Word: babangida
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...celebrations last October, a sudden downpour sent many notables scrambling for cover under the grandstand. Within moments, ordinary Nigerians in the bleachers were soaking wet. So was a bullish army officer striding across the parade grounds. Spurning an aide's offer of an umbrella, Major General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, 44, continued to inspect a military honor guard in the rain. The crowd roared its approval and gave a standing ovation to the new President of Africa's most populous nation...
That common touch has served Babangida well since last Aug. 27, when he came to power in a military coup. Babangida deposed the country's former military leader, Major General Mohammed Buhari, who himself had overthrown the government of President Shehu Shagari in a 1983 New Year's Eve coup. Buhari had alienated the country of some 95 million people with his repressive tactics, which included jailing political enemies and using military tribunals instead of civil courts to dispense justice. Babangida's bloodless, well- planned takeover was the fifth in Nigeria since it gained independence from Britain...
Astonishingly, one of Babangida's first moves was to invite public debate on how to deal with Nigeria's $24 billion foreign debt. In a series of unprecedented public meetings, as well as in newspaper editorials, Nigerians resoundingly opposed the government's application for a new $2.5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund. Although the money was badly needed to keep pace with the debt, Babangida suspended negotiations with the IMF. Instead, he shrewdly used his mandate to impose many of the draconian austerity measures that the IMF had suggested. Among them: doubling the price of gasoline and tripling...
...well as taking action on the economic front, Babangida moved aggressively to ensure basic human rights for Nigerians. An hour after taking the presidential oath of office, he abolished an edict that Buhari had used to muzzle criticism from the lively Nigerian press. Babangida permitted Buhari to retire honorably from the army. Buhari's right-hand man, Major General Tunde Idiagbon, a Muslim, was allowed to return from Saudi Arabia, where he was making a pilgrimage to Mecca when the coup occurred. Noted a Nigerian journalist: "In most countries, a man like Idiagbon would have been shot...
...headed the National Security Organization, Nigeria's intelligence arm. A former clerk in the Foreign Ministry, Rafindadi used his power to conduct a purge in Nigeria's diplomatic service, firing some of its very best people. He also rounded up many ordinary citizens and kept them in "protective detention." Babangida sacked Rafindadi and curbed the powers...