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General Muhammadu Buhari,
Prof. Chinua Achebe
Gen. Muhammadu Buhari
Buhari was born on General Muhammadu Buhari has held several staff appointments. He was mechanical transport officer, Lagos Garrison Transport
Company, 1964-65; transport company commander, 2 Infantry Brigade Transport Company, January-July 1965; battalion
adjutant, later battalion company commander 2 Infantry Battalion 1965-67; brigade major, 1 Infantry Division April-July
1967; brigade major and commander 4 Infantry Brigade 1968-70; commander, 31 Infantry Brigade 1970-71; assistant
adjutant-general 1 Infantry Division 1971-72; colonel general staff, 3 Infantry Division, January-September 1974;
and director Supply and Transport, Nigerian Army, 1974-75. General Buhari was appointed military Governor of former North Eastern State, 1975-76; military Governor, Highly decorated in General
Buhari was interviewed by PINI JASON. About Pini Jason
THE
INTERVIEW Q.
Your Excellency, you are arguably one of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari in Military Dress Uniform
A.
I will most sincerely say education.
I think education will unchain our people from all their prejudices, whether it is ethnic, religious or whatever.
And here, unusually, I have to place the blame squarely on the shoulders of the elite. It is not the number of
degrees each ethnic group holds that matter, although that matters; what does is continuous education in politics,
the economy and security. It is amazing how groups are hijacked and held hostage by incompetent leadership in Nigerian
communities, not allowing them to make dispassionate choices of representation and leadership. And really, ignorance
is costing us so much in terms of development and the tension it creates. Of recent, I have been targeting the
elite and its conscience. Let the elite wake up, go back to various constituencies and, directly or indirectly,
continue to educate our people. Once there is an educated majority of Nigerians, I believe there is a certain level
of standards they will not accept under any arrangement. But when people are allowed to wallow in ignorance, even
concerning their immediate environment, they cannot be productive. Q.
You said you have been targeting the elite. What has been the kind of response you are getting from them? A. I don’t think anybody has disagreed with me publicly.
But I think that inherent selfishness – and I am part of the elite – seems to have prevented this group from reflecting
on my critiques, which I have aired several times, some of it published. We need people
invested in going back to their various communities to organize and continuously educate the majority, in order
to relieve them of the weight of ignorance and misunderstanding concerning their communities, and the serious consequences
of a lack of national cohesion. Q.
There are people who would put the problem squarely on the laps of the leadership of this country. But why should
we have such a problem of leadership with the quality of manpower we have in this country, most of who can hold
their own elsewhere in the world? A. Yes, I think that question has been answered largely
by what we have just discussed. If the elite would make the necessary sacrifice and educate the people, then credible
leadership will emerge at all levels. There are some members of the elite that are really concerned about the state
of the nation, but would rather not go public with their efforts. They would rather try to create education, industrial,
or whichever funds, and give other people to manage it. But that is
simply not enough! It is a good starting point, I will allow, but it is not good enough. This must be a grand,
national effort that sits squarely on the shoulders of the elite. The elite historically make or mar a nation.
In Q.
This ignorance you are talking about seems to favour the political elite exploiting it. Do you think the elite will be keen to commit what might amount
to class suicide by educating the ignorant masses? A. I tend to believe that sooner or later, the masses will
bypass them, in any case.
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This is happening for the first
time since 1914! And I challenge people to research the number of industries that have collapsed since then; the
level of unemployment and insecurity! And there is not a single town in Q.
One of the things that seem to create this malaise is corruption. When you came to office, almost 22 years ago,
you launched a nation-wide crusade -- War Against Indiscipline. Everyone, from the local government to the national level, embraced it. Today we
are back with an anti-corruption crusade. Would you not say that the intervening 22 years was a total loss to A. I think it was. My administration launched the War Against Indiscipline, because it was very much involved and concerned
about our country. We recognized that the major problem in In Q.
