Remembering ‘Muri’

General Murtala Ramat Mohammed burst into the scene with hoopla as was fitting for the youthful blood coursing through his veins. He became an instant hit in Lagos where his insistence that everything be done “with immediate effect” caught the imagination of the people, especially the younger generation. They called him “Muri”, short form for […]

General Murtala Ramat Mohammed burst into the scene with hoopla as was fitting for the youthful blood coursing through his veins. He became an instant hit in Lagos where his insistence that everything be done “with immediate effect” caught the imagination of the people, especially the younger generation. They called him “Muri”, short form for Murtala among the Yoruba of Western Nigeria. Muri was a brand known for probity, discipline, courage, promptness and pride. One of his first acts was the cancellation of the controversial 1973 national census.
Truth be told, some of Murtala’s moves were too exuberant, some ill-thought-out; but there was no doubt about the patriotic fervour that fired his every move. He was in a hurry to change Nigeria, to make the country achieve its much-touted potentials. What better way to start than by personal example? Murtala was the first – and to date the only – head of government to willingly surrender properties acquired he thought were in excess of his legitimate earnings and encouraged others to do same. He tried to atone for his sins as all people of conscience ought to do.
Hurricane Murtala swept away 10,000 civil servants on the same day. The civil service was to suffer from that action for most of the experienced hands had been sacked. Looking back now, the civil service that he inherited, although corrupt, would look like a congregation of angels when compared with what we have today. Determined to hold public office holders to account, he instituted a comprehensive probe of all federal commissioners and military governors. Of the lot, only four emerged unscathed. All the military governors found guilty of graft were dismissed.
As Lagos was bursting at its seams, Murtala empanelled a body to study the problem and recommend a lasting solution. That was how Abuja came to be decreed into existence as the new federal capital. With the way the concept of Abuja has now been bastardised, the way the city has been turned into a haven for givers and receivers of filthy lucre and a nightmare for the poor, Murtala must be wincing in his grave.
Never since his demise has Nigeria been blessed with a military or civilian leader who reached out from Nigeria to earn the genuine respect and admiration of the rest of the world. Till today, his speech at the OAU Summit titled “Africa has come of age” is considered one of the most powerful and visionary speeches ever delivered by any African leader.
Murtala would not have attended the OAU Summit in person but for a letter from US President Gerald Ford attempting to teleguide Nigeria’s position on world events. Similar letters had gone out to other African leaders ahead of the OAU Summit. Murtala considered the letter delivered by Ambassador Donald Easum an insult. Why would the US be so arrogantly presumptuous? The Murtala government leaked the contents of the letter to the public. Then the head of state decided to personally attend the OAU Summit on 11th January 1976 to deliver Nigeria’s message to the world.

Rejecting the US interpretation of world events and condemning that country for tolerating apartheid in South Africa, Murtala announced that thenceforward Africa would be at the centrepiece of Nigeria’s foreign policy and that the total liberation of the continent was not negotiable. Africans had to take their destiny in their own hands instead of looking up to any self-seeking godfather.   
He declared: “For too long has it been presumed that the African needs outside ‘experts’ to tell him who are his friends and who are his enemies. The time has come when we should make it clear that we can decide for ourselves; that we know our own interests and how to protect those interests; that we are capable of resolving African problems without presumptuous lessons in ideological dangers which, more often than not, have no relevance for us, nor for the problem at hand.”

Murtala was given a resounding standing ovation for his bold speech. The rest of the continent lined up behind Nigeria’s position. The giant of Africa was showing the way forward at last. Thirty-four days later, however, Murtala Mohammed was gunned down during the morning rush hour near the federal secretariat, a victim of his own insistence on obeying traffic laws and going about without heavy security. Students of tertiary institutions all over Nigeria poured into the streets to protest the senseless killing of a man who had given them so much hope and sense of direction. Progressive elements in the country considered his demise a personal loss. That morning, at Araromi area of Onikan, Lagos, I was on my way to keep an interview appointment for Indigo magazine when pandemonium broke loose and we all had to take cover at the nearest shelter available. We later formed endless funeral processions across streets and neighbourhoods wondering if that would be the end of the semi-revolution Murtala had led for 200 days.
Since then we have blundered from one ‘messiah’ to the other – military and civilian. In terms of principled commitment to the common good, none of them is worthy to untie the sandals of Murtala Mohammed.
It was as if he knew that he had a limited time to spend on this plain. He raced against time. Like a candle in the Bar Beach night, he glowed, flickered and finally died. Since then we have not had a truly national leader – the type that is blind to ethnicity and religion. Instead successors and beneficiaries of the Muri brand have fallen far short of the vision and ideals of the man who showed us that we could reach the stars if only we tried. We are no longer teaching history in schools; perhaps it’s all a conspiracy to ensure that coming generations are insulated from the examples of people like Murtala Mohammed.
But as retailers and chroniclers of history it is our duty to engrave in the minds of the younger generation that we have not always been shepherdless. Once upon a time there was Muri who, in the words of Joe Darion, dared “to dream the impossible dream/ to fight the unbeatable foe/ to bear with unbearable sorrow/ to run where the brave dare not go/ to right the unrightable wrong.”