THE CHRISTIAN WALK

Tuesday, January 13, 2015
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Cameron, Texas, USA
WHY GEN. MUHAMMADU BUHARI AND CO. STAGED THE DECEMBER 31, 1983 MILITARY COUP D'ETAT IN NIGERIA?

President Jonathan of the PDP and Gen Buhari of the APC: Nigerian voters should make informed decisions on their votes after they have critically examined the records of both candidates in 2015.

s the Nigerian elections draw closer, starting with the epochal February 14, 2015 presidential election and the governorship elections in tow, many young Nigerians at home and abroad will be inundated and bombarded by numerous narratives of Nigeria's recent past. It is extremely important for us to put into proper perspectives some of these historical events for young Nigerians, who according to available facts and statistics so far will be the deciders of the outcome of the forthcoming elections. Of course, the most important of all the forthcoming elections is the presidential election, which will be decided on Saturday February 14, 2015. In the cacophony of the maddening electioneering campaigns, politicians, political jobbers and armchair analysts will see another season for political scuttlebutts and historical re-jigging. They will inundate Nigerian voters with barefaced lies and outlandish twisting of historical records and contemporary political events. In Nigeria's low political culture, unmet expectations and broken promises by leaders are often rewarded with indolence and indifference. Electoral choices that define the future of many generations are obfuscated by jeremiads instead of weighty issues. But our roles as writers, authors, media analysts and historians are to educate and inform the Nigerian electorate on some of the germane issues that will define the upcoming Nigerian elections and ultimately the Nigerian nation. This is what this column is all about; separate facts from fiction, define serious issues bordering on the future of our children; separate the mundane and beer parlor gossips from the fundamental issues of the election and ensure facts are not twisted on their heads to confuse the Nigerian people.

The two candidates offering themselves for the highest position in the land this year 2015: incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan and his main challenger retired General Muhammadu Buhari both have past records to run on in their quests to earn the trust of the Nigerian people. Today, we start with General Muhammad Buhari who administered Nigeria as a military head of state between December 31, 1983 and Saturday August 27, 1985 when he was removed in yet another military putsch by his chief of army staff, Major-General Ibrahim Bademosi Babangida. This is very important, because a look at the past administrative style of a person in a leadership position is a clue on the person's likely leadership capacity and capability in the same position in the future. While elections are about the future, past events are very important in making political choices that will define both the present and the future.

On December 31, 1983, Nigerians woke up to the sound of martial music on the government-owned Federal Radio Corporation-FRCN-in Lagos and its affiliates in the nineteen states of the federation. They knew a military coup d'�tat had taken place. Before the coup, many of the top generals in the Nigerian Army had given hints that something was afoot three months to the New Year. As Nigerians waited with bated breath on the army officers behind the coup, the throaty voice of Brigadier Sani Abacha who had left his military posting in Ibadan for Lagos the previous night hit the airwaves at 5:00 am announcing the military take-over of the reins of government from the Shehu Shagari Administration. Sani Abacha catalogued the woes of the deposed Shehu Shagari Administration and with the deftness of a suitor wooing a bride, enlisted the support of the Nigerian people for legitimacy. Nigerians had no choice. The 1983 presidential election held three months earlier and supervised by the Federal Electoral Commission-FEDECO- chaired by the late Justice Victor Ovie-Whisky from Bendel State was massively flawed. The National Party of Nigeria-NPN- led by Alhaji Shehu Shagari had boasted that, come rain and come shine it would retain power at all costs. On October 1, 1983 when Alhaji Shehu Shagari was being sworn in at the Lagos Tafawa Balewa Square for his second term in office, the NPN politicians knew that anything could happen so many of them wore bullet proof vests to the inauguration.

