gun ?basanj?.
Since then, he never stopped contesting. He participated in the 2007 and lost. Again in the 2011 presidential election he also contested and lost but he eventually won this year’s presidential election on the ticket of the mega party, All Progressives Congress.
Just before this year’s election Buhari came openly to defend his stand on the contentious matter of his being a religious bigot.
On 4 January 2015, he said he favoured freedom of religion, assuring that under his tenure, every Nigerian should be free and secure to practice their different religions. He was quoted in the media as saying, “Religion must never be used as an excuse to divide us, oppress others or gain unfair advantage. All my life I have expressed the belief that all Nigerians must worship God according to their wish”.
On 6 January 2015, he was also quoted in a media report as saying: “Because they can’t attack our record, they accuse me falsely of ethnic jingoism; they accuse me falsely of religious fundamentalism. Because they cannot attack our record, they accuse us falsely of calling for election violence – when we have only insisted on peace. Even as Head of State, we never imposed Sha’riah”.
Has Buhari changed?
It is instructive of what may have happened to Buhari’s personality and approach to note that while campaigning for the current office of elected civilian president, Buhari responded to his critics on the issue of human rights, by assuring that if elected as president in the 28 March 2015 election, he will follow the rule of law. He also promised that there will be access to justice for all Nigerians and respect for fundamental human rights of Nigerians.
The questions today, 30 years after his ouster, are, has his personality changed? And has he changed his attitude, style and approach?
Dr Sonny Ajala, a lawyer in Abuja, believes Buhari has changed significantly. He told The Nation on Friday that “The second coming of Buhari presents a personality that is sobered by age; hands on experience in political brinksmanship and most importantly the sad reality of a nation cascading to ruination except something radical is done. In the light of this sad commentary, President Muhammadu Buhari’s emergence and restrained style of leadership is refreshing as it is hopeful after the charade of ‘anything goes of the past 15 years.”
Austin Edosoma, a publisher, journalist and public relations manager in Lagos disagrees. He said, “I think we have the same Buhari with bad leadership qualities: self-willed lone-ranger, defies well- meaning advice and believes he knows more than everybody. For 20 months in 1983/84, he pursued perceived treasury looters, engaged in ethnic and religious bigotry and added no meaningful development to the nation. Hope it is not worse- off this time.”
Chief Chekwas Okorie, one of the presidential candidates in this year’s election on his part believes President Buhari has changed for the better. He explained his position to The Nation this way: “For me who saw the events 30 years ago and the events leading to Buhari’s re-emergence, having been in politics even at that time, I now see a more matured personality who is less impulsive and more tolerant than he was 30 years ago.
“The president I see today is more outspoken. He is not as taciturn as he was when he was with Idiagbon. At that time, much was left to speculation about his personality and his views. Idiagbon took off the shines though he was Buhari’s subordinate.
“I see a more sober president, given to deeper thoughts before taking any action. For example, it is my belief that Decree 4 would never take place in his heart today. It seems that he was not reflective of the full implications of the law before its creation.
“I see a president that is more exposed to democratic attitudes and culture. So, I can conclude by saying he is now in a better position to provide critical leadership than 30 years ago. To me, his 72 years and above age is an advantage Nigeria and to Nigerians rather than a disadvantage.”
Also commenting on the area of Buhari’s seeming inability to shift his focus from anti-corruption as was the case 30 years ago, Okorie said, “On the area of his interest in anti-corruption, I do not expect him to change his position on corruption because age and time cannot change principles. Principles must remain constance and Buhari’s passion on anti-corruption is based on principle.”
