Abuja - Nigerians had to forgive former military
ruler Muhammadu Buhari many sins for him to
win this weekend's election.
"The General", as his supporters now
affectionately call him, kicked out an elected
government in 1983, ushering in an era of
military dictatorship in Africa's most populous
nation that was to last 15 years.
During his 18 months in charge, he imprisoned
journalists and opposition activists without trial,
executed drug traffickers by firing squad and
ordered soldiers to thrash those who failed to
queue in an orderly fashion at bus stops.
Fittingly, perhaps, he was himself deposed in
another military coup.
"His rule was nasty, brutish and mercifully short,"
the Economist magazine wrote in a column last
month, describing the 72-year-old as less "awful"
than incumbent Goodluck Jonathan, whose years
in office have been plagued by corruption
scandals.
Ladi Netimah, a senior civil servant condemned to
65 years in prison by Buhari's junta for "doing
business while in government", has since forgiven
the general.
She served nearly four years of her sentence and
describes him as someone who "wanted things
done properly but went about it in the wrong
way".
"He was too heavy handed," she told Reuters.
But over the ensuing years, Buhari reinvented
himself as a democrat, and his four attempts to
take power peacefully demonstrated a
commitment to the ballot box if nothing else.
With many Nigerians upset at Jonathan's
performance, especially over their two biggest
bugbears, corruption and security, more and
more were prepared to overlook Buhari's past,
and its cobwebs of military austerity and
authoritarianism.
"Jonathan made it easy for Buhari by
disappointing so many people," popular Blogger
Tolu Ogunlesi told Reuters. "It was a case of
'Jonathan has to go and I will vote for anything
else'."
"Too young to remember"
The son of a canoe maker and the first president
since the 1999 restoration of democracy never to
have worn an army uniform, Jonathan started his
first term with much good will in his favour.
But it was quickly eroded, as he failed to face up
to an Islamist insurgency in the northeast and
corruption flourished.
His administration was beset by multi-billion
dollar graft scandals in the oil business. When
central bank governor Lamido Sanusi complained
that up to $20 billion was unaccounted for at the
state oil firm, Jonathan simply sacked him.
A perceived failure to take the Islamist Boko
Haram insurgency seriously at first did not bother
many Nigerians as most were not directly
affected.
But when the militants kidnapped more than 200
school girls from the town of Chibok last April,
provoking global outrage, his administration's
plodding response triggered protests that
ultimately played a part his downfall.
By contrast, Buhari's short rule in the 1980s
earned him a reputation as strongman with no
time for corruption or rebellion, both of which he
squashed.
His image as an ascetic wearing a simple kaftan
and spurning the champagne-fuelled lifestyle
enjoyed by much of Nigeria's elite, added to his
appeal.
But demographics may also have been a deciding
factor.
"More than two thirds of the population is under
40 and too young to remember Buhari," said Max
Siollun, author of "Soldiers of Fortune", a history
of post-colonial Nigeria.
More remarkable is the willingness of those
mistreated or imprisoned by "The General" to give
him another chance.
In January veteran journalist Tunde Thompson,
jailed for eight months by Buhari's junta under
the Orwellian-sounding "Decree 4", said he had
forgiven him and that Buhari was someone "who
can help bring discipline through democratic
means".
Similarly Netimah, who before her secret military
trial spent three weeks in a concrete cell with no
toilet and nothing to sleep on but a chair, said
she bore no grudges.
When she met her tormentor-in-chief years later,
the pair simply laughed about the curious twists
of Nigeria's turbulent history.
"I think he was just passionate about Nigeria,"
she said.

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