Buhari: Nigerians’ hope for change

May 30, 2015. By a citizen.

President Muhammadu Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari is perhaps one of the most determined leaders in Nigeria’s history. Though he was defeated three times before 2015 in the country’s presidential elections, yet on March 28, 2015—the fourth time he would contest—he defeated his opponent, former President Goodluck Jonathan, when he garnered a total of 15,424,921 votes against Jonathan’s 12,853,162.

During his campaigns, many Nigerians perhaps knew only about the ‘change’ slogan that his party, the All Progressives Congress, preached. However, as he takes on the job of the chief executive officer of the country, there are other details that many would probably want to know about their leader—who is set to lead the country in the next four years (all things being equal).

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In 1971, President Buhari married his first wife, Safinatu (née Yusuf), and they had five children – four girls and one boy. But in 1988, the duo divorced.

In December 1989, he married his second and current wife Aisha, with whom he also have five children together – a boy and four girls. They are Aisha, Halima, Yusuf, Zarah and Amina.

However, Safinatu, Buhari’s ex-wife, died on January 14, 2006 from complications of diabetes.

Six years later, in November 2012, Buhari’s first daughter, Zulaihat, died from sickle cell anaemia. That was two days after having a baby at a hospital in Kaduna.

Once upon a soldier…

President Buhari, 73, was born on December 17, 1942 in Daura, a community in the former Katsina Province of the then Northern Nigeria. There he went to primary school and also in Mai’Adua from 1948 to 1952 and then proceeded to the Katsina Middle School in 1953.

From 1956 to 1961, he attended the Katsina Provincial Secondary School (now Government College, Katsina) and two years after he passed out from secondary school, he went to the Nigerian Military Training School, Kaduna.

In that same year, he was sent to the officers’ Cadet School in Aldershot, United Kingdom; after then, he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant and posted to the 2nd Infantry Battalion, Abeokuta as a Platoon Commander in 1963. One of his colleagues in Aldershot described the then 21-year-old chap as “an only pebble in the beach, a star in his calm and calculating disposition.”

Since 1963 when he became a commissioned officer, President Buhari held several appointments—he was the Platoon Commander, 2nd Infantry Battalion (1963 – 1964); the Mechanical Transport Officer, Lagos Garrison (1964 – 1965); the Transport Company Commander, 2nd Infantry Brigade (1965 – 1966); the Battalion Adjutant/Commander, 2nd Infantry Brigade (1966 – 1967); the Brigade Major, 2nd Sector, 1st Infantry Division (April to July, 1967); the Brigade Major, 3rd Infantry Brigade (August 1967 – October 1968); the Acting Commander, 4th Sector, 1st Division (November 1968 – February 1970); the Commander, 31st Infantry Brigade, 1st Infantry Division (February 1970 – June 1971); the Assistant Adjutant-General, 1st Infantry Division Headquarters (July 1971 – Dec. 1972); Colonel, General Staff, 3rd Infantry Div. Headquarters (Jan. 1974 – Sept. 1974).

He was also the Acting Director, Supply and Transport, Nigeria Army Corps of Supply and Transport (September 1974 – July 1975); former Military Governor, North Eastern State of Nigeria (August 1975 – March 1976); the Federal Commissioner for Petroleum Resources (March 1976 to June 1978); the Chairman, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (June 1978 – July 1978); the Military Secretary, Army Headquarters (July 1978 – June 1979); member, Supreme Military Council (March 1976 – June 1979); the General Officer Commanding, 4th Infantry Division (Aug. 1980 – Jan. 1981); the General Officer Commanding, 2nd Mechanised Infantry Division (Jan. 1981 – October 1981); the General Officer Commanding 3rd Armed Division, Nigerian Army (October 1981 – December 1983).

He has also been conferred with a number of national awards, including the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic, Commander of the Federal Republicand the Defence Service Medal.

His last major role was when he was the Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces from December 31, 1983 to August 27, 1985 when he took power in a military coup d’état.

From a dictator to a democrat

When Buhari vied for the office of the President of Nigeria in the 2003, 2007 and 2011 elections, some Nigerians wrote him off, perhaps because they remembered who he was when he was a military dictator. They insisted that “a leopard cannot change its spots.”

Their fears were normal

During his regime as the Head of State, he was known to have taken really tough stands on issues—from breaking ties with the International Monetary Fund when the fund asked the government to devalue the naira by 60 per cent (though analysts said the reforms that Buhari instigated on his own were as or more rigorous as those required by the IMF), to temporarily banning the recruitment of federal public sector workers, raising of interest rates, halting of capital projects and prohibiting states to borrow funds, among others.

Critics of his regime were thrown in jail, as was the case of afro-beat singer, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, who was arrested on September 4, 1984 at the airport as he was about to embark on an American tour.