THE COMPOSITION OF THE SHEHU SHAGARI ADMINISTRATION IN 1983: Alhaji Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari from Sokoto was the first executive president of Nigeria and Dr Alexander Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme from Anambra State was his vice-president under the American-style presidential system of government Nigeria adopted in 1979. There were nineteen states in Nigeria during this period namely: Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Kwara, Benue, Plateau, Borno, Sokoto, Kano, Kaduna, Rivers, Cross Rivers, Imo, Bendel, Bauchi, Oyo, Gongola, Niger and Anambra, The Governors of the nineteen states were: Alhaji Lateef Kayyode Jakande (Lagos); Chief Olabisi Onabanjo (Ogun); Chief Michael Adekunle Ajasin (Ondo); Chief Cornelius Olatunji Adebayo (Kwara); Mr. Solomon Daushep Lar (Plateau State); Alhaji Mohammad Goni (Borno), Alhaji Abubakar Barde (Gongola); Chief Bola Ige (Oyo), Prof. Ambrose Folorunsho Alli (Bendel State); Chief Jim Ifeanyichukwu Nwobodo (Anambra), Chief Sam Onunaka Mbakwe (Imo); Chief Melford Okilo (Rivers), Dr Clement Isong (Cross Rivers State); Mr. Aper Aku (Benue State), Alhaji Tatari Alli (Bauchi); Dr Garba Nadama(Sokoto State), Alhaji Anwal Ibrahim (Niger State); Alhaji Abubakar Rimi (Kano State) and Alhaji Abdukadir Balarabe Musa (Kaduna State).

There were five political parties registered for the 1983 general elections: the National Party of Nigeria-NPN- which controlled the federal government and seven states; (Sokoto, Niger, Benue, Cross River, Rivers, and Bauchi States); the Unity Party of Nigeria-UPN-which had Chief Obafemi Awolowo as its presidential candidate and had six state governors in the entire western Nigeria known as LOOBO States ( Lagos, Ondo, Oyo, Bendel, Ogun and Kwara); the National People's Party-NPP-which fielded Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe as its presidential flag bearer and controlled three states of Plateau, Imo and Anambra. The remaining two national parties were; the Great Nigerian People's Party-GNPP-which had Alhaji Ibrahim Waziri as presidential flag bearer with two states in its column; Borno and Gongola and the People's Redemption Party -PRP-which had Malam Aminu Kano as its presidential candidate and controlled Kano and Kaduna states. The National Party of Nigeria-NPN-with Chief Adisa Meredith Akinloye from Oyo State as chairman had gone into a political alliance with the Nigerian People's Party-NPP-which had Chief Adeniran Ogusanya from Ikorodu, Lagos State as chairman in 1979 and 1983. The political alliance didn't work leading to a political divorce as the 1983 presidential election approached. The political alliance had given both the NPN and the NPP the advantage to share the Presidency of the Senate and Speakership of the House in Mr. Joseph Wayas of the NPN from Ogoja in Cross Rivers State and Chief Edwin Ume-Ezeoke of the NPP from Amichi in Anambra State as Speaker respectively. From 1979 to 1983, Dr Olusola Saraki from Ilorin in Kwara State was the Senate Leader under the NPN while Chief Jonathan Akinremi Odebiyi from Iboro, Yewa in Ogun State of the UPN was Minority Leader. Following the breakdown of the political alliance between the ruling NPN and the NPP in 1983, the NPP teamed up with the rest political parties to face the NPN in the 1983 general elections. The UPN had Chief Obafemi Awolowo as both its presidential candidate and chairman at the same time; the GNPP had Chief Olu Akinfosile from Ikale in Ilaje Eseodo, Ondo State as chairman, the PRP had Dr Shettima Mustapha from Nguru, Borno State as chairman. When the four political parties of UPN, NPP, GNPP and PRP teamed up together to form the Peoples Progressive Alliance-PPA-in 1983 to dislodge the NPN federal government, it was agreed that they should field one presidential candidate to face Alhaji Shehu Shagari. But unfortunately, both Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe could not agree on who should step down for the other. The clash of egos between the two political titans meant they had to go into the presidential race together. Sensing the two political gladiators could not sacrifice personal ambitions for the national good, both Malam Aminu Kano and Alhaji Ibrahim Waziri too decided to contest for the presidential elections on their respective political parties. Malam Aminu Kano picked Prof Chinua Achebe as his running mate while Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim chose Dr. Shettima Mustapha as his running mate. In 1979, Chief Obafemi Awolow had chosen Chief Philip Ezebilo Umeadi of Umunri, Anambra State as his running mate but in 1983 picked Alhaji Muhammad Jura from Bauchi, Bauchi State as his running mate. President Shehu Shagari "won" a second term and formed a majority in the 1983 presidential and national assembly elections without any need for a political alliance with the NPP. It would not have mattered anyway, if either Chiefs Awolowo or Azikiwe had stepped down for the other since the NPN federal government was hell-bent in rigging the elections which it did across board: presidential, governorship and national assembly.

