Examining The Man – Major General Muhammadu Buhari

Intro………………

 Major General Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd), born December 17, 1942 from a Fulani ethnic background and a native of Daura in Katsina State of Nigeria.

He was selected to lead the country by middle and high-ranking military officers after a successful military coup d’etat that overthrew civilian President Shehu Shagari on December 31, 1983. Buhari justified the military’s seizure of power by castigating the civilian government as hopelessly corrupt, and his administration subsequently initiated a public campaign against indiscipline known as “War Against Indiscipline” (WAI). Aspects of this campaign included public humiliation of civil servants who arrived late for work whilst guards were armed with whips to ensure orderly queues at bus stops.

He also moved to silence critics of his administration, passing decrees curbing press freedoms and allowing for opponents to be detained up to three months without formal charges. He also banned strikes and lockouts by workers. His government sentenced popular musician and political critic Fela Anikulapo-Kuti to ten years in prison; Kuti was later pardoned and released by Buhari’s successor.

Although one might recall the gruesome executions of drug traffickers by firing squads back then by his government against popular opinion, Buhari is still admired by many for his uprightness and stand against corruption. His government is revered for its ability to keep the country afloat by making progress through sheer economic ingenuity even when it rejected IMF loan and refused to adopt IMF conditionalities to devalue the Naira. His government is praised for its gain in reducing inflation by refusing to devalue the nation’s currency, the Nigerian Naira, curbing imports of needless goods, curtailing oil theft and using counter trade policy to barter seized illegally bunkered crude oil for needful goods like machineries, enabling it to export above its OPEC quota.

 Family Life…

Although, he is a Muslim by religion, Buhari had one wife with children till he became the Head of State in 1983. But his regime was truncated by Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida in 1985 and this IBB regime unjustifiably put him in detention for three and a half years without charging him for any offence whatsoever. Buhari was not found guilty of any crime and after this undue punishment, he was released in1989.

BUHARI who upon his release, discovered that his wife had been receiving monetary assistance from Babangida while he was in prison, could not stand his wife’s behavior and association with a corrupt regime of Babangida’s, divorced the wife and moved on. Buhari, a man that can do anything to fight corruption. I wonder why Buahri’s wife could not lay her hand on any of the vague and deceptive so called suit cases when the family was lacking? If ‘NEBU’ spends 10 years in detention, do you think ‘hippo’ will lack anything that is financial???? However, Buhari had since married another wife….Till date, BUHARI is a husband of one wife.

Official Conduct…

BUHARI worked with three people apart from the military which scored him so high and from where he rose to become general…..

The three people he worked with are:

OBASANJO: Buhari was OBJ’s Minister of Petroleum between 1976-1979. His era in the petroleum ministry brought about the birth of Nigeria’s three refineries in Warri, Kaduna and Port-harcourt. Although, he was not the Head of Government but I have reasons to conclude that Buhari’s competence as petroleum minister was the main reason why we have refineries today. This is because, while 3 refineries were built between 1976-1979 (3years) of OBJ, none was built between 1999-2007 (8years) also of OBJ. The difference is that Buhari only featured in the former and not in the later.

OBJ’s appraisal of BUHARI is a clear evidence that Buhari is a rare Nigerian specie…..OBJ has never been known to be generous when it comes to appraising people….OBJ descibed Buhari as ‘not just incorruptible’ but also ‘a refined gentleman and officer with integrity and passion for service and quality output’…..WOW!

BUHARI: Yes, he also worked for himself. In 1983, he became the head of state and specifically went for the head of corruption. He paid Nigeria debt completely and refused to borrow from IMF….He reduced the inflation from about 25% to less 3% within a jiffy, he fought and almost put a full stop to drug trafficking by placing a considerate maximum punishment on traffickers! Corruption became a taboo during his regime and he also changed the currency’s color in order to rubbish the stolen money hidden by politicians in various bedrooms, uncompleted and unoccupied buildings all over the country. They dared not bring out the money for exchange to new notes since they cannot afford to explain the source however, every decent earners changed theirs!

Worthy of note is the fact that there was no single religious crisis during his regime, a regime where the 2 top guys were Muslims. ALSO, he did not take the country to join any religious organization. His refusal to take ‘un-needed’ IMF loan was one of the main reasons why his regime was truncated.

IMF equipped IBB for that assignment. And immediately IBB came in, he started taking IMF loans like there is no tomorrow and also took Nigeria to join the OIC…..PLEASE note, the OIC itself is not a bad organization, I only want to set the record straight.

ABACHA: His passion for a better Nigeria and quality service delivery accounted for his acceptance to work as the Chairman of a Multi-billion dollars establishments called PTF, Petroleum Trust Fund. The roads that were constructed during his 4years in the organization far outweighs the roads constructed by the PDP since 1999! This is not just a raw truth but a verifiable fact. PTF supplied drugs to hospitals nationwide including remote villages, sunk boreholes and built schools in all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria.