ABIOLAXYZ: Only God know the truth but we can only analyse and guess .......

KolaShangOne: @OP.. one simple question.. how much did PDP / Jonathan pay you?

Maybe if Buhari died, you would have said APC killed him too gain public sympathy.. smh.. you people think you can just come n tell us anything you like abi? And play with our minds like say na table tennis abi?

GenBuhari: [size=18pt]Buharinomics - General Buhari’s economic program marshaled out to salvage the nation in 1984 [/size]

http://www.elombah.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5720:is-general-buhari-the-problem-with-nigeria&catid=36:pointblank&Itemid=83

Buharinomics was General Buhari’s economic program marshaled out to salvage the nation in 1984. He summarized the objective of his economic policy (as articulated in the 1984 budget) as follows: "To arrest the decline in the economy, to put the economy on a proper course of recovery and solvency, and to chart a future course for economic stability and prosperity" (West Africa, May 14, 1984). He had previously done similarly, in March while receiving the visiting Sudanese President, Gaafar Nimeiri. Upon his inquiring of what the new military government had in mind for the nation it then ruled, Buhari said to him: "The priority [of his administration] is for economic recovery, providing employment opportunities, improving people's living conditions, consolidating internal security and ensuring foreign respect" (Africa Now, March 1984). In a nutshell, Buharinomics set out to arrest the decline in the economy and refocus it towards recovery. Buharinomics was to wean the nation off consumerism and profligacy, while channeling it towards frugality and productivity. To accomplish this, the government was to cut down on its expenditure, engage in more efficient restricting and controlling of foreign exchange outflow, undertake the revival of the country's productive capacity (concentration was on agriculture), and broaden government's revenue base.
www.nairaland.com/attachments/635156_Buhari_jpgd50be5e2308ebe86c9271391021b0a5f
The first test of Buharinomics was implemented to revive the comatose banking industry and arrest local currency hoarding. In April 1984, the government ordered a change in the color of the Naira. This action was dubbed the “real coup” by unscrupulous business men and politicians who had almost eliminated the need for commercial banking in Nigeria by keeping their moneys under their mattresses or by trafficking them into neighboring West African countries. This currency change, which forced all holders of the naira notes into exchanging them for the new naira notes at commercial banks, infused billions that had remained unaccounted for into the banking industry and eliminated counterfeited currencies, which had inflicted inflationary and other nefarious effects on the economy. This measure had an immediate revitalizing effect in the banking industry and was an unqualified success. Banks that were close to collapsing became vibrant again, to the extent that some of them began to hire hitherto unemployed Nigerians.
www.nairaland.com/attachments/635893_Gen__Buhari_jpg3932850d15a62856c902dd8cc516cff9
To cut down on government expenses, the federal work force was cut by 30% and imports for 1984 pegged at 4 billion pounds (mostly on basic foodstuffs, spare parts, and raw materials for local industries), against 14 billion pounds spent in 1983. To ensure that Nigeria remained respectable on the international business world, Buhari committed to honoring Nigeria’s debt payment schedule irrespective of the limited earning potential of Nigeria. In August 1984, Buhari was on one of his meet-the-people nationwide tours, which he began as soon as the administration got on its feet. Everywhere he went, the people embraced him, coming out en mass and ushering him tumultuous cheers and unreserved applause. In one of his speeches to the people (this one in Owerri), he reiterated Nigeria’s commitment to honoring its debts, the dire economic situation notwithstanding. "The task of this administration is how to persuade Nigerians to understand that for a number of years to come, we would be paying debts, the roads may be long and thorny but we believe that on our shoulders lies the responsibility to save our fatherland from devastation that has resulted from mismanagement" (Newswatch, February 18, 1985).
[img]https://www.nairaland.com/attachments/635886_Gen__Buhari_-_Armed_Forces_Day_jpgae96a40b5e2050b6d582cd44f4943800[/img]
Buhari could not have been any more correct in his statement above. Assuming Nigeria took no further loans, its breakdown of loan repayments was as follows: 3.9 billion naira ($4.4 billion) in 1985, 3.7 billion naira ($4.19 billion) in 1986, 2.8 billion naira ($3.2 billion) in 1987, until a decrease to 703 million in 1991 (Concord Weekly, May 6, 1985). Nigeria’s precarious financial situation made it impossible for it to finance capital projects and meet up its balance of payment obligations. With oil export pegged at 1.3 million barrels per day by OPEC, borrowing from external sources became necessary. To this effect, Nigeria proposed borrowing 1.795m naira to finance its capital project from the IMF. The patriotism with which General Buhari handled Nigeria’s dealings with the IMF was the highlight and beauty of Buharinomics.