Nigerians seem to be divided about the effectiveness of the anti-corruption crusade. Is the war making any impact on corruption? A. It is. It has great impact, because some of the untouchables
have been touched. When you read about the former Inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun, being handcuffed and publicly brought to court, it sends
a very important message. But I remain skeptical for one significant reason. It is assumed that Q. Compound interest perhaps?! (General laughter). A. Well! Maybe you are a mathematician! I have never been
one! But you see -- it is so irritating! These people hypocritically go around sending us relief materials where
there are disasters in parts of Where a country like There is information from one
of the United Nation’s Agencies that Nigerians have over N100 billion in various banks in the country! It has also
been discovered that certain individuals have taken between US$ 107 and US$ 170 billion outside the country! Obasanjo should appeal to the countries harboring such monies,
because they are aware of its existence. Every single kobo brought into their country, they know about and can
account for. These countries should take their US$ 35 billion from such monies, and repatriate the rest to Nigeria.
We don’t even want any pardon! Let them send the balance back here, and let the Nigerians who deposited it come and claim their money, and explain how they got it out of this country in the first place,
and why! So -- if there is any seriousness, we will expect to witness that kind of dedication and then I will be
convinced that this government is fighting corruption! Q.
Another thing is the economic reform. Many people have criticized it as heavily tilting towards IMF/World Bank dictates.
If you had won the election, how differently would you have reformed the economy? A. Firstly, I myself, to be frank, have been pained by some
of the contradictions in the policies of these foreign institutions on economic reforms. The first contradiction
is this: how can we sell, for example, the Nigerian Airways, with all its assets, landed property, hangers, aircraft,
whether flying or not; all the infrastructure that the country built over a generation, say for US$ 10 billion,
and then sell it for one billion dollars? That’s my first observation. But then, paradoxically, again, I like reform.
I see how efficient private
companies are, how people work themselves to death to make a profit, and to be competitive in terms of good services,
compared to the lackadaisical attitude of public company operators. But my approach ought to be really different,
because it is the Nigerian elite that worked in public companies that destroyed the Nigerian Airways, the Nigerian
Railways, the Nigerian National Shipping Lines -- you name it; everything that we used the ‘Seventies oil boom
to build, the Nigerian elite has corruptly killed! But I think we have a solution, because the majority of Nigerians
are good citizens. And they value their personal security. If we can employ good managers, and give them the power
to hire and fire, I can assure you they will perform satisfactorily. Q.
The other thing that pertains to leadership is this controversy over immunity for people in certain public offices,
and its effect on the anti-corruption crusade. Do you think the immunity clause militates against the anti-corruption
crusade? A. I think it did up to the point when (Tafa) Balogun ( Q.
Your Excellency, the issue of immunity seems to be what removes ‘that will to perform’ as it concerns certain public
officers. We have recent examples. If one Governor were not arrested in far away A. It is, indeed, an embarrassment to the system that we are trying
to copy. How did
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Q.
I would like to go back to the issue of religious prejudice that you raised earlier in our discussion. It seems
that since A. Again, as I told you, education is the solution. But
it has to be education plus! It means education plus experience. There are people who are leaders at various levels.
If a person has served as a minister, or an army officer, or a police officer, or say an engineer in ministry of
works, his job takes him all over the country, across religions and ethnic groups. And when people say they want
good leadership, they can very easily conduct a survey to find out how such a man has been behaving. In his area
of work, did the man allow Nigerians, irrespective of religion and ethnicity, to perform and be paid for their
performance, or did he show undue favouritism
for his own ethnic group or religion? Moreover, not that many people actually want to be president; so their past
can easily be monitored. That is where experience comes in. But with those who have never been tested, you will
just be taking a risk! Q.
I would like to take you back to a statement you made when you became Head of State in 1984. You said the military
was not only protectors, but also promoters of our national interest. A few people thought that the statement meant
that the era of military intervention in A. You see, we have to accept that we are a developing country.
And the disappointment of Nigerians is caused by the elite! The elite again! Most of the people of my generation
and before have been very well educated. The education institutions here were first class, whether it was the | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
