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Wednesday, April 28, 2010

NIGERIA LEADERSHIP Since Independence (2)- Olusegun Obasanjo

Olusegun Obasanjo

Early life and first time as head of state

Oluẹgun Mathew Okikiọla Arẹmu Ọbasanjọ, GCFR (born circa 5 March 1937) is a retired Nigerian Army general and former President of Nigeria. A Nigerian of Yoruba descent, Obasanjo was a career soldier before serving twice as his nation's head of state, once as a military ruler, between 13 February 1976 to 1 October 1979 and again from 29 May 1999 to 29 May 2007, as elected President. His current home is Abeokuta, the Capital City of Ogun State. Ọbasanjọ was born in Ogun State, grew up in Owu (Abeokuta), and he enlisted in the Nigerian Army in 1958. His name, Olusegun, means "The Lord is victorious". He trained at Aldershot, was commissioned as an officer, and fought against the Biafran secessionists in the Nigerian Civil War. Although Brig. Ọbasanjọ did not directly participate in the military coup of 29 July 1975, led by Murtala Mohammed, he supported it and was named Murtala's deputy in the new government. As chief of staff of Supreme Headquarters, Obasanjo sought advice from Rogerlay of Akobi and thus had the support of the military. He had earlier commanded the 3 Marine Commando Division of the federal army that took Owerri, effectively bringing an end to the civil war. His previous military service included 1 Area Command in Kaduna and acting as Chief Army Engineer, then commander of 2 Area Command from July 1967, which was redesignated 2 Division Rear, and then the Ibadan Garrison Organisation. On 13 February 1976, he was marked for assassination along with Murtala and other senior military personnel by coup plotters, lead by Army Col. Dimka. Although Murtala was killed during the attempted coup, Obasanjo escaped death as another officer's vehicle was mistaken for his. The low profile security policy adopted by Murtala in guarding very important persons allowed the plotters easy access to their targets. The coup was foiled because the plotters missed Obasanjo and General Theophilus Danjuma, chief of army staff and de facto number three man in the country. The plotters also failed to monopolize communications, although they were able to take over the radio station to announce the coup attempt. Obasanjo and Danjuma were able to establish a chain of command and re-established security in Lagos, thereby regaining control. Obasanjo was made head of state in a meeting of the Supreme Military Council. Keeping the chain of command established by Murtala Muhammad in place, Obasanjo pledged to continue the programme for the restoration of civilian government in 1979 and to carry forward the reform programme to improve the quality of public service.The second republican constitution, which was adopted in 1979, was modelled on the Constitution of the United States, with provision for a President, Senate, and House of Representatives. The country was now ready for local elections, to be followed by national elections, which would return Nigeria to civilian rule.

Oil boom

The military regimes of Murtala Muhammad and Obasanjo benefited from a tremendous influx of oil revenue that increased 350 percent between 1973 and 1974, when oil prices skyrocketed, to 1979, when the military stepped down. Increased revenues permitted massive spending; this spending, however, was poorly planned and concentrated in urban areas. The oil boom was marred by a minor recession in 1978-79, but revenues rebounded until mid-1981. Plans were undertaken for the movement of the federal capital from Lagos to Abuja, a more central location in the interior of the country. Such a step was seen as a means of encouraging the spread of industrial development inland and of relieving the congestion that threatened to choke Lagos. Abuja also was chosen because it was not identified with any particular ethnic group.

Industry

Industrialisation, which had grown slowly after World War II through the civil war, boomed in the 1970s, despite many infrastructure constraints. Growth was particularly pronounced in the production and assembly of consumer goods, including vehicle assembly and the manufacture of soap and detergents, soft drinks, pharmaceuticals, beer, paint, and building materials. Furthermore, there was extensive investment in infrastructure from 1975 to 1980, and the number of parastatals — jointly government- and privately owned companies — proliferated. The Nigerian Enterprises Promotion decrees of 1972 and 1977 further encouraged the growth of an indigenous middle class. Heavy investment was planned in steel production. With Soviet assistance, a steel mill was developed at Ajaokuta in Kogi State, not far from Abuja. However there was a significant decline in agriculture and industries associated with agriculture. The increase in revenues due to the oil boom made resulted in a rise in income, especially for the urban middle class. There was a corresponding inflation, particularly in the price of food, which promoted both industrialisation and the expansion of agricultural production. As a result of the shift to food crops, the traditional export earners — peanuts, cotton, cocoa, and palm products — declined in significance and then ceased to be important at all. Nigeria's exports became dominated by oil.