Local and foreign observers of the 1983 presidential election decried the elections as flawed and rigged. At any rate, the ruling NPN had already informed Nigerians that it would return its party to power for a second term whether Nigerians liked it or not. The inflammatory statements emanating from the mouths of its political stalwarts were enough evidences that the NPN would foist itself on Nigerians by hook or crook. For instance, Alhaji Umaru Dikko from Kaduna State was the director-general of the Shehu Shagari Presidential Election Campaign Organization while Alhaji Uba Ahmed from Bauchi State was the NPN national secretary. They told Nigerians that the NPN would rule for ever and those who would not join the "winning team" should go elsewhere. Joining the duo was Malam Suleiman Takuma, from Niger State and the NPN publicity secretary who assured that NPN would win the 1983 presidential election at all costs. Addressing Nigerian journalists at the NPN secretariat on Keffi Road, Obalende in central Lagos when confronted with the level of poverty in Nigeria, Umaru Dikko replied in kind of to-your-face fashion that there was no Nigerian eating from garbage heaps and dustbins yet and so no one could describe Nigerians as poor. In addition to the outlandish statements and arrogance of the NPN politicians were intense ratcheting up of ethnic and fissiparous feelings of Nigerians, especially Mr. Uba Ahmed who addressed a press conference in Lagos and accused the UPN of sedition and treason. Mr. Ebenezer Babatope, who was the national secretary of the UPN, replied Mr. Ahmed and the NPN war -mongers in equally like manner with his own incendiary statements. The entire national mood was toxic and charged. All of a sudden, Nigeria was taken back to the 1960s. These political activities and events pushed Nigeria once more to the edge. In other politically matured and stable countries, election times are occasions and opportunities for citizens to make choices and secure their futures through the ballot box and so the citizens look expectantly towards such civic responsibility. In Nigeria, the reverse is the case. In every election time in Nigeria, the nation sits on the edge; the business class withholds investments and hoard capital; rich people and the few middle class that can afford it begin to look for a way to flee the nation. It is very sad. That was the situation in 1983 and there are no guarantees that such ambience will not pervade in the forthcoming Nigerian election this year in 2015.

POLITICAL EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE COUP OF DECEMBER 31, 1983: Every knowledgeable and adult Nigerian knew that the Shehu Shagari Administration would be toppled immediately after the "moonslide" election victory of the NPN federal government in the 1983 general elections. As a matter of fact, the politicians in the opposition were virulent in their call for the Nigerian military to step in and remove their fellow politicians. The problem of participatory democratic politics in Nigeria is that, politics essentially has become and it is still the most important and surefooted avenue to self-enrichment in Nigeria. Here in America for instance and in most of the Western democratic climes, it is the urge for public service that makes one to serve in a government, because you're paid less than what you ordinarily should earn in the private sector when you accept to serve in any government. On the other hand, working for a government in Nigeria is seen as an opportunity to "eat your part of the national cake." As I told some conference participants in Toronto, Canada few years ago, when you're voted into any public office in Nigeria, either legitimately or otherwise, you're told by your friends, colleagues and even the citizens that voted you into office; "This is your time." In other words, this is your opportunity to dip your hands into the till, but make sure you're not caught. This is why competition for public office via the democratic process in Nigeria is not an opportunity to serve the general good, but to enrich one's pocket. That is why Nigerian politicians kill, maim, rig, assassinate, murder, use voodoo and engage in all kinds of Satanic and demonic activities to occupy public offices. In short, politics in Nigeria is a brokerage. The main attraction that is fueling the culture of greed, corruption, and stealing, graft and public larceny including sundry unethical and sharp practices in Nigeria today is oil. That is why anyone who loves honest and good work in Nigeria should be happy of the current sliding in the prices of oil, because as soon as the oil dries up, only those Nigerians that are nationalistically-committed and patriotically-motivated will offer themselves for public office in Nigeria. This is because there won't be easy money to steal as a political office-holder.

