Nigerian got independence
in 1960 and the new nation was born and today is the most powerful ,richest and the biggest economy in Africa and
the biggest black nation on earth .A lot
has happened in more than a
century of nation building yet the strategic
ideals of nationhood is far from being achieved .Inspite of the challenges the
nation has emerged even stronger much against the speculation of a possible
break up from external aggression ,international conspiracies and the mutiny of
the fifth columnists .In this chapter ,we review the checkered antecedence of
the Nigerian leadership profiles right from independence till this date .This
critiques the nature and the direction of leadership generations
in general its challenges and the
solution required to revisit the Nigerian project abandoned long ago perhaps from the first
republic .Enjoy the reading .
A Review
Of Nigerian Leadership Antecedence -1960-2014
Tafawa Balewa.
Right from independence the challenges facing leadership has
not been that easy and the mantle of leadership of course has fallen on average
Nigerian like us At the dawn of the new nation, Tafawa Balewa became the first prime minister .As a common Nigerian of northern extraction
during the colonial era he was trained as teacher and became a political appointee in 1952 as a
minister of works .He later served as minister of transport and was elected in
1957 was instrumental to the formation of a coalition government between the
northern peoples forum-NPC and the national council of Nigerian and Cameroons –NCNC
later known as national council of Nigerian citizens –NCNC led by Nnamdi
Azikiwe .In a military coup on January 15, 1966, the Balewa was overthrown and killed including his old companion
–Ahmadu Bello and several leaders .Six days after his murder his body was
thrown at the roadside near Lagos .He was buried in Bauchi and Tafawa Balewa
university was named in his honour .
Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe
On November 16 , 1904,Zik of Africa as popularly known was born
in Newi and died 1996 at the university of Nsuka teaching hospital ,
Enugu.He was one of the nation ‘s leading lights of the nation’s nationalist
struggles showed patriotic vigour and
adorned our five hundred notes like a colossus ,espoused the African
nationalism liberation that set the pace for freedom of countries like South
Africa and produced distant mentee like Nelson Mandela –the later hero of Anti partheid movement in South Africa
emulated in other nationalistic struggles.Little wonder ,the moniker of ‘Zik Of
Africa ‘had come to stay that depicted the historical colossus and by far the greatest singular impact and influence a
Nigerian leader has had on the African
continent.He got his master from Abraham
Lincoln University in Penysylvania in U.S.and later became an instructor in the
same University .He joined the African Morning Post in Accra ,Ghana as Editor
.With this strategic tool of Journalism ,he was able to drive his liberation
policies and ideologies such as regisomentos etc –a platform that he
efficiently used well to earn the moniker . He became a leading light in the
Nigerian Journalism beginning with his various publications such as defunct
west African Pilot and a host of others in his stable-the Zik Group of
Newspapers across the country.He had a successful political career and a great contributor to the nationalistic
struggles that led to the formation of national council of Nigerian Citizens
which he co-founded alongside Herbert Macauley –the pioneer nationalist in the
country .He was selected into colonial legislative council of Nigeria in 1947
and by 1951 became a leader of opposition to the
government of Obafemi Awolowo in the then western house of Assembly .He was
premier of the eastern region in 1954 and by 1960 ,Zik of Africa born in 1900 in Zungeru in the
northern region became the 1st senate president in the country.
JTU AGUIYI IRONSI
Between 1924 and 1966
– a Nigerian of Igbo extraction was born and lived and a strong political
figure with uncommon touch, transformed his nation and polity .Johnson Thomas Unmunakwe Aguiyi Ironsi ,on January 16, 1966 became the President of Federal
republic of Nigeria .He was murdered in a coup perpetrated on July 29,1966.The
Nigerian first military president was born in 1924 in Umuahia ,Abia State and
later joined the Nigerian army in 1942 and became a major general in 1964 . On
that fateful day in 1966 ,he was murdered in broaddaylight alongside Adekunle
Fajuyi on a visit to the ancient city of
Ibadan by Kaduna Nzeogwu and the northern led cabals.
GENERAL YAKUBU GOWON
General Gowon is the youngest president to rule Nigeria at
the age of 27 became the head of State contrary
to 32,38 and 48 years recorded by Obasanjo,Murtala and Ebele Jonathan
respectively .He was overthrown by blood thirsty colleagues after spending 9
years in government . He took over government by means of coup d’etat in 1966
and successfully kept government and the
country together during the civil war of 1967 to 1970 in which about 3.5
million Igbos were massacred .The war responded
to the aftermath of regional
tension that built up in from January and July 1966 coups .As a vdevout Christian
he hails from kanke local government of Plateau State –a successful careerist
prior to becoming the head of State of his great country . Between 1960-61 and
then in 1963 as part of united nations peacekeeping force also fought in Congo, Zaire
.During his nine year tenure as head of state,beside national development plans
that facilitated unprecedented national infrastructural development ,he was credited with creation of 12 states
including Lagos –the nation’s capital and expansion of civil service .He
started and implemented the first two national development plans before the
civil war .
