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 politics 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 be 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.

we will compare it with the one of tomorrow

should i read all these? My goggles don lost yesterday




i may read tomorrow own, he his old now and i believe it will be a short one. he has made enough promises

Before he became a dullard.

Sai baba

We thought we'd moved on from that era, but we keep getting dragged back to the 80s by a section of the Nigerian nation....the solution is Referendum.

Lol. Are we supposed to compare and contrast with that of tomorrow.....
I pray tomorrow will be the beginning of a new nigeria. Let the CHANGE be positive.. Anyway things cant get worse than it is with this outgoing administration. Worst case scenario we remain as we are.

when shall we learn, mistakes of yesterday are still being repeatedly repeated. Exactly what happened then is what we're still grappling with today...