[img]https://www.nairaland.com/attachments/635887_General_Muhammadu-Buhari-1984_jpg807fb78f1366f42744d90196f32d264e[/img]
In order to qualify for the loan, IMF gave Nigeria certain conditions which must be met. In 1984 when the naira exchanged for $1.34, the IMF demanded a minimum of 60% devaluation of it. Buhari refused, agreeing only to a "crawling peg"—a mechanism whereby government would realign the currency gradually, forestalling or minimizing economic and social dislocations because of such drastic devaluation of its currency. In addition to the devaluation of the naira, IMF demanded that government took other drastic actions: (a) The government must remove its subsidy on petroleum. (b) It must curtail its expenditure. (c) Government must rationalize its tariff structures. (d) It must put a freeze on its wages. (e) It must put a total end of non-statutory transfers to State governments, (f) Government must at least institute a 30% raise on interest rates—government resisted this because the decline in its revenue earnings and its debt obligations made it almost impossible to raise interest rates without triggering inflation (West Africa, May 14, 1984).
www.nairaland.com/attachments/908607_Gen_Buhari_jpg680f0e3cee55a5a2432551406739fb8e
The Nigerian government and veteran economists in Nigeria (like Aluko, Onosade, Okigbo, etc) could not make sense of being asked to devalue its currency when Nigeria’s imports were in dollar and its export (fixed quantity of oil) was also in dollar. The implication of devaluation was that Nigeria would pay more to import lesser quantity of goods than it did prior to any devaluation. It would also export the same amount of oil it exported before any devaluation and derive lesser revenue than it received before any devaluation The impacts of it debt payment would have harsher effect on the citizenry if the naira was devalued. This did not make any economic sense to Buhari; it struck him as an insult on the intelligence of the African. Finance Minister Onaolapo Soleye and Alhaji Abubakar Alhaji who led the Nigerian delegation to the last negotiation in Washington were chewed out by US Federal Reserve Chairman, Paul Volcker, for presenting the Nigerian governments rejection of most of these recommendations. For rejecting the IMF conditions and the loan, the Buhari administration got into the black book of Washington. Already, it had earned the dislike of 10 Downing Street for cutting down Nigeria’s imports from the UK by about 350%. In any case, without the IMF loan, government was still in a bind as to how to finance capital projects and pay for imports, especially spare parts for local industries, food items, etc. At this juncture, the genius and resourcefulness of Buharinomics illuminated to the delight of the African.
www.nairaland.com/attachments/686219_buhari_parade_jpgcf420c430ac5cdb9a5c0fadf1e0fb509
First, the administration sent Oil Minister Tam David West to OPEC to seek a raise in the quantity of oil that Nigeria could export. If OPEC agreed, Nigeria would expect to generate extra revenue in the long run from any increase of its oil quota and this would assist tremendously in augmenting the shortfall in the nation’s purse. Professor West came back empty handed—the US and Britain had put pressure on their puppets in OPEC (like Saudi Arabia) to refuse Nigeria’s request.
www.nairaland.com/attachments/710787_buhari_pic_gif0b92a71a0ffa3f1da9713778c0f7a2f0
To counter OPEC’s bluff, the Buhari administration entered into a $2 billion barter trade agreement with four countries. Nigeria daily bartered 200,000 barrels of oil as follows: (a) completely knocked down parts for automobiles from Brazil. (b) Construction equipment from Italy (c) Engineering equipment from France, and (d) Capital goods from Austria. This barter trade took care of the administration’s need to have borrowed money but it intensified the ill will the US and Britain had for Nigeria. By bartering this oil, Nigeria was: (a) solving those needs which the proposed IMF loan was geared toward. Doing so without borrowing or feeling the pains of spending the meager amount generated from its OPEC approved 1.3 billion a day oil export is the stuff an economic wizard is made of. (b) Britain had been cut off as Nigeria’s major supplier of the goods which the countries in the barter agreement sent to Nigeria. (c) The US usurious money lenders were denied the chance to suck Nigeria dry through the IMF loan. (d) American and British oil companies were irate that the oil being bartered would flood the oil market, cutting in on their profits. (d) The oil being bartered was oil that used to be illegally bunkered before Buhari put illegal oil bunkering artist out of business. For once, an African country had put positive economic mechanism in place to salvage its ailing economy without swallowing IMF’s poison pills.
www.nairaland.com/attachments/726098_Buhari_jpgd50be5e2308ebe86c9271391021b0a5f
As far as America and Britain were concerned, there was a price to be paid by this Buhari, who thought he was smart enough not to accept subservience to their authority. To begin with, a London newspaper (The Financial Times) published Nigeria’s barter trade agreement with Brazil (which, in truth, was done in secrecy because Buhari treated some aspects of his economic policy as State secret). The British thought it was going to incite OPEC against Nigeria since OPEC as a body did not support oil bartering. Oil Minister Tam David West, in a press conference, said, “If a nation believes it is part of its strategy for national survival to do this [barter trade], why not?” To assure OPEC that Nigeria was not indulging in barter trade in order to pull out of OPEC, he added ”Our strategy is to stay in OPEC and make its presence felt, and work together on programs that will be for the economic interest of all” (Concord Weekly, May 6, 1985). There is more to this barter trade than time will permit one to detail in this piece. For now, it is worth noting that it was the major reason for which Britain and America wanted the Buhari administration overthrown.
www.nairaland.com/attachments/754009_Gen__Buhari_jpg3932850d15a62856c902dd8cc516cff9
The counter trade showcased Buhari as a visionary. He made America and Britain feel silly and they swore to get him out of office. When Babangida took over, on his maiden speech to the nation he promised to revisit the counter trade agreements. Within two weeks in office, September 17, 1985, he setup a panel to review it and recommend to his administration how to revive the economy without the use of counter trade. Babangida rolled back counter trade at the behest of his imperialist masters and at the detriment of the Nigerian nation and people.

