Buhari as Nigerian Head of State reduced inflation from 39% to 3%

Maintained our exchange rate at N1 =$1.14

when one Naira was worth more than one Dollar !!

Bros, abeg who do you like this? You're fast losing it the way you spamming the whole section with your cock and bull story

Buhari also reduced our debt.

[size=13pt]Major-General Buhari was selected to lead the country by middle and high-ranking military officers after a successful military coup d'etat that overthrew civilian President Shehu Shagari on December 31, 1983.

At the time, Buhari was head of the Third Armored Division of Jos. Buhari was appointed Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, and Tunde Idiagbon was appointed Chief of General Staff (the de facto No. 2 in the administration). Buhari justified the military's seizure of power by castigating the civilian government as hopelessly corrupt.[/size]





[size=18pt]General Buhari's Maiden Speech: - 1st January 1984[/size]

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.



As you must have heard in the previous announcement, the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1979) has been suspended, except those sections of it which are exempted in the constitution.The change became necessary in order to put an end to the serious economic predicament and the crisis of confidence now afflicting our nation. Consequently, the Nigerian armed forces have constituted themselves into a Federal Military Government comprising of a Supreme Military Council, a National Council of States, a Federal Executive Council at the centre and State Executive Councils to be presided over by military governors in each of the states of the federation. Members of these councils will be announced soon.The last Federal Military Government drew up a programme with the aim of handing over political power to the civilians in 1979. This programme as you all know, was implemented to the letter. The 1979 constitution was promulgated. However, little did the military realise that the political leadership of the second republic will circumvent most of the checks and balances in the constitution and bring the present state of general insecurity. The premium on political power became so exceedingly high 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.



It is true that there is a worldwide economic recession. However, in the case of Nigeria, its impact was aggravated by mismanagement. We believe the appropriate government agencies have good advice but the leadership disregarded their advice. 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 benefit and unnecessary foreign travels, et al, which took no account of the state of the economy and the welfare of the people they represented. As a result of our inability to cultivate financial discipline and prudent management of the economy, we have come to depend largely on internal and external borrowing to execute government projects with attendant domestic pressure and soaring external debts, thus aggravating the propensity of the outgoing civilian administration to mismanage our financial resources. Nigeria was already condemned perpetually with the twin problem of heavy budget deficits and weak balance of payments position, with the prospect of building a virile and viable economy.



The last general election was anything but free and fair. The only political parties that could complain of election rigging are those parties that lacked the resources to rig. There is ample evidence that rigging and thuggery were relative to the resources available to the parties. This conclusively proved to us that the parties have not developed confidence in the presidential system of government on which the nation invested so much material and human resources.While corruption and indiscipline have been associated with our state of under-development, these two evils in our body politic have attained unprecedented height in the past few years. The corrupt, inept and insensitive leadership in the last four years has been the source of immorality and impropriety in our society. Since what happens in any society is largely a reflection of the leadership of that society, we deplore corruption in all its facets. This government will not tolerate kick-backs, inflation of contracts and over-invoicing of imports etc. Nor will it condone forgery, fraud, embezzlement, misuse and abuse of office and illegal dealings in foreign exchange and smuggling.



Arson has been used to cover up fraudulent acts in public institutions. I am referring to the fire incidents that gutted the P&T buildings in Lagos, the Anambra State Broadcasting Corporation, the Republic Building at Marina, the Federal Ministry of Education, the Federal Capital Development Authority Accounts at Abuja and the NET Building. Most of these fire incidents occurred at a time when Nigerians were being apprehensive of the frequency of fraud scandals and the government incapacity to deal with them. Corruption has become so pervasive and intractable that a whole ministry has been created to stem it.



Fellow Nigerians, this indeed is the moment of truth. My colleagues and I – the Supreme Military Council, must be frank enough to acknowledge the fact that at the moment, an accurate picture of the financial position is yet to be determined. We have no doubt that the situation is bad enough. In spite of all this, every effort will be made to ensure that the difficult and degrading conditions under which we are living are eliminated. Let no one however be deceived that workers who have not received their salaries in the past eight or so months will receive such salaries within today or tomorrow or that hospitals which have been without drugs for months will be provided with enough immediately.We are determined that with the help of God we shall do our best to settle genuine payments to which government is committed, including backlog of workers’ salaries after scrutiny. We are confident and we assure you that even in the face of the global recession, and the seemingly gloomy financial future, given prudent management of Nigeria’s existing financial resources and our determination to substantially reduce and eventually nail down rises in budgetary deficits and weak balance of payments position.The Federal Military Government will reappraise policies with a view to paying greater attention to the following areas:



The economy will be given a new impetus and better sense of direction.
Corrupt officials and their agents will be brought to book.
In view of the drought that affected most parts of the country, the federal government will, with the available resources, import food stuffs to supplement the shortfalls suffered in the last harvest.
Our foreign policy will both be dynamic and realistic. Africa will of course continue to be the centre piece of our foreign policy. The morale and combat readiness of the armed forces will be given high priority. Officers and men with high personal and professional integrity will have nothing to fear.



