President General Buhari: His Past, His Present and The CHANGE

Buhari’s Metamorphosis
Following the successful execution of the 1983 coup, it was merely a necessity, by military tradition, for the new regime under Major General Muhammadu Buhari, to make a public announcement that it had ousted the previous government
and come into power. This task was done by the then Brigadier-General Sani Abacha, who addressed Nigerians, announcing the take-over of power and suspension of the 1979 Constitution.

In announcing the new government, Abacha decried the state of affairs in the country, pointing out that the nation’s economic, health and education sectors needed to be salvaged from further degeneration, while unemployment, non-payment of workers’ salaries in some states, corruption and indiscipline were unchecked. Lamentably, most of the problems, which Buhari intervened to solve about 31 years ago, are still there as he settles in at Aso Rock in 2015.

As it was in 1983, Nigerians today “are all living witnesses to the great economic predicament and uncertainty, which an inept and corrupt leadership has imposed on our beloved nation for the past four years. I am referring to the harsh, intolerable conditions under which we are now living. Our economy has been hopelessly mismanaged; we have become a debtor and beggar nation. There is inadequacy of food at reasonable prices for our people who are now fed up with endless announcements of importation of foodstuff; health services are in shambles as our hospitals are reduced to mere consulting clinics without drugs, water and equipment.

“Our educational system is deteriorating at an alarming rate. Unemployment figures, including the undergraduates, have reached embarrassing and unacceptable proportions. In some states, workers are being owed salary arrears of eight to twelve months and in others, there are threats of salary cuts. Yet our leaders revel in squander mania, corruption and indiscipline, and continue to proliferate public appointments in complete disregard of our stark economic realities.”

Notably but painfully, Nigeria has not ceased being a debtor-nation, nor have various governments ceased owing workers several months’ salaries. This makes Buhari’s second coming more tasking, especially as Nigerians are full of expectation that he has come to bring ‘change’, even to their dining tables.

Buhari To the Rescue I (1983)
The “further announcements”, spoken of by Abacha in his first speech, came in the morning of January 1 1984 as a New Year message from the new head of state to Nigerians. In his maiden speech, Buhari accepted, with a high sense of responsibility, to steer the ship of the nation’s leadership in a new, desired direction.

In the beginning of his speech, Buhari said, “In pursuance of the primary objective of saving our great nation from total collapse, I, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari of the Nigerian Army have, after due consultation amongst the services of the armed forces, been formally invested with the authority of the Head of the Federal Military Government and the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is with humility and a deep sense of responsibility that I accept this challenge and call to national duty.”

Further on in his speech, Buhari, inter alia, lamented that “political contestants regarded victory at elections as a matter of life and death struggle and were determined to capture or retain power by all means.” That’s not all. The speech also frowned at legislative negligence of responsibilities and wanton misappropriation of public funds in the name of salaries and benefits for lawmakers. On this, he bemoaned, “The situation could have been avoided if the legislators were alive to their constitutional responsibilities; instead, the legislators were preoccupied with determining their salary scales, fringe benefits and unnecessary foreign travels et al, which took no account of the state of the economy and the welfare of the people they represented.” This has continued