[img]https://www.nairaland.com/attachments/754008_Gen__Buhari_-_Armed_Forces_Day_jpgae96a40b5e2050b6d582cd44f4943800[/img]
By the time the Buhari administration was overthrown in August of 1985, Buharinomics was beginning to yield dividends. For example, the inflationary rate had fallen from 23.2% in 1983 to 5.5% in 1985. Nigeria did not regret rejecting the IMF loan because it was meeting its obligation of prompt debt payment and the bartered goods were, to some extent, holding up within the austerity measure which had been in place since the Shagari days. Food was becoming reasonably available for two reasons: (a) The emphasis paid to agriculture had resulted in abundant food harvests, especially yam tubers. (b) The border closure made it impossible for unscrupulous business men to continue smuggling food items into neighboring countries where they sold for twice their value in Nigeria.

Had Buharinomics continued for at least five years, Nigeria would have joined the Asian tigers in economic growth and self reliance. We know that to be true because Babangida came into office and did everything the IMF asked and the Nigerian economy took a dive into the gutter and has not recovered yet.
[img]https://www.nairaland.com/attachments/754010_General_Muhammadu-Buhari-1984_jpg807fb78f1366f42744d90196f32d264e[/img]



for the corrupt, the fear of Buhari is the beginning of wisdom

cococandy: It was also in his time that the biggest brain drain Nigeria ever experienced occured.
His draconian style of govt had the youth and skilled professionals of Nigeria fleeing in their thousands to overseas.the naira plummeted and visas were celebrated like a million dollar lottery won.

Sadly that mindset has stuck as things have never gotten better since then. All of them that contributedto the downward slope which Nigeria is on should at least have small conscience and not try to play with our intelligence in the name of 'progressives'

He didn't do anything with his youth as the president of Nigeria.
What will he do now in his old age?
All this noise they make isn't about their love for the country,just a ploy to hold onto power no matter the cost.

I'm all for change. But Let these old men give way so that younger people can find their way into govt.maybe they'll make a difference.

idumuose: Buhari knows if doesn't win 2015 election,then he can never contest election again because age will no longer be on his side.

Therefore it is very possible that Buhari will employ all the tricks in his arsenal to win public sympathy including hiring some touts to pull those stunts in Kaduna.

If he could hire criminals wearing the garb of Mossad to Kidnap Dikko then what stops him from hiring some hoodlums to bomb his convoy.

koboko69:



Even your fellow illiterate that you guys queue behind, in person of Asari Dokubo has a contrary opinion and was scared to death should anything have happened to Buhari. He has enough money to abscond for life, its u and your fellow wretched e-warriors i feel sorry for.

*editted*

Buhari never overthrew any government

After half an hour, police started to arrive, and they opened the second crate. Inside they found an unconscious Mr Dikko, and a very much awake Israeli anaesthetist. Mr Dikko was lying on his back in the corner of the crate.