Green Revolution

In response to this the government embarked on a "Green Revolution", seed and fertilliser were given to farmers to increase nation-wide productivity in farming.

Education

Education also expanded rapidly. At the start of the civil war, there were only five universities, but by 1975 the number had increased to thirteen, with seven more established over the next several years. In 1975 there were 53,000 university students. There were similar advances in primary and secondary school education, particularly in those northern states that had lagged behind. During Obasanjo's regime, universal Primary education was introduced nationwide.

Political repression

Obasanjo was also accused of being responsible for political repression. In one particular instance, the compound of Nigerian musician and political activist Fela Kuti was raided and burned to the ground after a member of his commune was involved in an altercation with military personnel. Fela and his family were beaten and raped and his mother, political activist Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, was killed by being thrown from a window. Her coffin was carried to Obasanjo's barracks as a protest against political repression.

Transition to democracy

Obasanjo served until 1 October 1979, when he handed power to Shehu Shagari, a democratically elected civilian president-hence becoming the first Military Head of state to trasfer power peacefully to a civilian regime in Nigeria. In late 1983, however, the military seized power again. Obasanjo, being in retirement, did not participate in that coup.


Friday, April 23, 2010

NIGERIA LEADERSHIP Since Independence (4)-Muhammadu Buhari

Muhammadu Buhari (born December 17, 1942) was the military ruler of Nigeria (December 31, 1983 - August 27, 1985) and an unsuccessful candidate for president in the April 19, 2003 presidential election. His ethnic background is Fulani and his faith is Islam; his family is from Katsina State.

Minister of Petroleum
Buhari first came to limelight in 1975 when He became the Minister (or "Federal Commissioner") for Petroleum and Natural Resources under then-Head of State General Olusegun Obasanjo. Before then he was the Governor of the newly created North Eastern State of Nigeria during the regime of Murtala Mohammed. He later became head of the newly created Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in 1977

Buhari Administration
Major-General Buhari was selected to lead the country by middle and high-ranking military officers after a successful military coup d'etat that overthrew civilian President Shehu Shagari on December 31, 1983. Buhari was appointed Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, and Tunde Idiagbon was appointed Chief of General Staff (the de facto #2 in the administration). Buhari justified the military's seizure of power by castigating the civilian government as hopelessly corrupt, and his administration subsequently initiated a public campaign against indiscipline known as "War Against Indiscipline (WAI)." Despite authoritarian tendencies, the campaign is still lauded by many to have instilled the most orderly conduct of public and private affairs in Nigeria since its independence in 1960.

Members
The Buhari Cabinet
OFFICE NAME TERM
Head of State Muhammadu Buhari 1984-1985
Chief of Staff Tunde Idiagbon 1984-1985
Defense Domkat Bali 1984-1985
Agriculture Bukar Shuaib 1984-1985
Trade Mahmud Tukur 1984-1985
Communications A Abdullahi, Lt Col 1984-1985
Education Yarima Ibrahim 1984-1985
Finance Onaolapo Soleye 1984-1985
Abuja Mamman Jiya Vatsa 1984-1985
Health Emmanuel Nsan 1984-1985
Internal Affairs Mohammed Magoro 1984-1985
Foreign Affairs Ibrahim Gambari 1984-1985
Minister of Information Sam Omeruah 1984-1985
Transportation Abdullahi Ibrahim 1984-1985
Energy Tam David-West 1984-1985
Justice Chike Offodile 1984-1985
Works Patrick Koshoni 1984-1985