GENERAL MURTALA MUHAMED
General murtala muhamed was responsible for the responsible
for the successful coup that deposed the Gowon regime on July 29 ,1975 in
partnership with fellow young soldiers who desired to return the nation to democratic rule .Muhamed like Danjuma ,
Yar’adua opposed the regime of Aguiyi
Ironsi .He was a brigadier when he took over government and later a general .As
a northern muslim of hausa stock , he was trained as a military academy in Sandhurst,U.K. and
became a great commander of federal field forces and played a prominent role in
the dangerous northern cabal that unleashed a bloody 1966 coup which fell Ironsi. In a reprisal ,
however he was killed on February 13,1976 after his vehicle was ambushed by
fellow soldiers like Dimka in an abortive coup.He was succeeded by his chief of
staff –Olusegun Obasanjo who completed
the political time table for the transfer of power to the Civilians .Murtala
portrait adorns the nation’s 20 naira notes .
In the succeeding pages we explore Obasanjo legacies more
elaborately and the successive democractic regimes since 1999 .But before that
we briefly summarise the successive regimes from Shagari era -2nd
republic until 1999 as noted below .In this elaboration , the achievements of each government in the nation’s
history are juxtaposed to determine the
best President Nigeria ever had or the
top three.
ALHAJI SHEHU SHAGARI
Alhaji Shehu Shagari was born in the Shagari village area of
Sokoto State on February 25 ,1925 .He became the first most popularly elected president of the
country following the introduction of Presidential system in 1979 .Shagari rose
from obscurity into national prominence after hand over of government from the
military caretaker government of Olusegun Obasanjo.This altered once again the
nation’s political history and a new beginning that flagged off the second
republic .He was formerly a teacher before venturing into politics in 1954 as
elected member of federal house of reps
.As a continuation of 3rd national development plans ,the 4th
national development plan took off and focused on industry ,Agriculture, large
scale housing program like the Shagari estate , transportation etc ,the
completion of Delta Steel in 1982 and massive investment were made in Ajaokuta
Steel complex and Steel rolling mills .In
an attempt to protect the country austerity measures and economic stabilization
programme were introduced .This was oriented to bridge the gap or shortfall in
oil revenue due to the slump in world oil market of the 70s .The coup that
followed in 1983 brought down that government ..
MUHAMED BUHARI
Muhammed Buhari –a Fulani and a devout muslim who hails from
Katsina State and born in December 17, 1942 took the nation by storm in 1983 to
become the new head of State of his great country. He shot to limelight as the
governor of newly created northeastern Nigerian State. In 1975 he became the
minister of petroleum and national resources. Under General Olusegun
Obasanjo in 1977 ,he headed the Nigerian
national Petroleum Corporation and with the exit of 2nd republic which
the masterminded together with Tunde
Idiagbon as deputy and chief of Staff
assumed the mantle of leadership on
December 31st ,1983 after a successful coup d’etat by the high rank
and file of the military forces .He initiated campaign against indiscipline-WAI
during the shortlived regime .He had contested elections three times under the
current era of democractic
dispensations.First under the All Nigerian Peoples Party-ANPP in 2003 and 2007 and later in 2011 under congress for progressive
change –CPC .He was branded as serial
loser having lost in all attempts to people democractic party –PDP.\
GENERAL IBRAHIM BABANGIDA
He was born in 1941 in Minna ,Niger State .He introduced the
concept of military presidency and the ideology of political debate into the
nation’s political governance lexicon .He was popular both as a villain and a
hero to some when he adopted world bank introduced Structural Adjustment Programme –SAP into the
country on July ,1986. He bruled for eigth years and his tenure was truncated
by political transition programme rather than outright hand over to popularly
elected democractic government .He was deposed by popular will after the
annulment of June 12 , 1993 election adjudged as the freest and fairest
election in the nation’s history .
CHIEF ERNEST SHONEKAN
Ernest Shonekan was a leading CEO of UAC and Nigeria in general in the 90s ,born on May 9, 1936 as Ernest
Adegunle Oladeinde Shonekan in Lagos.As
a British educated Lawyer and
industrialist ,he was appointed as interim President of Nigeria in the
political transition programme of former president Ibrahim Babangida .The
administration lasted barely three months after it was overthrown by the palace
coup of General Sani Abacha in which he
was forcefully resigned by the new regime .This further undermined approach
needed to strengthen the democractic institutions in the country.
GENERAL SANI ABACHA
He lived between September 20, 1943 and June 1998 and was
the president of Nigeria between 1993 to 1998 –a devout muslim of northern
Kanuri extraction .Prior to becoming the head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces ,during
the IBB regime ,he was the chief of staff of that administration in 1988 and
later minister of defence in 1990 .It is
on good record that he was instrumental
to the coup that brought down the Buhari regime .He took the country to the
highest level of dictatorship with human right abuses second to none ,the peak
of which was the murder of human right activist –Ken Saro wiwa and the Ogoni -9
.It was speculated to have been poisoned or
died through heart attack or overdose of viagra .Without any autopsy ,he
was buried the same day .
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