“He had no shirt on, he had a heart monitor on him, and he had a tube in his throat to keep his airway open. No shoes and socks and handcuffs around his ankles. The Israeli anaesthetist was in there, clearly to keep him alive,” recalls Mr Morrow

JEITO: who did the appointment?

Buhari that claimed that Shagari's Govt was corrupt beyond redemption that's why it had to be overthrown.

idumuose: Buhari is 74years or thereabout,next year(2015) he will be 75.If he is defeated in 2015and i am sure he will,his next chance to contest is 2019.Buhari would be 79+ in 2019 and it's only a foolish party that would allow him fly it's presidential flag.

This is the time for him to fight dirty as it were to clinch APC ticket.Goodluck to him.

idumuose: If Buhari could organize the kidnap of Umaru Dikko in a gangster-like manner,then it is a truism that he could have organised his own attempted suicide in otder to score cheap political goal.

Below is the story of how Buhari kidnapped Umaru Dikko .

How The Kidnap Of Umaru Dikko Was Foiled

Background

On 31 December, 1983, the elected government of Nigeria was overthrown in a military coup by the country's army led by Major General Muhammadu Buhari. The new military government jailed several government ministers for corruption and embezzlement while in office. However, the powerful former Transport Minister, Umaru Dikko, fled to London. The military claimed that Dikko used his position as Transport Minister to enrich himself in a series of racketeering scandals. It regarded Dikko as its most wanted fugitive from justice and wanted to bring him back to Nigeria to face trial.

The Kidnap


To bring this about, they hatched a plot to kidnap him off the streets of London. Nigerian intelligence services and undercover agents (with the help of several Israelis who were alleged to be members of Israel's intelligence agency, Mossad) tracked Dikko to a house in west London. After placing the house under surveillance, the agents decided to strike on 5 July, 1984.


Moments after Dikko emerged from the house, two men burst out from a van parked outside the house. They grabbed Dikko and bundled him into the back of the van. The team inside the van included a doctor who injected Dikko to render him unconscious


Israeli Anestestist


An Israeli alleged former Mossad agent, Alexander Barak, was recruited to lead the kidnap team. It included a Nigerian intelligence officer, Maj Mohammed Yusufu, and Israeli nationals, Felix Abitbol and Dr Lev-Arie Shapiro, who was to inject Mr Dikko with an anesthetic.

The kidnappers switched vehicles in a car park by London Zoo and headed towards Stansted airport where a Nigerian Airways plane was waiting. They injected Mr Dikko and laid him, unconscious, in a crate.

The Anestestist climbed into the crate as well, carrying medical equipment to make sure Mr Dikko didn’t die en route. Barak and Abitbol got into a second crate. Both boxes were then sealed.

At the cargo terminal of Stansted Airport, 40 miles (64km) north of London, a Nigerian diplomat was anxiously waiting for the crates to arrive. Also on duty that day was a young customs officer, Charles David Morrow.

Diplomatic bag

The day had gone fairly normally until about 3pm. Then we had the handling agents come through and say that there was a cargo due to go on a Nigerian Airways 707, but the people delivering it didn’t want it manifested,” Mr Morrow said.

“I went downstairs to see who they were and what was happening. I met a guy who turned out to be a Nigerian diplomat called Mr Edet. He showed me his passport and he said it was diplomatic cargo. Being ignorant of such matters, I asked him what it was, and he told me it was just documents and things.”

A missing persons bulletin alerted customs officials to the kidnapping.

No-one on duty at Stansted had dealt with a diplomatic bag before and Mr Morrow went to check the procedure.

Just then a colleague returned from the passenger terminal with some startling news. There was an All Ports Bulletin from Scotland Yard saying that a Nigerian had been kidnapped and it was suspected he would be smuggled out of the country.

The police had been alerted by Mr Dikko’s secretary who had witnessed his abduction from a window in the house.

Hearing the news, Mr Morrow realised he had a problem on his hands.

“I just put two and two together. The classic customs approach is not to look for the goods, you look for the space,” he said.

“So I am looking out of the window and I can see the space which is these two crates, clearly big enough to get a man inside. We’ve got a Nigerian Airways 707, which we don’t normally see. They don’t want the crates manifested, so there would be no record of them having gone through. And there was very little other cargo going on board the aircraft.

“If you want to hide a tree, you hide it in the forest. You don’t stick it out in the middle of Essex.”

By the book

But any cargo designated as a diplomatic bag is protected by the Vienna Convention from being opened by customs officers. So Mr Morrow got on the phone to the British Foreign Office.

