[tengallons]

I've enjoyed Siollum's straight historical essays, but this analytical piece is something else. While I will concede that Nigeria needed resolute leadership after the rudderless Shagari administration, Buhari's tenure was heavy on brute discipline and short on vision. That administration (and by extension, the military) was arrogant and disrespectful to the point of cowing Nigerians. That is not how to prepare the ground for the return the democracy. As far as I am concerned, they did violence to our collective psyche. Fighting corruption is one thing, but it is quite another to chart sophisticated routes to grow the economy, expand democratic space, and generally develop the nation. Buhari et al were drill sergeants, not statesmen. At the end of the day we had Bonaparte without Bonapartism.