The fight-to-finish mentality among Nigerian politicians during election cycles was evident among the political class and was one of the factors that led to the military take-over of government in 1983. Majority of Nigerians knew that something would give in after the massive electoral fraud perpetrated by the NPN federal government in the 1983 general elections. The NPN politicians read the handwritings on the walls and before the New Year coup d'�tat, some of them had bolted out of the country. For examples, Chief Adisa Meredith Akinloye, Mr. Umaru Dikko, Mr. Joseph Wayas, the senate president, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, the political adviser to President Shehu Shagari, Mr. Mamman Ali Makele, the minister of steel development and several others who had their ears to the ground had already fled into exile before the coup took place.

The Nigerian Army generals had met in Port Harcourt, River States under the guise of staging the Nigerian Army Officer's Games to plan the coup. The arrowheads of the coup were; Gen. Maman Jiya Vasta, General Bako, General Ibrahim Babangida, General Sani Abacha, Brigadier Tunde Idiagbon and Major-General Muhammadu Buhari. With the way the nation was being governed by the Shehu Shagari NPN politicians, the top brass of the Nigerian Army had sent feelers to their retired colleagues that they would be compelled to seize power. They enlisted the support of their most senior officer, Gen Olusegun Obasanjo in this task. First, retired Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo and the former head of state was the one that handed over power to the Shehu Shagari Administration and thus was enlisted by his serving military boys to take the Shehu Shagari Administration to the cleaners in October 1983. Sensing that the Nigerian military was about to crash the democratic experiment in 1983, Mr. Babatope of the UPN issued a warning to the soldiers to steer clear and allow the politicians to learn by trials and errors. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari was the General Officer in charge of the 2nd Mechanized Brigade in Jos, Plateau State and was compelled to issue a stern warning to the Shehu Shagari Administration and the politicians that the Nigerian Army would not allow the Nigerian politicians to plunge the nation into another civil war against the call for arms and doomsday by Nigerian politicians on both sides of the political aisles.

Another groundswell impetus in the national landscape for the coup was the ineffective, inefficient and lackluster manner Alhaji Shehu Shagari mismanaged the Nigerian economy. Majority of Nigerians had lost confidence in the Shehu Shagari Administration. It has traditionally been the lots of Nigerians to be governed by non-ambitious and uninspiring politicians with nil ideals and objectives. Alhaji Shehu Shagari was initially planning to become a senator until the power brokers within the NPN drafted him into the presidential race. They did that because they saw him as a pliant and easily manipulated helmsman who would look the other way when the other big boys dipped their hands into the public till. At the NPN national convention held at Idi-Oro in Lagos, he contested against Alhaji Adamu Ciroma and Maitama Sule for the presidential ticket but the NPN party apparatchiks went with him for they knew he was an otiose leader. The situation of things in the nation between 1979 and 1983 proved that Alhaji Shehu Shagari was a disaster. The NPN Federal Government of President Shehu Shagari had lost confidence in itself and would prefer the Nigerian military intervene than allow the opposition party to take over the reins of the Nigerian nation-state in 1983.