“To qualify as a ‘diplomatic bag’ they clearly had to be marked with the words ‘Diplomatic Bag’ and they had to be accompanied by an accredited courier with the appropriate documentation. It was fair to say they had a Nigerian diplomat – I’d seen his passport – but they didn’t have the right paperwork and they weren’t marked ‘Diplomatic Bag’,” he said.

The decision was taken that the crates could be opened – but it would be done by the book. That required the presence of a Nigerian diplomat, but as Mr Morrow pointed out, one was already on hand. By now, the crates were up on special trolleys ready to be loaded on to the plane.

“Peter, the cargo manager, hit the lid on the bottom and lifted it. And as he lifted it, the Nigerian diplomat, who was standing next to me, took off like a startled rabbit across the tarmac, ”‎​​​​ Mr Morrow said.

“You have to remember we are on an airfield which is square miles of nothing. He ran about five yards (4.5m), realised no-one was chasing him and then stopped.‎​​​​

“Peter looked into the crate and said: ‘There’s bodies inside!’

He parked a forklift truck so its tines lay across the top of the crate so it couldn’t be opened. Mr Morrow dialled the emergency number 999.

“My name’s Morrow, from Customs at Stansted. We’ve got some bodies in a crate. Do you think you can send someone over,” he recalls saying.

“They said: ‘Alive or Dead?’

“I said: ‘That’s a very good point. I don’t know.’

“They said: ‘We’ll send an ambulance as well.’”

After half an hour, police started to arrive, and they opened the second crate. Inside they found an unconscious Mr Dikko, and a very much awake Israeli anaesthetist. Mr Dikko was lying on his back in the corner of the crate.

“He had no shirt on, he had a heart monitor on him, and he had a tube in his throat to keep his airway open. No shoes and socks and handcuffs around his ankles. The Israeli anaesthetist was in there, clearly to keep him alive,” recalls Mr Morrow.

The kidnappers in the other crate were unrepentant. They said Mr Dikko was the biggest crook in the world.

Seventeen men were arrested;[6] four were convicted and sentenced to prison terms of 10 to 14 years: Shapiro, Barak, Abithol, and Yusufu. All four were released after serving between six and eight and a half years, and were quietly deported. In retaliation, two British engineers in Nigeria were arrested and given fourteen-year prison sentences.

Repercussions

The Nigerian and Israeli governments never admitted any connection to the incident. Nonetheless, the British government immediately expelled two members of the Nigerian High Commission in London, including the High Commissioner. Diplomatic relations with Nigeria were broken off for two years. The CEO of Nigeria Airways was at one point almost arrested by British police. In the aftermath of the affair, Nigeria filed a formal extradition request for Dikko, but it was refused. The Nigerian governments war against the previous government's corruption was also weakened, as the British governments also rejected Nigerian requests to extradite other politicians wanted in Nigeria on corruption charges and living in exile in Britain.

Dikko was eventually asked to return to Nigeria. He accepted the invitation and set up a political party.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dikko_Affair


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/11/how-the-kidnap-of-umaru-dikko-from-london-was-foiled/

http://m.thenigerianvoice.com/mobile/151907/1/the-kidnap-of-umaru-dikko-1984.html

koboko69:
I hope u can see how foolish u are withthe kind of quotes u getting?

ojimbo: this forum is for right reasoning beings and not daft like u

ziryboy: Useless story

ichidodo: I see the OP's point.As Buhari can setup a complex black bag operation never seen since the Israeli raid at Entebbe Airport,Uganda.Then it wouldn't be too much to suggest that he could also as well instigate a hoax assasination Assassination attempt,a relatively very much smaller operation in scale and planning, to curry public sympathy....

ilugunboy:

[s]You are now a female?


Don't bother to thank me.

NL......Breeding fools from time immemorial....[/s]

ilugunboy: The more they allow this boy to roam Nairaland freely, spewing out nonsense like this OP...the more this community become a joke...

simpleseyi: A tale of two presidents and two thieves.

Buhari organized the kidnapped and deportation of his fellow Northerner named Umaru Dikko who stole the country's money and fled to England; while Jonathan pardoned his fellow Southerner name DSP Alaimesiagha (I can't even spell the unpronouceable name) who also stole the country's money and fled to the same England.

DSP Alaimesiagha was selected by Jonathan to represent the South-South in the on-going jamboree called constitutional conference.

Jonathan also pardoned Bode George who is another thief tat was purnished by Obasanjo. Bode George's wife is now NDLEA chariperson.