*WHO INSTALLED SHAGARI?*

The recent demise of the first Nigerian executive president led me into retrospective journey of taking a vivid glance through the journey of Nigeria turning into a rat's hood began. Quite a number of reputable Nigerians paid homage to the former president receding his modesty and humility. Some are still clamouring that his name should be imprinted in time by re naming one of the Federal Universities after him. The deafening mystery now is despite the morally impressive qualities attributed to the former president, it was recorded that his administration witnessed and ushered in grand corruption and coordinated thievery to the booming Nigerian economy accentuated by the previous Military administrations.

According to an article in one of the Nigerian news dailies, whose sources of facts won't be less than perfect, 59 kobo was equal to 1 dollar before Shagari came on board to steer the affairs of the most populous black country. At the brink of his administration, $1 was equal to #1, sad! Our naira came into an unmatchable standard to the US dollars whose economy is always a paradigm to measure the economic potency of other countries but this became story within the four years of Shagari's leadership.

_Bata re a dun kokoka bi o ba kawe re, bata re a dun kokoka_ (Your shoes will sound well if you read your book). This was a song much celebrated when I was a young boy and truly, the song was a effective tool to indict young children to work hard in their academic pursuit. This was glaringly so because a child who is successful in his/her education is guaranteed a sure and able means of livelihood, a job. During the gearless Shagari's administration, the song lost its fervour and thus became a mere rhythm sang to ease oneself at one's leisure hours. Shehu's leadership heralded massive unemployment and low standard of living for families whose breathe depends on the earnings the learned child(ren).

I didn't just put ink to paper to criticise or castigate our deceased former President. My soul do bleed at the appalling economic situation of Nigeria which was arguably kicked off by Shagari's administration. A recent statistics showed that an average Nigerian live below $1 per day. A dollar that was once almost as twice to a naira. A "weak" dollar that once led high influx of the whites to ply their trade in our dear country. That same dollar is what most Nigerians now live below. How pathetic and bereaving!

_"The implications of my saying no, which they defined as meaning denouncing them, was that I would have to give up politics completely, which I didn’t, because I still felt I should try to influence policy from outside government."_ That was said by Shagari himself. He never wanted to become President. He didn't nurse the ambition of leading our wobbling country. His vision was myopic. His leadership was weak and rudderless, little wonder he was chosen by "our kingmaker" who had adeptly planned to plunge the country into gloom and black darkness. Shagari was seen as a flexible and bendable tool which was used to achieve their noxious and sinister motives. The question remains, who installed Shagari?

*Monday K. FOLARANMI*
*100 level, Faculty of Law*
*OAU*