THE ANATOMY OF THE 1983 COUP: Having decided to take out the NPN-led Federal Government of the Shehu Shagari Administration, the coup plotters decided to arrest Alhaji Shehu Shagari himself in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory on December 30, 1983 where he was on Christmas holidays. Brigadier-General Bako was the leader of the Nigerian Army that stormed the Akinola Aguda Presidential Guest House in Abuja, but instead of Bako to arrest President Shehu Shagari, Bako decided to walk into the arms of the presidential guards and talk to one of his colleagues and classmate. According to reports, he wanted to warn the deposed president, because he-Bako was from the same Sokoto State as Shagari, but President Shagari gave orders to his Brigade of Guards to open fire on Bako and his boys. In the ensuing exchange of fire, Brigadier-General Bako was caught in the crossfire and died. But the Brigade of Guards of President Shehu Shagari was over powered by the soldiers advancing to the Akinola Aguda House in Abuja since the current Aso Rock Villa later built by Gen. Ibrahim Babangida was non-existent and President Shehu Shagari was later arrested inside the tunnel on his way to escape through Benue. According to inside sources, Brigadier Bako would have played prominent role in the Buhari military regime, if he had not been killed. Meanwhile, the other top shots of the deposed administration; Dr Alex Ekwueme and the remaining others were picked up in their various locations and placed under house arrest in Lagos and other locations in various parts of the country. There was palpable joy in the land and majority of Nigerians overwhelmingly cheered Gen Muhamad Buhari when he toppled the Shehu Shagarai Administration on New Year's Day in 1983/1984.

The coup plotters later assembled at the Bonny Camp in Lagos to constitute the new military regime. From the beginning, it was not easily known or resolved who would be the new military head of state, but it was already known that a Northern person would become the new head of state. To ensure ethnic balancing, Brigadier Tunde Idiagbon from Ilorin, Kwara State had already been penciled down as the deputy to whoever would emerge as head of state.

General Muhammadu Buhari was in his military posting as the General Officer Commanding the 3rd Armored Division Mechanized Brigade at Rukuba Barracks, Jos, Plateau State. A military aircraft was dispatched to fetch him at Jos and was flown to Lagos where he joined his other senior army officers for deliberations on who would become the new head of state. As any insider into military politics in Nigeria and nay Africa knows, when a coup d'�tat takes place, the ringleaders of the military putsch always defer to the most senior army general to take over the reins of government. When middle-level army officers stage a coup, all senior army officers may have to retire otherwise, it will go against army ethics for the military generals to defer to a junior army officer as commander-in-chief. In Nigeria, most, if not all the successful coups that have been staged are commonly planned and executed by the top army generals and only one of their own is chosen to become head of state. In 1983 when the Shehu Shagari civilian administration was overthrown, the three most senior military generals that could be considered for the post of the head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces were; General Domkat Bali, Gen Ibrahim Babangida and Gen Muhammadu Buhari. Gen Bali was not part of the original coup planners so he wasn't considered. At any rate, the geopolitical nature of the Nigerian military counted against him-he is from Lantang in Plateau State and a Northern minority. Others that would have been considered were; Generals Mamam Jiya Vasta and Mohammad Magoro, but the latter, though a classmate of Babangida at Bida Provincial School was commissioned in the Nigerian Army in 1963 while Vasta, who was the second oldest to Domkat Bali didn't jostle for the position. Consequently, the two "candidates" that would naturally be considered were Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Muhammadu Buhari-both were commissioned into the Nigerian Army the same year-1962.

