Speak to any Nigerian and you will hear the
familiar complaints about Nigeria’s sorry
plight. About the waste, mismanagement,
corruption and lack of environmental
sanitation. Nigerians yearn for a Government
that will tackle these problems head on.
Nigerians although supporting democracy
believe that the institutional checks and
balances it imposes would inhibit even a well
intentioned government, and would prevent it
from pushing through the punishing reforms
and hardline policies that are necessary to
change Nigeria. As one acquaintance put it to
me: “Nigeria missed its chance with the
military”. The acquaintance is no apologist
for military rule but his point was that Nigeria
needs a tough, authoritarian regime to tackle
its problems and implement the unpopular but
corrective policies that a democratic
government cannot afford to take for fear of
being voted out of office. Yet while Nigerians
complain about the problems all around them,
they seem to have collective amnesia and
never refer to the fact that almost two
generations ago, they had a regime with a
programme to tackle all of the problems they
always complain about.
YET ANOTHER COUP
The stage was set for another military rescue
operation. On the last day of 1983, the army
abandoned the barracks in order to “save
this nation from imminent collapse”.
President Shehu Shagari was overthrown only
three months after being re-elected for his
second and final term of office in an election
that was marred by accusations of electoral
malpractice. Scarred by the memory of the
mass bloodshed that followed the bloody
military coups of 1966, the coup plotters
wisely did not harm any senior Government
figures. The only casualty of the coup was
Brigadier Ibrahim Bako who was killed while
trying to arrest President Shagari in Abuja.
Some have speculated that Bako was the
leader of the coup.
If Shagari had taken a look at Nigeria’s
history books, he would have noticed that the
country’s military coups have almost always
been carried out by the same group of
soldiers. The young NCOs and Lieutenants
that blasted Major-General Aguiyi-Ironsi from
power in 1966, became Colonels that
overthrew his successor General Gowon in
1975, and they became the Brigadiers and
Major-Generals that overthrew Shagari. Had
Shagari acted decisively early during his term
and retired these men, his Government may
have survived (the only notable senior officer
retired by Shagari was Major-General Joe
Garba – who had double crossed his own
brother in law during a military coup in 1975).
Oversight of history and military postings
played a part in Shagari’s downfall. Had he,
in his position as the Nigerian Armed Forces’
Commander-in-Chief, paid more attention to
sensitive military postings he would have
noticed that many of the officers who took part
in the coup were stationed in or in close
proximity to the country’s commercial nerve
centre in Lagos. Among the plotters stationed
in Lagos were the army’s Director of Staff
Duties and Plans: Major-General Ibrahim
Babangida, the Military Secretary: Brigadier
Tunde Idiagbon, and a hitherto unknown
brigade commander called Brigadier Sani
Abacha.

Up till the time of the coup, Buhari had been the General Officer Commanding the 3 rd Armoured Division in Jos. The disciplined, tough and stoic Brigadier (later Major- General) Tunde Idiagbon, was appointed as the Chief of Staff at Supreme Headquarters. Having neutralised the incumbent Chief of Army Staff – Lt-General Mohammed Wushishi, Major-General Ibrahim Babangida became the new Chief of Army Staff and de facto number three in the new regime. Wushishi was a symbol of the remarkable reconciliation that had occurred in Nigeria after the civil war of 1967-1970. At the end of the war in early 1970, Wushishi had entertained Conrad Nwawo (a leading officer on the opposing side) as his “guest of honour” at Onitsha barracks. The new military regime suspended several parts of the constitution (primarily those relating to freedom of assembly, association and political activity), banned party politics, declared all borders closed, and began to arrest and detain ministers and officials from Shagari’s Government on charges of corruption and embezzlement. WAR AGAINST INDISCIPLINE Buhari and Idiagbon correctly identified corruption and indiscipline as the main constraints on Nigeria’s development. These twin evils have in the view of many, become a way of life for many Nigerians. For this reason, they launched a nationwide campaign called “War Against Indiscipline” (“WAI”). The WAI campaign was aimed at tackling the most anti-social Nigerian characteristics such as indiscipline, corruption, and lack of environmental sanitation. Nigerians learned and grudgingly accepted social behaviour that was the norm in other countries around the world. Queuing suddenly became all the rage in Nigeria! Buhari and Idiagbon understood that the undisciplined Nigerian psyche was not going to change by persuasion and that their WAI campaign had to backed by the threat of force. Although they had always cried out for a Government that would root out the rampant indiscipline in Nigeria, white collar workers were irked when they learned that the WAI campaign would lead to them being punished and that it would apply to them as well as the rest of “ordinary” Nigerians. Corruption There had been widespread allegations of corruption against many members of Shagari’s government. For this reason, military tribunals were set up to try ministers in Shagari’s administration that had been accused of embezzling public funds. These tribunals were chaired by military officers and had the power to impose massive prison sentences. The only right of appeal from the tribunals was to the SMC which was also exclusively comprised of military officers (and the Inspector-General of police). The military were effectively acting as prosecutor, judge and jury. Unsurprisingly the Nigerian Bar Association barred its member lawyers from participating in the tribunals. Undeterred, Buhari and Idiagbon pressed on with the tribunals and several prominent politicians were convicted of various corruption charges and given massive prison sentences ranging from twenty to over two hundred years. Given that most of the convicted were already over fifty years old, it was obvious that they would die in prison if they served the rest of their sentences. Among those convicted were prominent politicians such as Anthony Enahoro and Jim Nwobodo. The tribunals effectively put Nigeria’s political elite in jail. Although the harsh sentences and nature of the tribunals were criticised, it is arguable that Nigeria needed these Nuremberg style trials in order to free itself from its corrupt past. The era of Buhari and Idiagbon was the first, and only time that Nigerian public officials were tried, and held accountable for their actions in office. The trials would have had more legitimacy if they had been held in civilian courts, presided over by civilian legal officers, and open to the public. This way Nigerians would have seen justice in action and had a chance to scrutinise the actions of their leaders who had so badly let them down and misused their resources. By virtue of their centrally regimented military training and outlook, Idiagbon and Buhari were fundamentally unable to grasp the niceties of, and the political legitimacy they could have derived from holding fair and open trials. The public fully backed their assault on the corrupt elite, if not their methods. The trials and WAI campaign also had a psychological impact on other “don’t know how he got rich” individuals in Nigeria. For the first time in Nigeria’s history it became unwise for those with ill gotten to flaunt their wealth – for fear of attracting the attention of Buhari’s anti- corruption drive.