Algebra12:


Insurmountable economic problems plagued the Buhari regime as petroleum prices collapsed in the face of expanding foreign debt. Buhari instituted austerity measures that caused severe hardship to the average Nigerian. In addition, political corruption continued unabated, with politicians escaping to Western countries with millions of dollars in government money. In an effort to stop dissension, Buhari instituted restrictions on the press, political freedoms, and trade unionists. By August 1985 even the military had had enough, and Ibrahim Babangida took control of the government. Buhari was detained in Benin City but was released at the end of 1988.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/83801/Muhammad-Buhari

barcanista:
OP Funny enough, you don't just take encyclopaedia as sole source of information, because anybody can enter whatever satisfies their sentiment. Britannica is an encyclopaedia itself. You need to tell from economic indices to decode success or failure of a government.
Inflation rate relative to previous year(s)
Unemployment/Employment rate relative the previous year(s)
Gross National Income
Gross Domestic Product
Budget
Balance of trade etc.

General Muhammadu Buhari’s regime, which ousted the civilians on the eve of 1984, had little to offer apart from budget tightening and slogans. The ad hoc austerity measures of the military failed to stabilize the economy, especially as it was unwilling to challenge the failed policy commitments of its predecessors. The economy spiraled rapidly downwards through the mid-1980s.

In the wake of the Buhari coup, Nigeria faced a new three year period of instability (having moved from a 7 in 1983 to a -7 in 1984 in the Polity 2 index). In this period, Nigerians suffered the worst oppression in their history of being an independent republic.

There was an immediate drop in the democracy score not only because of the replacement of a democratically elected government by Buhari’s military junta, but also because of government control over free society, something new in post-independence Nigerian politics. The Nigerian Medical Association and the National Association of Nigerian Students were outlawed. Two decrees severely restricted freedom of the press, as journalists were barred from reporting information considered embarrassing to any government official (in Buhari’s infamous Decree Number 4). Security risks to the state, as determined by the chief of staff at Supreme Headquarters (in Decree Number 2), could detain for up to six months without trial. Special military tribunals handled the business of sedition in lieu of civilian courts. Wiretapping, detentions without charges, and other police infractions against basic civil liberties became normal. Fela Ransome-Kuti, a high- life singing superstar, whose lyrics were a continual embarrassment to the government, was arrested in the Buhari period (Metz 1991).

Polity 2’s appraisal gives Nigeria a -7 for the early years of Buhari is thus fully justified. Yet indiscipline in administration (or the inability of any mortal to discipline Nigerian society) gave Nigeria a sense of being ruled within the anocratic zone.

Nigeria’s political culture undermined Buhari’s authoritarian pretensions. His anti-corruption campaign was enforced haphazardly – some faced execution and others (those who were well-connected) walked free. His environmental protection crusade was similarly haphazard. Its principal target were petty traders working out of what the government called “illegal structures” (i.e. market stalls and workshops along the streets). Police destroyed many of these shacks incurring widespread resentment.

The incompetence of the Buhari regime was evident to all, and mostly for self- protection of the military, on August 27, 1985 a group of officers under Major General Ibrahim Babangida overthrew Buhari and took charge along with his Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC).

Buharinomics was General Buhari’s economic program marshaled out to salvage the nation in 1984. He summarized the objective of his economic policy (as articulated in the 1984 budget) as follows: "To arrest the decline in the economy, to put the economy on a proper course of recovery and solvency, and to chart a future course for economic stability and prosperity" (West Africa, May 14, 1984). He had previously done similarly, in March while receiving the visiting Sudanese President, Gaafar Nimeiri. Upon his inquiring of what the new military government had in mind for the nation it then ruled, Buhari said to him: "The priority [of his administration] is for economic recovery, providing employment opportunities, improving people's living conditions, consolidating internal security and ensuring foreign respect" (Africa Now, March 1984). In a nutshell, Buharinomics set out to arrest the decline in the economy and refocus it towards recovery.

Buharinomics was to wean the nation off consumerism and profligacy, while channeling it towards frugality and productivity. To accomplish this, the government was to cut down on its expenditure, engage in more efficient restricting and controlling of foreign exchange outflow, undertake the revival of the country's productive capacity (concentration was on agriculture), and broaden government's revenue base.

The first test of Buharinomics was implemented to revive the comatose banking industry and arrest local currency hoarding. In April 1984, the government ordered a change in the color of the Naira. This action was dubbed the “real coup” by unscrupulous business men and politicians who had almost eliminated the need for commercial banking in Nigeria by keeping their moneys under their mattresses or by trafficking them into neighboring West African countries.

This currency change, which forced all holders of the naira notes into exchanging them for the new naira notes at commercial banks, infused billions that had remained unaccounted for into the banking industry and eliminated counterfeited currencies, which had inflicted inflationary and other nefarious effects on the economy. This measure had an immediate revitalizing effect in the banking industry and was an unqualified success. Banks that were close to collapsing became vibrant again, to the extent that some of them began to hire hitherto unemployed Nigerians.
To cut down on government expenses, the federal work force was cut by 30% and imports for 1984 pegged at 4 billion pounds (mostly on basic foodstuffs, spare parts, and raw materials for local industries), against 14 billion pounds spent in 1983. To ensure that Nigeria remained respectable on the international business world, Buhari committed to honoring Nigeria’s debt payment schedule irrespective of the limited earning potential of Nigeria. In August 1984, Buhari was on one of his meet-the-people nationwide tours, which he began as soon as the administration got on its feet. Everywhere he went, the people embraced him, coming out en mass and ushering him tumultuous cheers and unreserved applause.In one of his speeches to the people (this one in Owerri), he reiterated Nigeria’s commitment to honoring its debts, the dire economic situation notwithstanding. "The task of this administration is how to persuade Nigerians to understand that for a number of years to come, we would be paying debts, the roads may be long and thorny but we believe that on our shoulders lies the responsibility to save our fatherland from devastation that has resulted from mismanagement" (Newswatch, February 18, 1985).

Buhari could not have been any more correct in his statement above. Assuming Nigeria took no further loans, its breakdown of loan repayments was as follows: 3.9 billion naira ($4.4 billion) in 1985, 3.7 billion naira ($4.19 billion) in 1986, 2.8 billion naira ($3.2 billion) in 1987, until a decrease to 703 million in 1991 (Concord Weekly, May 6, 1985). Nigeria’s precarious financial situation made it impossible for it to finance capital projects and meet up its balance of payment obligations. With oil export pegged at 1.3 million barrels per day by OPEC, borrowing from external sources became necessary. To this effect, Nigeria proposed borrowing 1.795m naira to finance its capital project from the IMF. The patriotism with which General Buhari handled Nigeria’s dealings with the IMF was the highlight and beauty of Buharinomics.

In order to qualify for the loan, IMF gave Nigeria certain conditions which must be met. In 1984 when the naira exchanged for $1.34, the IMF demanded a minimum of 60% devaluation of it. Buhari refused, agreeing only to a "crawling peg"—a mechanism whereby government would realign the currency gradually, forestalling or minimizing economic and social dislocations because of such drastic devaluation of its currency. In addition to the devaluation of the naira, IMF demanded that government took other drastic actions: (a) The government must remove its subsidy on petroleum. (b) It must curtail its expenditure. (c) Government must rationalize its tariff structures. (d) It must put a freeze on its wages. (e) It must put a total end of non-statutory transfers to State governments, (f) Government must at least institute a 30% raise on interest rates—government resisted this because the decline in its revenue earnings and its debt obligations made it almost impossible to raise interest rates without triggering inflation (West Africa, May 14, 1984).