A non-governmental organisation which focuses on human rights, Amnesty International, described the charges brought against Fela for illegally exporting foreign currency as false. However, using the wide powers bestowed upon it by Decree Number 2, the military regime sentenced Fela to five years in prison and released him after 18 months when the Buhari government was toppled in a coup d’etat.

Another tough side of the Buhari tenure was the establishment of Decree 20 on illegal ship bunkering and drug trafficking, which 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.”

One of the victims of the decree was Bernard Ogedengebe, who was executed even though at the time of his arrest, the crime did not mandate the capital punishment, but had carried a sentence of only six months imprisonment.

In April 1985, six Nigerians were also condemned to death under the same decree.

Another legacy of the Buhari government was the War Against Indiscipline which was launched on March 20, 1984. The policy tried to address the perceived lack of public morality and civic responsibility of Nigerians. Then, Nigerians were ordered to form neat queues at bus stops, under the eyes of whip-wielding soldiers.

Likewise, civil servants who failed to show up on time at work were humiliated and forced to do “frog jumps” while other offences could carry long sentences. Any student above 17 years old who was caught cheating in an examination got 21 years in imprisonment. Counterfeiting and arson could lead to the death penalty.

However, Buhari responded to his human rights criticism prior to the 2015 election and said that if elected, he would follow the rule of law. He added that there would be access to justice for all Nigerians and that he would respect the fundamental human rights of Nigerians.

He also said he took responsibility for whatever happened under his watch during his military rule. He said he couldn’t change the past, but described himself as a “converted democrat.”

The ‘change’ started many years ago

The Nigerian National Oil Corporation and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources were re-organised to form the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation during Buhari’s tenure, where he became its first chairman, a job many said he performed satisfactorily.

He masterminded and spearheaded the construction of 20 oil depots throughout the country, a project involving over 3,200 kilometres of pipelines. It was also under his leadership that both the Warri and Kaduna refineries were built.

He also drew up the blueprint for the country’s petrochemical and liquefied natural gas programmes—without being alleged to have committed any act of corruption while in office. His accountability, honesty and efficient management of public funds endeared many Nigerians to him in the 2015 election.

When Buhari also served as the Chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund, a body created by late General Sani Abacha, and funded from the revenue generated by the increase in price of petroleum products, to pursue developmental projects around the country, a 1998 report by a publication, New African, praised the PTF under Buhari for its transparency, calling it a rare “success story.” Though the same report also noted that critics had questioned the PTF’s allocation of 20 per cent of its resources to the military, which the critics feared would not be accountable for the revenue.

Because of his integrity, different groups in the country, including the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, endorsed him for the 2015 general election.

In May 2014, during the wake of the Chibok schoolgirls’ kidnapping, Buhari denounced the Boko Haram insurgency and urged Nigerians to put aside religion, politics and all other divisions to crush the insurgency which he said was being fanned by mindless bigots masquerading as Muslims.

The new dawn and the road ahead

One of the factors that led to the emergence of Buhari as the President of Nigeria was the contribution of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who once told the Financial Times that if he were to live another life, he would still choose to be a Nigerian. The country, he said, had surmounted many crises since independence. “Some people in Africa believe an incumbent government cannot be removed by the will of the people,” he added. “We have done it.”

Obasanjo also said he believes President Buhari is “intelligent enough” to move Africa’s most-populous state forward. “He is a man who lives a modest life and I believe he will manage the affairs of Nigeria by and large the way he manages his own affairs,” he said.

Likewise, in its April 1, 2015 article, ‘After initial euphoria, Buhari faces daunting task in Nigeria’, the Financial Times stated that dark clouds had been lifted from Nigeria in the aftermath of the March 28 presidential election with a speed that took many economists and analysts by surprise.

In the build up to the March 28 polls, foreign portfolio investors withdrew more than $8bn (N1.6tn) from Nigerian markets, fearing that a disputed outcome would trigger crisis, amid a devalued currency as a result of falling oil price.

“The apprehension that something bad would happen was so high. Everyone was predicting mayhem and chaos,” said the immediate past minister of finance and economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

However, after the initial euphoria, President Buhari faces a daunting economic task, according to many analysts.

For instance, the Chief Economist for Africa at Standard Chartered Bank, Razia Khan, said, “Given the weaker oil price and Nigeria’s minimal fiscal savings to date, important challenges will confront any government that takes power. But this is Nigeria’s great opportunity to proceed with meaningful economic reforms.”

But the 73-year-old general’s austere image, earned at that time, could perhaps still play the magic in the democratic era. His reputation as one of the few past leaders who resisted the spoils of office, which lent credence to the anti-corruption platform he fought on, has perhaps raised hopes that he will cut back on the profligacy of the political elite.

Born in a rural Katsina community, in the dusty brush of the Sahel, President Buhari now sits atop perhaps the most coveted office in the country.