Buhari Part Two

When General Muhammadu Buhari became Nigeria’s military head of state on December 31, 1983, I was a third-year law undergraduate of the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University. I have always been more interested in policy, politics and economics than my peers and contemporaries, so I paid very close attention to events. I remember the first thing that struck me about Buhari were his good looks, a point I remember the “girls” at Mozambique and Moremi Halls also noticed. He took over from President Shehu Shagari and the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) which had run an unimaginative and unserious administration. The politicians of the NPN very much resembled the contemporary Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in their carelessness in power, and inability to see the big picture beyond whatever they hoped to personally get out of politics. Like the PDP, many members of the NPN were primarily businessmen in politics, rather than individuals focused on politics, policy and development!

When Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the leading opposition politician, a former civil war finance minister who was familiar with Nigeria’s economy warned as global oil prices fell in 1980 and afterwards of the need for caution in public economic management, the NPN leaders shouted him down, and proceeded with the “party” Nigeria was having with oil proceeds. Once the global oil glut approached and oil prices crashed, it was clear trouble was in the horizon, but our leaders (not just the NPN leaders at the federal level, but opposition governors in the states too!) became even more creative. We first exhausted official foreign reserves, and then borrowed too, and soon we were heavily indebted to global creditors. Shagari in token acknowledgment declared an “austerity” programme, but the party continued! To be fair to the politicians, the soldiers of the Gowon, Murtala Muhammed and Obasanjo era who handed power back to Shagari had prepared the way for Nigeria’s looming insolvency, even though in their cases it may be said that the road to hell was paved with good intentions!

The military practically abolished Nigeria’s federal system in favour of a unitary, distributive economy in which we all shared proceeds of oil; they created more and more states eroding sub-national economic viability; they nationalized and indigenized banks and declared that government would hold the “commanding heights” of our economy, marginalizing investment and the private sector brought in “big government”; they implemented “Udoji awards” and other elements of oil and FX subsidies that Nigeria battles to overcome today; and the about-to-depart government of Murtala/Obasanjo took the first $1billion jumbo loan that set Nigeria on the path to debt peonage! And most of the soldiers retired very wealthy! If our economic historians told a balanced story, the soldiers really had no moral pedestal to snigger at the politicians! Unfortunately the pattern is that our history-economic and political, never gets told fully correctly!

Whatever the situation they inherited however, Shagari and his fellows fully deserved the fate that befell them! Their time was characterized by lack of vision and drift, and incapacity to recognize even their own self-interest. When Buhari took over, along with his deputy, Major-General Babatunde Idiagbon, the nation rejoiced! After the euphoria died down, people began to note that Buhari’s was the first Nigerian government in which both numbers 1 and 2 were of the same ethnic and religious background-Idiagbon was reportedly a Fulani Muslim from Ilorin, Kwara State while Buhari was Fulani from Katsina. This observation acquired greater resonance once the Supreme Military Council (SMC) was composed, also overwhelmingly dominated by Northern Muslim Generals. However it was his approach to prosecution of his flagship policy-the war against corruption, and fundamental human rights that quickly eroded Buhari’s support. Curiously even though he had overthrown a NPN government led by Shehu Shagari, Buhari quickly exonerated the president of any wrongdoing and went after opposition Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) and Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) governors and politicians. Many of them received jail terms running into hundreds of years, on corruption allegations that boiled down to schemes for funding their political parties. The major NPN politician Buhari and Idiagbon went after was the powerful Umaru Dikko who, aware of previous animosity between Buhari and himself escaped to the United Kingdom. Subsequently, a notorious failed attempt was made to kidnap and crate him back to Nigeria!

I remember watching the interview on NTA back then in which Buhari declared dead pan that he would tamper with press freedom! I recall the interviewer probably thinking the president made a mistake and repeating the question with Buhari answering “yes, I will tamper with that one!”- thus came the enactment of Decree 4 and the sentencing of Nduka Irabor and Tunde Thompson to jail. I was addicted to The Guardian and I had read the innocuous report about diplomatic appointments and postings that led to the trial-no doubt the ruling clique just wanted to send a message to the entire media! And then the retroactive execution of three young drug traffickers who committed the offence when it was not punishable by death!

It was in terms of economic policy and management that Buhari’s weaknesses became most manifest! Buhari’s primary economic diagnosis appeared to be that the problem with Nigeria was corruption and indiscipline. He was partly correct, but there was also a fundamental economic problem! Our sole export was oil and we had built big government and imported consumption based on our perceived “oil wealth.” Oil prices had peaked around $40 per barrel and then crashed to below $10. We had a fixed exchange rate and therefore quickly exhausted our reserves. We then borrowed and became insolvent! International banks would no longer accept letters of credit issued by our banks except they were fully cash-backed, so we could not import “essential commodities”. Buhari’s administration resorted to counter-trade (a sophisticated name for trade-by-barter!) but there is a reason why economics invented money! So counter-trade was plagued with corruption and lack of accountability, and duly failed.

And then there was military politics. The central character in organizing and executing the coup that brought Buhari to power was General Ibrahim Babangida, who became Chief of Army Staff. Babangida was the most popular officer within the army, and had in fact been key to an earlier coup in 1975 that overthrew Gowon and installed Generals Murtala Muhammed, Olusegun Obasanjo and Theophilus Danjuma as ruling triumvirate. In reward for his labours, IBB, as he was known, became a member of the ruling Supreme Military Council between 1975 and 1979. Once Buhari took power, he centralized power within a narrow clique of himself, Idiagbon, General Muhammed Magoro, who was minister for internal affairs and Ambassador Rafindadi who was security chief. The regime moved against IBB and his ally, General Aliyu Gusau and but for Babangida’s preemptive coup, he would probably have been retired or worse!

By the time Buhari was overthrown on August 27, 1985 he had become very politically isolated-alone with a small, inner core; the country was economically hobbled and the elite and even the general populace stifled. Nigerians celebrated when Buhari was overthrown! There are striking parallels between Buhari’s first stint in power as military dictator and his current democratic presidency-oil prices have crashed; appointments have favoured the North; important political allies have been displaced; governance is focused almost exclusively on a war against corruption; concerns over rule of law and human rights are re-surfacing; and economic policy is floundering!

 

Opeyemi Agbaje