|
Nigeria The Regime of Murtala Muhammad, 1975-76
The armed forces chose thirty-eight-year-old Brigadier
(later
General) Murtala Ramat Muhammad, a Muslim northerner, to
succeed
Gowon. A Hausa, trained at the British military academy at
Sandhurst, Murtala Muhammad had command of federal field
forces
in the final phase of the civil war, including being
responsible
for the abortive efforts to cross the Niger River. He was
not
directly involved in the coup d'état that brought him to
power,
but he had played a prominent role in rallying northern
officers
behind the July 1966 coup that felled Ironsi. In a short
time,
Murtala Muhammad's policies won him broad popular support,
and
his decisiveness elevated him to the status of a national
hero.
One of his first acts was to scrap the 1973 census,
which was
weighted in favor of the north, and to revert to the 1963
count
for official purposes. Murtala Muhammad removed top
federal and
state officials to break links with the Gowon regime and
to
restore public confidence in the federal government. More
than
10,000 public officials and employees were dismissed
without
benefits, on account of age, health, incompetence, or
malpractice. The purge affected the civil service,
judiciary,
police and armed forces, diplomatic service, public
corporations,
and universities. Some officials were brought to trial on
charges
of corruption, and one former military state governor was
executed for gross misconduct in office. Murtala Muhammad
also
began the demobilization of 100,000 troops from the
swollen ranks
of the armed forces.
Twelve of the twenty-five ministerial posts on the new
Federal Executive Council went to civilians, but the
cabinet was
secondary to the executive Supreme Military Council.
Murtala
Muhammad imposed the authority of the federal government
in areas
formerly reserved for the states, restricting the latitude
exercised by state governments and their governors in
determining
and executing policy. Newly appointed military governors
of the
states were not given seats on the Supreme Military
Coucil, but
instead were expected to administer federal policies
handed down
by Murtala Muhammad through the military coucil. The
federal
government took over the operation of the country's two
largest
newspapers, made broadcasting a federal monopoly, and
brought
remaining state-run universities under federal control.
Murtala Muhammad initiated a comprehensive review of
the
Third National Development Plan. Singling out inflation as
the
greatest danger to the economy, he was determined to
reduce the
money supply that had been swollen by government
expenditures on
public works. Murtala Muhammad also announced that his
government
would encourage the rapid expansion of the private sector
into
areas dominated by public corporations. He reappraised
foreign
policy, stressing a "Nigeria first" orientation in line
with OPEC
price guidelines that was to the disadvantage of other
African
countries. Nigeria became "neutral" rather than
"nonaligned" in
international affairs. The shift in orientation became
apparent
with respect to Angola. Nigeria had worked with the OAU to
bring
about a negotiated reconciliation of the warring factions
in the
former Portuguese colony, but late in 1975 Murtala
Muhammad
announced Nigeria's support for the Soviet-backed Popular
Movement for the Liberation of Angola (Movimento Popular
de
Libertação de Angola--MPLA), citing South Africa's armed
intervention on the side of the rival National Union for
the
Total Independence of Angola (União Nacional para a
Indepêndencia
Total de Angola--UNITA). The realignment strained
relations with
the United States, which argued for the withdrawal of
Cuban
troops and Soviet advisers from Angola. In October the
Nigerian
air force took delivery of Soviet-built aircraft that had
been
ordered under Gowon.
Data as of June 1991
|