The Chief Justice of Nigeria and all other holders of judiciary appointments within the federation can continue in their appointments and the judiciary shall continue to function under existing laws subject to such exceptions as may e decreed from time to time by the Federal Military Government. All holders of appointments in the civil service, the police and the National Security Organisation shall continue to exercise their functions in the normal way subject to changes that may be introduced by the Federal Military Government. All those chairmen and members of statutory corporations, parastatals and other executive departments are hereby relieved of their appointments with immediate effect.



The Federal Military Government will maintain and strengthen existing diplomatic relations with other states and with international organisations and institutions such as the Organisation of African Unity, the United Nations and its organs, Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, ECOWAS and the Commonwealth etc. The Federal Military Government will honour and respect all treaties and obligations entered into by the previous government and we hope that such nations and bodies will reciprocate this gesture by respecting our country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.


Fellow Nigerians, finally, we have dutifully intervened to save this nation from imminent collapse. We therefore expect all Nigerians, including those who participated directly or indirectly in bringing the nation to this present predicament, to cooperate with us. This generation of Nigerians, and indeed future generations, have no country other than Nigeria. We shall remain here and salvage it together.

May God bless us all. Good morning.

[size=18pt]05 January 1984 - ITN News (video clip)
GEN. BUHARI PRESIDES AT SWEARING IN OF MILITARY GOVERNORS AND WARNS THEM OF PENALTIES FOR CRIME AND CORRUPTION. (video clip)[/size]

[flash=500,500]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_JjYG-ef8M?version=3[/flash]

http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//ITN/1984/01/05/AS050184005/?s=nigeria&st=2&pn=96&sortBy=date
(this clip starts moving after first 35seconds)

Nineteen military governors were formally appointed by the new Head of State, Major-General Mohammed Buhari, and other members of the country's Supreme Military Council (SMC) in Lagos on January 4 to run Nigeria's federal states.

General Buhari attended the official swearing-in ceremony, which came four days after he led a bloodless coup ousting former President Shehu Shagari.

Speaking at the ceremony, Buhari reminded his new governors of their duties.All were chosen, he said, for their ability to discharge their responsibilities in the best interests of the country.He went on to warn them that crime and corruption for personal gain, one reason for the coup, would be ruthlessly punished.

General Buhari added the corruption and hoarding in the private sector would not be tolerated.He ended his speech by telling the assembled governors they were answerable to the country's military chiefs of staff and subject to redeployment at any time.

All former state governors have been given a week to report to police.

General Buhari has pledged to revive the country's economy and also to end the armed robberies in major cities that have become commonplace in the last few years.The fate of former top officials in the Shagari administration is still to be decided by the new military government, and Shagari himself is being held in custody.

https://www.nairaland.com/693700/buhari-goverments-military-tribunal-jails/2

Dikko kidnap Nigeria Airways Cargo plane

[size=22pt]A close encounter with Buhari[/size]

AT the time Buhari ruled, Enebeli Elebuwa was the face of Nigeria. He played Andrew, a comic, in a short propagandist documentary widely circulated through the government media particularly the NTA which was at that time the veritable vehicle of government propaganda with its Siamese twin, Radio Nigeria. This was way before the advent of privately owned radio and television stations. The NTA opened and closed with the national anthem and pledge. News was broadcast only at 9pm.

There was no CNN. In the story, Andrew had planned to “check out” of Nigeria: there were no jobs. Power supply was erratic; fuel queues were long and snaky; essential commodities were being rationed and there was a draconian war against indiscipline. Three young men had been executed for peddling drugs. The decree that sealed their fate was non-existent at the time the offences were committed. A democratically elected government had been ejected by soldiers and civilian rule was nowhere in sight.

A law forbade the possession of foreign currency and the naira exchange rate was frightening. Europe or America bore the only hope of survival for many young men and women. But right at the departure lounge, a voice of reason beckoned: only Nigerians could reverse this terrible and ugly situation. And if each and every Nigerian with the means to ameliorate the situation “checked out”, then doomsday was near. Andrew chose to stay. When Elebuwa later became popular and famous in home movies, those who knew him by his moniker stuck to that name.

