THE ARROGANCE OF POWER:
Guardian's Editorial, Lagos.

It should be perfectly understandable if, in the wake of the recent coup, Nigerians seem a great deal more sceptical about their prospects than perhaps they need be. Two coups in 20 months, separated from a long stretch of military rule only by four brief years of ignominious civilian administration, do not add up to any settled understanding of the essence of government. What they do create is a climate of uncertainty and instability, conditions that are hardly helpful to a nation so desperately in need of orderly progress and development.

Yet, despite the havoc frequent coups continue to do to our psyche and our international image, the question does need to be confronted whether there are circumstances in which the military intervention, even against a military government, may be justifiable. And the answer to that question must, in our circumstances be a resounding yes.

It did not take long before the Buhari administration, so openly and so warmly received by Nigerians when it came to power, began to show it's true and frightful face. Soon enough, it became clear that his administration had a conception of government in which the governed were regarded as a hostile, adversary force, and in which government was virtually an end in itself.

Laws were made, as much through decrees as by administrative fiat, without any evident regard for the interest of the people, let alone their views. Regulations were casually put out, more as punitive devices than as measures designed to ameliorate the citizen's condition. Practically every segment, except, perhaps, the uniformed forces, was antagonised, sometimes humiliated.

Civil liberties were always precarious in military regimes. But the Buhari administration perfected the attrition of elementary freedoms to the point where the average civilian was driven to see himself, often against his will, as a pariah. He had no rights that the government and it's secret police were obliged to respect, and he lived in perpetual fear of being hauled into jail without even a token charge being made against him.

Criticism, even self-criticism, constructive or foul, was banned. Nothing could safely be said of a government that seemed determined to be remembered more for its self-righteous omniscience than for its decency or humanity.

Blackmailed into silence, Nigerians watched as the traditional foundations of the state were eroded. Ethnicity became a principle of state policy. The economy sputtered along. Educational policy was in a shambles. Our hospitals became graveyards. And all along we were invited to believe, as an article of patriotic faith, that we lived in the best of all possible worlds.

Ultimately, it was the arrogance of the Buhari administration that led to its downfall. For arrogance always leads to moral and political blindness. Blindness leads to isolation, and when any government is isolated from the governed, it's end is always predictable.

General Babangida is yet to vouchsafe a detailed blueprint of its intentions. But he knows, as we do, that his task is well cut out for him. His preliminary statements suggest that he does have a sensible idea of the causes of his predecessor's downfall. The more difficult project is to avoid the same pitfalls. No-one, least of all this newspaper, can lay rightful and exclusive claim to the answers to our myriads of problems. We can resolve them only through painful and collective application.

But the present government must provide the leadership. And that leadership cannot be genuine or legitimate unless it springs from the decisive conviction that this nation is one, and that the best government is that which, for good or ill, carries the majority of the governed with it.

https://reubenabati.com.ng/index.php/component/k2/item/5315-arrogance-of-power-the-guardian-newspaper-editorial-on-buhari-in-1985

Where is the link to prove this fresh Igbo lies and deceit similar to the one that led 2 million foolish ones among your people to their early graves is not concocted by pachuwdie34fool ?

The link is there for anyone with even a 3% functioning brain to read. I suppose Fela's songs Zombie and Beast of No Nation which were released almost 40 years ago about the duillard, but which are still relevant today, are also products of Easterners.

Shawnnn01:
Where is the link to prove this fresh Igbo lies and deceit similar to the one that led 2 million foolish ones among your people to their early graves is not concocted by pachuwdie34fool ?

Onechancearmy:

The link is there for anyone with even a 3% functioning brain to read. I suppose Fela's songs Zombie and Beast of No Nation which were released almost 40 years ago about the duillard, but which are still relevant today, are also products of Easterners.

The frajulent post on Abati website that lacks time or date is the only link you have referencing an article in 1985 ?! I do not care if I am banned; you are indeed exceedingly foolish.

How many published Nigerian newspaper articles from 1885 can be found online, my dear dimwit?

Unlike you I have actually read a hard copy of this story and I can confirm that it is accurate, word for word.

You seem very familiar with the concept of foolishness. Your parents must be proud to see their DNA at work.

Shawnnn01:
The frajulent post on Abati website that lacks time or date is the only link you have referencing like an article in 1985 ?! I do not care if I am banned; you are indeed exceedingly foolish.

Onechancearmy:

How many published Nigerian newspaper articles from 1885 can be found online, my dear dimwit?

Unlike you I have actually read a hard copy of this story and I can confirm that it is accurate, word for word.

You seem very familiar with the concept of foolishness. Your parents must be proud to see their DNA at work.

Lol........."The Concept Of Foolishness"

Shawnnn01:
Where is the link to prove this fresh Igbo lies and deceit similar to the one that led 2 million foolish ones among your people to their early graves is not concocted by pachuwdie34fool ?

Igbophobia is bad for your health.
Receive sense.
Back to Daura.

Cc lzaa velocity25 imperialyoruba

Shawnnn01:
The frajulent post on Abati website that lacks time or date is the only link you have referencing an article in 1985 ?! I do not care if I am banned; you are indeed exceedingly foolish.

My yeloba muslim friend, take it easy with the OP, if u have objections go and argue with Abati and ur forefathers. Anuofia

Shawnnn01:
The frajulent post on Abati website that lacks time or date is the only link you have referencing an article in 1985 ?! I do not care if I am banned; you are indeed exceedingly foolish.

Foolishness reigns in your family! Have you forgotten so soon?

Turantula:

My yeloba muslim friend, take it easy with the OP, if u have objections go and argue with Abati and ur forefathers. Anuofia

He is a frustrated he-goat

Onechancearmy:

How many published Nigerian newspaper articles from 1885 can be found online, my dear dimwit?