1985 Coup and Overthrow
Buhari was himself overthrown in a coup led by General Ibrahim Babangida on August 27, 1985 and other members of the ruling Supreme Military Council (SMC) ostensibly, because he insisted on investigating allegations of fraudulent award of contracts in the Ministry of Defense. If that investigation had been carried through, it is believed that many senior military officers would have been implicated. Buhari's insistence on this investigation was to become his fait accompli. A Palace Coup was planned and carried out by Gen Ibrahim Babangida and some senior military officers whose necks were heading for the chopping block following the conclusion of the investigation. Without a doubt, this would have become Buhari's and Idiagbon's most bitter and shocking lesson on how endemic and widespread corruption had become in Nigeria. Later years Buhari served as the Chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund, a body created by the Government of General Abacha, and funded from the revenue generated by the increase in price of petroleum products from , to pursue developmental projects around the country. His transparent and efficient handling of this agency endeared him to Nigerians.
In 2003, Buhari contested the Presidential election as the candidate of the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP). He was defeated by the People's Democratic Party nominee, President Olusẹgun Ọbasanjo, by a margin of more than eleven million votes. It was claimed by Mr Buhari's supporters and other members of the opposition that out that in some states, like Ebonyi, there were more votes than there were actually registered voters . Although some allegations of fraud were conclusively proven in the courts and the conduct of the election was criticized by the same Commonwealth body that criticized the recent Zimbabwean Elections - Commonwealth Observer Group, the general consensus among Nigerians was that he should not waste his time in court as he did not have the necessary resources to "buy" himself justice. Eventually, the same court also decided that the level of proven electoral fraud was not sufficient to affect the outcome of the election and to warrant the cancellation of the whole Presidential election.
On 18 December 2006, Gen. Buhari was nominated as the consensus candidate of the All Nigeria People's Party. His main challenger in the April 2007 polls was the ruling PDP candidate, Umaru Yar'Adua, who also hails from the same home state - Katsina. In the election, Buhari officially took 18% of the vote against 70% for Yar'Adua, but Buhari rejected these results .
After Yar'Adua took office, the ANPP agreed to join his government, but Buhari denounced this agreement.

NIGERIA LEADERSHIP Since Independence (3)- J.T.U Aguiyi-Ironsi


Major General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi (March 3, 1924, Umuahia - July 29, 1966, Lalupon, Oyo State) was a Nigerian soldier. He served as the Head of State of Nigeria from January 16, 1966 until he was overthrown and killed on July 29, 1966 by a group of northern army officers who revolted against the government.

Early life
Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi was born to Mazi and Ezugo Aguiyi on March 3, 1924, in Umuahia-Ibeku, present day Abia State, Nigeria. When he was eight years old, Ironsi moved in with his older sister Anyamma, who was married to Theophilius Johnson, a Sierra Leonean diplomat in Umuahia. Ironsi subsequently took the last name of his brother-in-law, who became his father figure. At the age of 18, Ironsi joined the Nigerian Army against the wishes of his sister.

Military career
Aguiyi-Ironsi excelled in military training at Eaton Hall, England and became a commissioned officer in June, 1949. He soon returned to Nigeria to serve as the Aide de camp to John Macpherson, Governor General of Nigeria. During the Congo Crisis of the 1960s, the United Nations Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjöld, appealed to the Nigerian government to send troops to Congo. Lieutenant Colonel Ironsi led the 5th battalion to the Kivu and Leopoldville provinces of Congo. His unit proved integral to the peacekeeping effort, and he was soon appointed the Commander of the Nigerian Contingent of the United Nations Operation in the Congo.

Congo
In 1960 he led the Nigerian contingent in Congo.There he single-handedly negotiated the release of Austrian medical personnel and Nigerian troops when they were ambushed by Katangese rebels. For this he was awarded the 1st class Ritta KreuzAward. He also single-handedly confronted an angry mob in Leopoldville, disbanding them. This and many other exploits earned him the name "Johnny Ironside", a corruption of his name "Ironsi" with reference to various British military historical parallels.
Ironsi returned from Congo in 1964 during the post-independence "Nigerianization" of the country's institutions of government. It was decided that the British General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Nigerian Army, Major General Welby-Everard, would step down to allow the government to appoint an indigenous GOC. Ironsi led the pack of candidates jostling for the coveted position. A consensus was reached by the ruling Northern People's Congress (NPC) and National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) coalition government, and Ironsi became General Officer Commanding of the Nigerian Army on February 9, 1965.

