In December 1983, some middle and high-
ranking military officers selected Buahri to
lead the country after a successful military
coup that toppled then president, Alhaji
Shehu Shagari. At the time, Buhari was head
of the Third Armored Division of Jos.
Below is a transcript of his speech after the
military coup obtained from Omojuwa.com:
“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
mismanaged 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”.


Source: https://www.naij.com/348472-buharis-speech-after-1983-coup.html

Coup then affecting us now?

DaBullIT:
Coup then affecting us now?

My friend how?

pls elaborate

ok

Our politicians are thieves form the genesis of this nation.

That is the Coup that almost destroyed Nigeria ....

deji68:
That is the Coup that almost destroyed Nigerian ....

would love it if you can shed some light