Unlike you I have actually read a hard copy of this story and I can confirm that it is accurate, word for word.

You seem very familiar with the concept of foolishness. Your parents must be proud to see their DNA at work.

He is a brainwashed frustrated and castrated he-goat

I should go argue with Abati for the lies one foolish Igbotic lunatic came to spread on NL ?! Sire, I hope you have not gone mad ?

Turantula:

My yeloba muslim friend, take it easy with the OP, if u have objections go and argue with Abati and ur forefathers. Anuofia

Onechancearmy:

How many published Nigerian newspaper articles from 1885 can be found online, my dear dimwit?

Unlike you I have actually read a hard copy of this story and I can confirm that it is accurate, word for word.

You seem very familiar with the concept of foolishness. Your parents must be proud to see their DNA at work.

nickxtra post=74808646:
He is a brainwashed frustrated and castrated he-goat

You Igbos must think everyone is dead in the brain like the 2 million foolish ones Ojukwu led to their early grave with your kind of lies.

Like I reminded you, your problem is basically genetic.

Shawnnn01:
You Igbos must think everyone is dead in the brain like the 2 million foolish ones Ojukwu led to their early grave with your kind of lies.

Shawnnn01:
You Igbos must think everyone is dead in the brain like the 2 million foolish ones Ojukwu led to their early grave with your kind of lies.

As dead brain like the desert where u drink cow urines and eat camel poo

Shawnnn01:
You Igbos must think everyone is dead in the brain like the 2 million foolish ones Ojukwu led to their early grave with your kind of lies.

If you are so pained, take this bombshell on your head, again:

FLASHBACK:

THE SPEECH DELIVERED BY BRIGADIER JOSHUA NIMYEL DOGONYARO AFTER BUHARI'S DETHRONEMENT ON AUGUST 27, 1985


I, Brigadier Joshua Nimyel Dogonyaro, of the Nigerian Army, hereby make the following declaration on behalf of my colleagues and members of the Nigerian Armed Forces.

Fellow country men, the intervention of the military at the end of 1983 was welcomed by the nation with unprecedented enthusiasm. Nigerians were unified in accepting the intervention and looked forward hopefully to progressive changes for the better. Almost two years later, it has become clear that the fulfillment of expectations is not forthcoming.

Because this generation of Nigerians and indeed future generations have no other country but Nigeria, we could not stay passive and watch a small group of individuals misuse power to the detriment of our national aspirations and interest.

No nation can ever achieve meaningful strides in its development where there is an absence of cohesion in the hierarchy of government; where it has become clear that positive action by the policy makers is hindered because as a body it lacks a unity of purpose.

It is evident that the nation would be endangered with the risk of continuous misdirection. We are presently confronted with that danger. In such a situation, if action can be taken to arrest further damage, it should and must be taken. This is precisely what we have done.

The Nigerian public has been made to believe that the slow pace of action of the Federal Government headed by Major-General Muhammadu Buhari was due to the enormity of the problems left by the last civilian administration.

Although it is true that a lot of problems were left behind by the last civilian government, the real reason, however, for the very slow pace of action is due to lack of unanimity of purpose among the ruling body; subsequently, the business of governance has gradually been subjected to ill-motivated power play considerations. The ruling body, the Supreme Military Council, has, therefore, progressively been made redundant by the actions of a select few members charged with the day-to-day implementation of the SMC’s policies and decision.

The concept of collective leadership has been substituted by stubborn and ill advised unilateral actions, thereby destroying the principles upon which the government came to power. Any effort made to advise the leadership, met with stubborn resistance and was viewed as a challenge to authority or disloyalty.

Thus, the scene was being set for systematic elimination of what, was termed oppositions. All the energies of the rulership were directed at this imaginary opposition rather than to effective leadership.

The result of this misdirected effort is now very evident in the country as a whole. The government has started to drift. The economy does not seem to be getting any better as we witness daily increased inflation.

The nation’s meager resources are once again being wasted on unproductive ventures. Government has distanced itself from the people and the yearnings and aspirations of the people as constantly reflected in the media have been ignored.

This is because a few people have arrogated to themselves the right to make the decisions for the larger part of the ruling body. All these events have shown that the present composition of our country’s leadership cannot, therefore, justify its continued occupation of that position.

Furthermore, the initial objectives and programmes of action which were meant to have been implemented since the ascension to power of the Buhari Administration in January 1984 have been betrayed and discarded. The present state of uncertainty and stagnation cannot be permitted to degenerate into suppression and retrogression.

We feel duty bound to use the resources and means at our disposal to restore hope in the minds of Nigerians and renew aspirations for a better future. We are no prophets of doom for our beloved country, Nigeria. We, therefore, count on everyone’s cooperation and assistance.

I appeal to you, fellow countrymen, particularly my colleagues in arms to refrain from any act that will lead to unnecessary violence and bloodshed among us. Rest assured that our action is in the interest of the nation and the armed forces.

In order to enable a new order to be introduced, the following bodies are dissolved forthwith pending further announcements: (a) The Supreme Military Council (b) The Federal Executive Council (c) The National Council of States. All seaports and airports are closed, all borders remain closed.

Finally, a dusk to dawn curfew is hereby imposed in Lagos and all state capitals until further notice. All military commanders will ensure effective maintenance of law and order. Further announcements will be made in due course. God bless Nigeria.

CAN ANY NIGERIAN TELL US THE DIFFERENCE THEN AND NOW?

immhotep:

Igbophobia is bad for your health.
Receive sense.
Back to Daura.

Cc lzaa velocity25 imperialyoruba

Shawnnn01 just wants to serve the caliphate