General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida
President Federal Republic of Nigeria
By the early months of 1985, General Buhari’s iron-fisted anti- corruption war, through suffering from fizzing public support, had achieved some of its initial objectives.
Nigerians, more from fear of the military’s wrath than any ensconced sense of ethical conduct, were gradually becoming more disciplined and a lot of public servants who misused their offices in the last political dispensation, along with several others guilty of much less grievous misdeeds were behind bars.
While the Buhari Regime could claim some form of victory- however pseudo- on the War Against Indiscipline ( WAI) front, the same could not be said of the battle to revive the Nigeria economy.
Labour unions, Students Bodies and the press were near unanimous in their loss of confidence in the administration’s policy to curtail the deepening economic crisis anytime in the near future.
The many human rights abuses which accompanied the enforcement of WAI and other drastic decrees did not help the administration’s image.
Buhari who was cheered on entry and given a free hand , had run out of time. As the restiveness in the general polity permeated the ranks of the Supreme Military Council, the now familiar air which ushered in previous military interventions was as dense as ever. Therefore, the then Chief of Army Staff , General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida orchestrated yet another military coup de tat , the sixth one since Nigeria independence in 1960.
On assumption of office, General Babangida, who insisted on being reffered to as President, repealed a number of Buhari’s less popular decrees and restored a measure of freedom to the PRESS. Delighted Nigerians welcomed the new administration with open arms and hoped for the best.
However, perilous times were ahead as Babangida’s reform measures would bring even more austerity times for Nigerians.
left General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida
President, Federal Republic of Nigeria with former President Shehu Shagari
” Fellow Nigerians, when in December 1983, former Military leadership, headed by Major – General Muhammadu Buhari assumed the reins of Government, its accession was heralded in the history of this country. With the Nation at the mercy of political misdirection and on the brink of economic collapse, a new sense of Hope was created in the minds of every Nigerian.
Since January 1984, however, we have witnessed a systematic denigration of that hope. It was stated then that mismanagement of political leadership and a general deterioration in the standard of living, which had subjected the common to intolerable suffering, were the reasons for the intervention. Nigerians have since then been under a regime that continued with those trends. Events today indicate that most of the reasons which justified the military takeover of government from civilians still persist. The initial objectives were betrayed and fundamental changes do not appear on the horizon.
Because the present state of uncertainty, suppression and stagnation resulted from the perpetration of a small group, the Nigerian Armed Forces could not as a part of that Government be unfairly committed to take responsibility for Failure. Our dedication to the cause of ensuring that our Nation remains a united entity worthy of respect capable of functioning as a viable and credible part of the international community dictated the need to arrest the situation….”