Politics
Fall of the First Republic
Ironsi addresses the nation in his first press conference as Head of State. Sitting from left are Hassan Katsina, Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, David Ejoor, J.E.A. Wey and Yakubu Gowon. The political crisis in post-colonial Nigeria precipitated into a breakdown of law and order in some of the country's provinces. The inability of Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa to quell the situation incited the military to terminate civilian rule in a bloody coup d'etat on January 14, 1966. The revolutionary soldiers, led by Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, an Igbo from Okpanam near Asaba, present day Delta state, eradicated the uppermost echelon of politicians from the Northern and Western provinces. Though Ironsi, an Igbo, was originally slated for assassination, he was able to outmaneuver the rebellious soldiers in Lagos, the Federal Capital Territory. Ironsi then rose from the ashes of the First Republic to become the country's first military Head of State when Acting President Nwafor Orizu officially surrendered power to the military.

194 days in office
Ironsi inherited a Nigeria deeply fractured by its ethnic and religious cleavages. The fact that none of the high-profile victims of the 1966 coup were of Igbo extraction, and also that the main beneficiaries of the coup were Igbo, led the Hausas and Yorubas to believe that it was an Igbo conspiracy. Though Ironsi moved swiftly to dispel this notion by courting the aggrieved ethnic groups through political appointments and patronage, his failure to punish the coup plotters and the promulgation of the now infamous "Decree No. 1"—which abrogated the country's federal structure in exchange for a unitary one— crystallized this conspiracy theory.
Supreme Military Council

OFFICE NAME TERM

Head of State Major-General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi 1966
Chief of Staff, Nigerian Defence Forces Brigadier Babafemi Ogundipe 1966
Chief of Staff, Army Lt-Colonel Yakubu Gowon 1966
Military Governor of Eastern Region Lt-Colonel Chukwuemeka Ojukwu 1966
Military Governor of Western Region Lt-Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi 1966
Military Governor of Mid-west Region Lt-Colonel David Ejoor 1966
Military Governor of Northern Region Lt-Colonel Hassan Katsina 1966

Counter coup and assassination
On July 29, 1966, Ironsi spent the night at the Government House Ibadan as part of a nation-wide tour. His host, Lieutenant Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, Military Governor of Western Nigeria, alerted him to a possible mutiny within the army. Ironsi desperately tried to contact his Army Chief of Staff, Yakubu Gowon, but he was unreachable. In the early hours of the morning, the Government House Ibadan was surrounded by soldiers led by Theophilus Danjuma. Danjuma arrested Ironsi and questioned him about his alleged complicity in the coup which saw the demise of the Sardauna of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello. Although some have argued that Fajuyi was not a target in this counter-coup, Danjuma, Walbe and others have gone on record to say that they probably wanted him "for questioning" as much as they did his boss, Aguiyi-Ironsi. Fajuyi was seen as a so-called progressive, who had supported the Nzeogwu coup in January of that year. The bullet-riddled bodies of Ironsi and Fajuyi were later found in a nearby forest, and Yakubu Gowon became the new Military Head of State.

Trivia
Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi,Gen Aguiyi Ironsi's son was appointed to the position of Nigeria's Defence Minister on August 30, 2006-Forty years after his father's death.

