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Nigeria The Muhammad/Obasanjo Government
General Gowon was overthrown in a palace coup in July
1975
and succeeded by General Murtala Muhammad, who was in turn
assassinated in an abortive coup on February 13, 1976. He
was
replaced by Olusegun Obasanjo, formerly his second in
command.
General Obasanjo basically continued the policies and
plans of
the Muhammad regime.
Murtala Muhammad, a Hausa from the north (Kano State),
ruled
for only seven months. Within that short period, he
endeared
himself to most Nigerians because of his strong leadership
and
the radical reforms he introduced in domestic and foreign
policies. He "purged" the public-service ministries,
universities, parastatals, and other government agencies
at the
federal and state levels of individuals accused of being
corrupt,
indolent, or inefficient. He set up a panel headed by
Justice Ayo
Irikefe to advise on the creation of more states. Its
report led
to the creation of seven additional states in 1976.
Murtala
Muhammad also set up a panel under Justice Akintola Aguda
to
consider whether a new federal capital should be created
because
of the congestion in Lagos. The panel recommended Abuja in
the
southern part of the former Northern Region as the site of
a new
capital. In economic matters, Murtala Muhammad introduced
the
"low-profile" policy, a radical departure from the
ostentation of
the Gowon era.
Although he retained the framework of military
federalism,
Murtala Muhammad removed state governors from membership
in the
SMC and created a new body in which they were included at
the
center, the National Council of States. Because this body
was
chaired by the head of state and subordinate to the SMC,
its
creation underscored the subordinate position of the state
governments. This arrangement enabled the head of state to
exert
greater control over the state governors than had been the
case
under Gowon. In the area of foreign policy, Murtala
Muhammad
pursued a vigorous policy that placed Africa at the center
and
that involved active support for liberation movements in
the
continent.
Of all Murtala Muhammad's actions, however, the one
that had
the most lasting consequences was a program of transition
to
civilian rule that he initiated before his death. The
program was
carried through as planned by his successor, Obasanjo. The
stages
of the transition agenda included the creation of more
states,
the reform of the local government system, the making of a
new
constitution, the formation of parties and, finally, the
election
of a new government. The transition process was to
culminate in
the handing over of power to civilians on October 1, 1979.
In February 1976, Murtala Muhammad was killed in an
unsuccessful coup led by Colonel Bukar Dimka and officers
from
the middle belt; the coup appeared to be an attempt by
middle-belt officers to bring back Gowon from his
self-imposed
exile and reinstate him as head of state. Obasanjo, a
Yoruba and
southerner, became head of state. Although unfavorably
compared
with Murtala Muhammad initially, he succeeded in many
areas of
his administration where the more intransigent Murtala
Muhammad
might have failed. Obasanjo became an adept political
ruler,
determined not to exacerbate north-south and
Muslim-Christian
schisms in the country.
In addition to its methodical conduct of all the stages
of
the transition to civilian government in 1979, the
Obasanjo
government initiated numerous reforms in public life.
Attempts
were made to introduce greater probity in the activities
of civil
servants and other public officials. The main vehicle for
this
process was the establishment of public complaints
commissions in
all states of the federation and in the capital. Despite
the
publicizing of particular cases of abuse of office and
corruption, little progress was made in stopping the
spread of
this cancer in the society and economy.
The Obasanjo administration expanded the economic
indigenization program started under Gowon. It also used
the Land
Use Decree of 1978 to rationalize the country's haphazard
tenurial systems, to reduce the crippling land speculation
and
curb the frequent litigation over individual and communal
property rights. It was hoped that these reforms would
facilitate
the acquisition of land for modern agricultural purposes.
In a
similar vein, the Obasanjo regime launched Operation Feed
the
Nation to counter the rapid rise in food exports. None of
these
efforts was successful, but the programs indicated the
kind of
strategies that Nigeria would have to adopt to alter its
economic
imbalances.
In view of the complex process of transition to
civilian rule
and the many reforms introduced in the four years of the
Muhammad/Obasanjo governments, those regimes seemed in
retrospect
to have tried to do too much too soon. In the final year
he was
in power, Obasanjo introduced many austerity measures and
insisted on a "low profile" for all government officials.
He was
aware that Nigeria, despite its oil wealth, was still
largely an
underdeveloped country and its businesspersons mainly
agents or
intermediaries for foreign businesses. Such a salutary
attitude
was soon forgotten, however, as the successor regime rode
the
crest of a renewed upsurge in oil prices, spent resources
faster
than they could be realized and left the country deeply in
debt
and its economy nearly in shambles when it ended in 1983
(see The Second Republic
, this ch.).
Data as of June 1991
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