In August 1975, as a Lt. Colonel, GMB was appointed military governor of North- Eastern State, an area now comprising the six states of the North East geo-political zone. He governed with such acuity and urbanity that was undoubtedly the basis for the future development of the area. As Federal Commissioner for Petroleum resources (March 1976-July 1978), two of the Nation’s four refineries, that is, warri and Kaduna, were built. Also, thousands of kms of pipelines and fuel depots were constructed. In 1983, the patriotic fervor of GMB was rudely put to test when the Chadians, in a mindless expansionist adventure, invaded and occupied 19 Islands in Lake Chad within Nigerian territory. As the General Officer Commanding (GOC) the 3rd Armored corps, GMB successfully carried out a blockade, forcing the return of the territories -and thereafter pursued the Chadians as far as 50kms into Chadian territory; a feat loudly applauded as forward defense strategy at its best! As the incoming Head of State on December 31st, 1983, he aroused the Nigerian people into a new wave of Patriotism with his often- quoted statement: “This generation of Nigerians, and indeed future generations, have no country other than Nigeria. We shall remain and salvage it together.” This aptly captured what later defined the conduct of the Buhari administration. The 20-month era of strong leadership espoused what later became known as ‘Buharinomics’, which simply put, is an admixture of frugality, probity, respect for contractual agreements, expunction of all covert or overt attempts at subjugating the Nigerian economy to world powers and above all, the economic policy with Nigeria as the center-piece. Rotimi Fashakin
Posted on: Sat, 08 Jun 2013 23:04:47 +0000
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