NIGERIA LEADERSHIP Since Independence- Heads of States (Civilians and Military)

Presidents of Nigeria


First Republic
Azikiwe

Military regime
Aguiyi-IronsiGowon • MohammedObasanjo

Second Republic
Shagari

Military regime
Buhari BabangidaShonekan (interim)* • AbachaAbubakar

Fourth Republic
Obasanjo • Yar'AduaJonathan (Acting)
* civilian; headed transition to abortive Third Republic

NIGERIA LEADERSHIP Since Independence- Heads of the Federal Military Government of Nigeria, 1966-1979

Heads of the Federal Military Government of Nigeria, 1966-1979 and 1983-1999


NIGERIA LEADERSHIP Since Independence (1)- Ibrahim Babangida

Ibrahim Babangida

Ibrahim Babangida General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (born August 17, 1941), popularly known as IBB, was the military ruler of Nigeria from August 1985 until his departure from office under heavy popular pressure in 1993, after his annulment of elections held that year which were widely held to have been the freest and fairest in Nigeria's post-independence history.

Contents
1 Early career and rise to power
2 Babangida's economic policies
3 IBB as politician
4 The botched transition to civilian rule

Early career and rise to power
Ibrahim Babangida hails from the Gwari ethnic group and was born in Minna in Niger State, the city in which he has resided since his departure from office. He joined the Nigerian Army's officer corps in 1962, and served in an administrative capacity under the 1976-1979 military government of Olusegun Obasanjo. Babangida once again took up a political position under the administration of General Muhammadu Buhari, whose regime he overthrew on 27 August 1985, promising at the time to bring to an end the human rights abuses perpetuated by Buhari's government, and to hand over power to a civilian government by 1990.


Babangida's economic policies
Babangida issued a referendum to garner support for austerity measures suggested by the IMF and the World Bank, and subsequently launched his "Structural Adjustment Program" (SAP) in 1986. The policies entailed under the SAP were the deregulation of the agricultural sector by abolishing marketing boards and the elimination of price controls, the privatisation of public enterprises, the devaluation of the Naira to aid the competitiveness of the export sector, and the relaxation of restraints on foreign investment put in place by the Gowon and Obasanjo governments during the 1970s. Between 1986 and 1988, when these policies were executed as intended by the IMF, the Nigerian economy actually did grow as had been hoped, with the export sector performing especially well, but the falling real wages in the public sector and amongst the urban classes, along with a drastic reduction in expenditure on public services, set off waves of rioting and other manifestations of discontent that made sustained commitment to the SAP difficult to maintain. Babangida subsequently returned to an inflationary economic policy and partially reversed the deregulatory initiatives he had set in motion during the heyday of the SAP, and economic growth slowed correspondingly, as capital flight resumed apace under the influence of negative real interest rates.

IBB as politician
On the political front, Babangida proved far more adept at accommodating and manipulating public opinion than Buhari or any other Nigerian military ruler before or since. Wherever possible he preferred to buy off opposition, only resorting to outright force on the rare occasions when opposition could neither be bought off nor ignored. At the beginning of his rule, Babangida did try to live up to his self-bestowed mantle as a restorer of human rights, releasing many politicians detained under the Buhari regime, but this patina wore off as time went by. Despite his initial promises to do so, Babangida never did get around to abolishing the notorious State Security (Detention of Persons) Decree Number 2, which established the right of the government to detain for six months any individual deemed dangerous solely on his say-so, without any right to a trial or even habeas corpus. To the contrary, he made increasing use of the decree himself as time went by to muzzle trade unions, student groups, journalists and other individuals who proved irritating to his regime.
One step Babangida did take early in his rule that proved less deft than usual, and which still reverberates to this day, was his unilateral decision to upgrade Nigeria's role in the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) from observer status to full-fledged membership, despite the fact that at best only half on Nigerians were adherents of Islam. This act helped stoke religious tensions that could be contained easily enough under military dictatorships willing to use any means necessary to stifle religious extremism, especially when Nigeria was still being run by Northern Muslims who the most extreme advocates of Sharia could regard as "one of them", but have now boiled over under a civilian government lacking recourse to brute force unrestrained by judicial oversight. On April 22, 1990, Babangida's government was almost toppled by a coup attempt led by Major Gideon Orkar. During the brief interlude during which Orkar and his collaborators controlled radio transmitters in Lagos, they broadcasted a vehement critique of Babangida's government, accusing it of widespread corruption and autocratic tendencies, and they also threatened to expel the five northernmost, predominantly Hausa-Fulani, Nigerian states from the union, accusing them of seeking to perpetuate their rule at the expense of the predominantly Christian peoples of Nigeria's middle-belt.

