WHAT GENERAL BUHARI DID WRONG IN 1983

General Buhari in 1984

I was just hovering on seven years of age when the military struck off the wobbling and corruption riddled democracy of the second republic in 1983;and my goodness, it did not take me long to notice a marked difference with the way Nigeria instantly became.

 Quite frankly, I was rather too young back then to know how rudimental intricacies of governmental policies work but what wasn’t lost on me back then was a certain term called Austerity given to Nigerians by the Shehu Shagari administration in the latter part of its existence. To those who are of younger age reading this piece; let’s just say Austerity is akin to the word Subsidy being thrown about again today. My little understanding was that Austerity was an oddity put in place to squeeze life out of the Nigerian masses in the midst of aplenty and the adjoining simple basicity informed my conclusion.

At about the time of Alhaji Shehu Shagari’s administration between 1979 and 1983; my mother ran a small business of grocery store in Lagos that sold what we Nigerians generally call provisions to the immediate consumers in the neighbourhood. What this means was that as children of those opportuned to sell these wares; we never lacked the bread, sardines, sugars, salts, milk and so on and so also did the average Nigerians. We also did not lack the small monies in our pockets too because business moved very well.  But when Shagari introduced Austerity, things took a dramatic turn for the first time in the lives of average Nigerians after the civil war.  Basic commodities like milk, sugar and wheat became scarce and expensive due to hoardings perpetuated by Government Ministers, public servants and politicians in the favourable books of the then ruling NPN because they were the importers of these items. A tin of milk which went for 20 Kobo became 40 kobo and consequentially it went out of reach of the masses. Even at 40 Kobo, milk became mostly available in secret warehouses of politicians serving in the Shagari cabinet. Products like Parmalatt which was nothing but a glorified yoghurt became alternatives for milk while saccharin was substitute for sugar. There was also a huge cut in public spending as hundreds of thousands got laid off and in essence; jobs that was hitherto left for Ghanaians and other West African migrants became the fall back jobs for Nigerians.

But this spending cut was only for capital and not recurrent expenditure as politicians smiled to offshore banks with obscene chunks of the national cake unabated. Corruption was rife as public office holders abandoned their jobs to become drug mules and thereafter became richer overnight. 

You may wonder how a young boy of my age was able to comprehend all these things but when you consider the amount of time the average Nigerian adult discusses national issues daily; then you would not be surprised at the amount of information at the disposal of intelligent young children of even today.

 

So when the jackboots came back on the last day of 1983 to terminate Shagari’s government, a lot of Nigerians thought it was business as usual. They thought the soldier boys had only come to read out usual promises and then continue with the ways of the politicians.  However, those who were observant enough understood that things were about to change. The disposition of Generals Buhari/Idiagbon was more than enough to draw inferences from. I mean, these guys would appear on TV barely smiling as they read out policies to change the attitude and image of Nigeria. In all honesty they were scary with their military uniform and stern faces but Nigeria was in dire need of that posture to get back on track.  For eighteen months that they were there as Nigerian leaders; sanity returned to the nation and I don’t think anyone can argue otherwise, except if hypocritical. Thieves were thieves whether highly placed or otherwise to General Buhari. Efficiency accountability and dedication returned to public service. Back then, it wasn’t uncommon to see parents rushing home to ask their kids to teach them the National Anthem and the National Pledge as patriotism became a watchword in civil service. Queues and sanitation became a national emblem worn all over Nigeria by the citizens. Believe me, there were neither any dirty looking policemen on the streets nor were they ones who openly solicited for bribes.

Of course to achieve all these wasn’t easy as Nigerians were already rotten with the ways of the Shagari administration. So what it meant was that soldiers were deployed to make people conform to government’s rules and laws like crossing of the expressways while a pedestrian bridge is just by the side, urinating and defecating openly on the roadsides, coming to work after schedule and leaving work before schedule, selling items outside the government stipulated prices, hoardings of commodities, gross indiscipline, stealing of public funds etc.

Back then, if you saw soldiers on the streets, they only came to enforce the good laws of the government and not to hound Nigerians off the road for government officials as we see today.

These were some of the wrongs General Buhari came to correct in 1983 Nigeria that some people are now  trying hang him for. They say he ejected a "democratically elected government" as if the said democratically elected government did not violate the constitution of Nigeria by stealing recklessly from Nigerians.

Right now  the question we should be asking ourselves is if we can see similitudes in President Shagari’s administration and that of President Jonathan?

Like I always say, it took America eight years of George Bush’s lacklustre Presidency to realise that they need a better replacement regardless of whatever differentials the replacement would have.

At this stage of our nationhood, it is rather ironic that we should still be in need of this same General Buhari's 'wrongs' of 1983.