Only in a Country like Nigeria

I Captain Nigeria, wasn't born in the 1970s but I do know a little of what happened those days. Thank God for the internet. On the 1st of October, 1979, Olusegun Obasanjo, a  then military head of state,handed over to an elected civilian president. How noble of him.

Just a few year after,  Nigeria thought they have bided Military rule goodbye,  there came another coup d'etat in the Nigerian political history. This coup was supported by Buhari our present democratic president. After the success of the coup, Buhari was selected as the Miltary head of state and Idiagbon his de facto vice president. In my own terms, I am concluding that Buhari played a major role in effecting a drastic setback in the history our political development.

January 1, 1983, Buhari gave his maiden speech but this time he said nothing like "I belong to everybody and nobody". In his own wisdom, he suspended the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1979) and ran the country with an Iron fist with no respect for human rights.

Later in 1985, the most experienced man in coup planning took over from Buhari. He wasn't so tough after all. Major. Gen. Ibrahim Babaginda was involved in the planning of a lot of coups in Nigeria history (From July 1966, February 1976, December 1983, August 1985 to December 1985).

Now I didn't have to google this one because it happened right in front of my very eyes, Abdulsalam Abubakar handed over to Olusegun Obasanjo on May 29, 1999, and the constitution came back to live on May 5, 1999. I was eight years old at this time anyways and I definitely didn't know the true difference between democratic and civilian rule except for the uniforms. All I could tell was that people were happy and called Obasanjo's administration ijoba alagbada

The funny thing is, men that were thorough enemies of democracy, the rule of law and human rights had the guts and audacity to campaign and run to be presidents in a democratic setting. Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Babangida annulled the famous June 12 elections and still felt the entitlement to run  in the 2007 and 2011 presidential elections.

I am confident that it is only in a country like Nigeria that a leader like Buhari could run and win election to become president despite his political history.