General Ibrahim Babangida was a year older than Buhari, but again, the ethno-religious politics in the Nigerian Army as at that time favored Gen Buahri thus he was made head of state. The problems that Gen Buhari ran into after he was made head of state by his colleagues was the composition of his cabinet, especially the position that Brigadier-Gen Tunde Idiagbon occupied, which pitted him with Gen. Ibrahin Babangida who was army chief. As the chief of staff supreme headquarters of the Nigerian Army at Doddan Barracks where the head of state lived in Obalende Lagos, Idiagbon was administratively powerful while Babangida operated outside Doddan Barracks. In addition, Idiagbon was a year junior to Babangida as he was commissioned in 1963. Ordinarily, if the soldiers weren't involved in politics, Idiagbon who was then a brigadier should have given Babangida a salute as mark of respect, but Idiagbon would not do that because of the powerful political position he occupied as next in command to Gen. Buhari as head of state. To paper over the constant animus and disdain between Idiagbon and Babangida, the military high command quickly accelerated the promotion of Idiagbon from Brigadier to Major-General, but the mistrust and disdain between the twain had run deep. This was the impetus for the Babangida coup later in 1986 which we shall revisit here next week. Dr Junaid Muhammad who was a member of the House of Representatives representing Kano State under the Peoples' Redemption Party-PRP-was the first person to sound the alarm as soon as Gen Muhammadu Buhari announced members of his cabinet and made Gen Ibrahim Babangida his new army chief. Gen Babangida later exploited this advantage to stage a coup against his boss; Gen Buhari 20 months later.

Reporting for the influential New York Times front page on January 2, 1984 after Gen Buhari assumed the reins of government and addressed the diplomatic corps in Lagos, Nigeria with a catchy caption: "A Nationalist for Nigerians," Clyde H. Farnsworth , the paper's Special Correspondent wrote the following about Gen. Muhammadu Buhari: "Maj. Gen. Mohammed Buhari, who announced today that he had assumed power in the aftermath of Saturday's military coup in Nigeria, is described by diplomats as an ardent nationalist who is tough, self-assured and somewhat austere. '' 'If anyone was going to take things over, it would have been him,'' said an American diplomat who knows him. ''He has a lot of drive and a lot of interest in doing something for his country�.Carey Winfrey, a former foreign correspondent for The New York Times who interviewed the general in 1979, recalled ''a very cool customer.'' ''I was impressed by how laid back he was and at the same time how precise he was,'' Mr. Winfrey said. ''He's a man very much in control of himself.' Earlier this year, General Buhari commanded a Nigerian unit at Jos, in the north. A border dispute had erupted in the northeast, near Lake Chad, and there had been skirmishes with troops from Chad. The area is also a favorite of smugglers. A Washington foreign affairs analyst who followed that campaign said that ''he took a pretty tough line up there.'' ''It wasn't a big operation,'' the analyst said, ''but he closed the border for a while and kept things under very tight control. One could conclude that he is a staunch representative of the Nigerian military.'' 'Not Your Typical Strongman' A former high-ranking diplomat who served in Nigeria said he was impressed by General Buhari's thoughtfulness. ''He thinks about what he says before he says it,'' the diplomat said, ''and doesn't say things carelessly. He is a worldly, disciplined man, not your typical strongman.'' ''If you had to go into battle with somebody,'' the diplomat added, ''you'd be delighted to go with him. You could count on him for sound judgment and disciplined leadership.''

Similarly, reporting from Lagos, Nigeria for the Boston-based The Christian Science Monitor on the paper's front page of January 23, 1984, with the caption: "Nigerians Applaud as Buhari fills Cabinet with Nonpoliticians," David Winder wrote: "The impression here is that General Buhari, who became Nigeria's head of state after a Dec. 31 military coup, has passed his first critical test: the appointment of a Cabinet of responsible and trusted officials that balances the military with considerable civilian input. He has earned public approval along the way. ''It's a good start,'' says Clara Osinulu, a Lagos anthropologist who is well connected in Nigerian political life." From The Guardian of London, The Los Angeles Times to The Guardian & Mail, Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and several newspapers across the globe, Nigeria received positive press reviews and commendations for the new Buhari leadership. That is the type of leadership Nigeria needs right now in Africa and the global arena. These are important historical facts that Nigerians should know so as to correct any hagiographer bent on skewing historical facts on the records of the two presidential contenders for Nigerian votes in the forthcoming February 14, 2015 Nigerian Presidential Election.

Next Week: We shall revisit the composition of the Buhari military regime and the three policies of the regime that led to another military coup led by army chief, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida and its connection to the February 14, 2015 Presidential Election. Later, we shall examine the genesis of President Jonathan's political evolution and his policies too.


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