The botched transition to civilian rule
In 1989, seemingly in keeping with his promise to hand over power to a civilian government by 1992, Babangida legalized the formation of political parties, and after a census was carried out in November 1991, the National Electoral Commission (NEC) announced on January 24, 1992 that both legislative elections to a bicameral National Assembly and a presidential election would be held that year. The legislative elections went ahead as planned, with the Social Democratic Party (SDP) winning majorities in both houses of the National Assembly, but on August 7, 1992, the NEC annulled the first round of presidential primaries, alleging widespread irregularities. January 4, 1993 saw the announcement by Babangida of a National Defense and Security Council, of which Babangida himself was to be President, while in April 1993 the SDP nominated Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola (MKO) as its presidential candidate, with the National Republican Convention (NRC) choosing Bashir Othma Tofa to run for the same position. On June 12, 1993, presidential elections were finally held, but the results were mysteriously held back, although it soon leaked that Abiola had in fact won 19 of the 30 states, and therefore the presidency. Rather than allow the announcement of the results to proceed, the NDSC decided to annul the elections, and Babangida then issued a decree banning the presidential candidates of both the NRC and the SDP from running in new presidential elections that he planned to have held. Widespread acts of civil disobedience then began to occur, particularly in the Southwest region from which Abiola hailed, but these were soon quashed by the security forces and the army. On July 6, 1993, the NDSC issued an ultimatum to the NDSC to join an interim government or face yet another round of elections, and Babangida then announced that the interim government would be inaugurated on August 27, 1993. On August 26, amidst a new round of strikes and protests that had brought all economic activity in the country to a halt, Babangida declared that he was stepping down from the presidency, and handing over the reins of government to Ernest Shonekan. Ominously, General Sani Abacha was left behind to "watch over" Shonekan's interim government, and within 3 months of the handover Abacha seized control of the government, while Babangida himself was conveniently in the midst of a visit to Egypt.

Reference- Wikipedia et al
Constitutionalism
A written constitution contains the most important laws by which a nation's citizens agree to live, and it outlines the basic structure of their government. Thus, democratic constitutionalism -- based on ideals of individual freedom, community rights, and limited government power -- creates the framework for governing a democracy.
Constitutionalism recognizes that democratic and accountable government must be coupled with constitutional limits on the power of government.
A constitution defines the basic purposes and aspirations of a society, including the common welfare of the people.
All laws must be written in accordance with the constitution. In a democracy, an independent judiciary allows citizens to challenge laws they believe to be illegal or unconstitutional and to seek court-ordered remedies for illegal actions by the government or its officials.
A constitution provides the framework for government power -- its scope of authority, mechanisms for exercising that authority, and the procedures for passage of future laws.
A constitution defines citizenship and establishes the basis for deciding who shall have the right to vote.
A constitution establishes the political, administrative, and judicial foundations of the state including the structure of the legislature and courts, requirements for holding elected office, and terms of office for elected officials.
A constitution lays out responsibilities of government ministries and grants authority to collect taxes and create a national defense force.

In a federal system, the constitution divides power among the various levels of government.

Since a constitution is written at a certain point in time, it must be amendable so that it may adapt to the changing needs of the people in the future. Since the flexibility to meet unpredictable and unforeseeable challenges in the future is important, constitutions are usually written to specify general principles of government.

Constitutions generally contain two different types of rights -- negative and affirmative rights.

° Negative rights tell the government what it cannot do. These rights limit government and prevent it from affecting certain behaviors of its citizens. For example, the government must refrain from limiting free speech and the ability of citizens to peacefully assemble, and from illegal imprisonment.

° Affirmative rights tell the government what it must do and citizens what they are entitled to. Such "entitlements" may include social, economic, and cultural rights in the form of government guarantees of various social indicators. There may be guarantees of primary and secondary education for all boys and girls, guaranteed "well being" after retirement, or jobs and health care for all citizens.