The reality on ground did not support an early resuscitation of the comatose nation. And Buhari was coming to Benin. An ample opportunity presented itself for us to confront the strongman. A little over a year before then, together with his majordomo, Tunde Idiagbon, Buhari had sacked Shehu Shagari’s government. At that time, Benin was literally teeming with radicals and ideologues of all hues and colours.

No one would be intimidated. There was Tunde Fatunde, Festus Iyayi, Felix Orhewhere and a host of others. Outside the walls of the ivory tower there was Ohonbanmu, the Marxist ideologue who had just returned from a long sojourn in Germany and was ready to do battle. The students paraded Matthew “Matto” Urhoghide, Osaze “Pelebe” Ize-Iyamu, Evhi Eyeghre and Nnamdi Maduekwe. There was Thaddeus Alli and Kayode Thomas together with Isaac Ajayi, Onajide Onajiromu and Larry Ettah. Pelebe later became the SSG during Lucky Igbinedion’s time in Edo state while Larry Ettah today heads UAC. Inspiration was nearby and fear was unknown.

Somehow, Buhari avoided the university preferring instead to commission some showpiece projects at the sister teaching hospital. He had played into our hands and confrontation would be inevitable. And so as medical students, we made an offer to Navy Captain Yinka Omolulu, a navy doctor who was at the time the helmsman of the teaching hospital in Benin. It was an offer he could not refuse. He must have had sleepless nights pondering the consequences of his decision to allow a small party of four of us to see the strongman and prince of the Daura emirate. We had headaches for a different reason: The radio and television were filled with congratulatory messages for a messianic Buhari who had come to save Nigeria and was visiting Bendel state. We also had no more bursary as Ogbemudia no longer called the shots at government house. And how were we going to fit all our demands into Omololu’s allotted five minutes. We rehearsed and even had a dress rehearsal with Dr. Alex Khadiri of physiology department playing Buhari. Khadiri later went to the senate representing the people of Kogi east during Obasanjo’s second coming.

On that day, to Omololu’s horror, we demanded a private audience with Buhari. We had passed the point of no return and were ready to damn the fallout. You could hear a pin drop. The silence was louder than the clapping of thunder. With only his aide de camp by his side, the bespectacled general took us into a side room and firmly shut the door. Another mistake! Why couldn’t we just snuff the life out of this man and return Shagari to the mantle of leadership? The odds were in our favour. It was two against four, but the ADC was armed and so wise counsel prevailed. We asked him to justify his incursion into governance. We told him point blank that he was an illegal ruler and as illegitimate as could possibly be.

Taken aback but quickly regaining his composure, his soldier’s training took hold of him. With a calm candour and demeanour and in as solemn as a voice could be, he walked us through the financial and economic quagmire of Nigeria since the advent of Shagari. He pointed out the rot in the management of the nation’s resources especially in the petroleum sector over which he had once presided. He enunciated the cracks that had begun to develop in the body polity and the existence of divisions along ethnic lines. There were hundreds of millions in private Swiss banks siphoned overnight. The foreign reserves were all but gone.

Infrastructure had decayed and joblessness was in sight for young graduates. Even our teaching hospital was a glorified dispensary. The academia was being depleted of quality scholarship and faculty. Was this how we wanted to proceed? He availed us of a careful and meticulous plan he had put together to redeem Nigeria and asked us to watch him. The school authorities could do us no harm as we were not at liberty to reveal what transpired between us and the general. And we knew, none had the effrontery and bravado to ask Buhari. Should harm befall us and word filtered back to Buhari, the consequences could be dire. We were left to complete our studies.

The gangling Fulani soldier had enthralled us. He had held us captive. We were mute as Buhari spoke. We watched in awe as he excused himself for as he told us, he had a job to do. A little over a year after this incident, Buhari was toppled by Babangida, the gap-toothed general from Minna. Then Sani Abacha, the dark goggled one followed after a brief interregnum that threw up Ernest Shonekan who never sat down for a day at the office.

Today, seven reigns after Buhari, in the time of destiny’s child, Goodluck Jonathan, out of the four of us that met with Buhari, I am the lone one remaining in Nigeria. And Enebeli Elebuwa, Buhari’s face of Nigeria has died in an Indian hospital where he was ferried by a benevolent Delta state government after the country he loved turned him down.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/12/a-brief-encounter-with-general-buhari/