Nigeria’s 2015 presidential election delivered a moment many citizens once thought impossible. For the first time in the country’s history, an incumbent president conceded defeat and power passed peacefully to an opposition candidate. The concession by Goodluck Jonathan and the victory of Muhammadu Buhari eased tensions across the country and marked a turning point in Nigeria’s democratic journey.
Yet Buhari’s return to office did more than signal political change. It reopened an unresolved chapter from Nigeria’s military past, one that continues to shape how many Nigerians understand authority, discipline, and dissent. For those who lived through the 1980s, Buhari was not only a newly elected president. He was the former military ruler whose government enforced strict social order and oversaw one of the most famous imprisonments in Nigerian cultural history.
The military chapter behind the democratic moment
Buhari first came to power following a military coup at the end of 1983 and ruled Nigeria from early 1984 until August 1985. His government presented itself as a corrective force, promising discipline, economic restraint, and a break from corruption. These promises appealed to many Nigerians frustrated by political instability and economic decline.
At the same time, the military government imposed sweeping controls on public life. Political expression narrowed, dissent was treated with suspicion, and obedience was elevated as a civic virtue. This tension between order and freedom defined the era and continues to shape how Buhari’s leadership is remembered.
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War Against Indiscipline, order as public spectacle
One of the most visible features of Buhari’s military government was the War Against Indiscipline. The campaign sought to reshape everyday behaviour, enforcing punctuality, orderly queues, and compliance with public rules. Uniformed personnel enforced these standards in public spaces, often using physical correction and public humiliation.
Supporters viewed the campaign as a necessary response to social disorder. Critics saw it as coercive and punitive, turning discipline into spectacle. Regardless of perspective, the War Against Indiscipline became a lasting symbol of a government that prioritised control and compliance over dialogue.
Fela Kuti, the artist who challenged authority
No figure confronted Nigeria’s military rulers more openly than Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti. By the early 1980s, Fela was internationally known for Afrobeat, but his influence reached far beyond music. His songs, speeches, and performances named political leaders, mocked military culture, and treated power as something to be questioned publicly.
Years before his imprisonment under Buhari’s government, Fela had already endured extreme state violence. In 1977, after releasing music that ridiculed soldiers, a large military raid destroyed his Kalakuta Republic compound in Lagos. During the attack, Fela was beaten and the property was burned. His mother, Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, a prominent activist, was thrown from a window during the raid and later died from her injuries. The event became one of the most painful symbols of the cost of political dissent in Nigeria.
The 1984 arrest and tribunal
In September 1984, Fela’s confrontation with the state entered a decisive legal phase. He was detained at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos on 4 September 1984 on allegations related to foreign currency export regulations. The accusation was that he attempted to export £1,600 unlawfully.
Fela denied the charge and maintained that he had properly declared the money. He also alleged that a customs officer solicited a bribe from him. The case moved quickly through the system. After a brief period of bail granted by the Federal High Court, the matter was transferred to a special tribunal, the Exchange Control Anti Sabotage Tribunal.
On 8 November 1984, the tribunal convicted Fela and sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment. The sentence was later upheld by the Supreme Military Council. The case stood out not only because of the defendant’s fame, but because it showed how legal mechanisms could be used to silence a powerful public critic.
International attention and imprisonment
Fela’s imprisonment drew international attention. Human rights organisations highlighted concerns about the fairness of the trial and the broader political context in which it took place. The case became emblematic of how military governments could use courts and tribunals to contain dissent without overt censorship.
Buhari was removed from power in a bloodless coup in August 1985, but Fela remained in prison. He was released in April 1986 under the new military administration. By then, the attempt to silence him had failed. His status had grown, and his story had become part of a global conversation about free expression and state power.
A legacy that returned in 2015
When Buhari returned to office through the ballot box in 2015, memories of the 1984 imprisonment resurfaced immediately. Fela’s son, Seun Kuti, publicly condemned Buhari’s role in his father’s jailing, arguing that it revealed how authority had once been used against criticism.
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The reaction reflected a deeper national dilemma. Nigeria had achieved a peaceful democratic transition, but it had not erased the memories of military rule. The 2015 election demonstrated the strength of electoral change. The story of Fela’s imprisonment continued to raise questions about how power responds when challenged.
Power, memory, and dissent
Nigeria’s political history shows that democracy is not defined by elections alone. It is defined by how societies remember, confront, and learn from the use of power. The 1984 jailing of Fela Kuti remains one of the clearest examples of how dissent can be transformed into criminality when authority feels threatened.
Buhari’s return did not repeat the past, but it forced the past back into public view. The story of Fela endures because it speaks to a fundamental question, whether criticism is treated as an enemy of the state or as a vital part of national life.
Author’s Note
Nigeria’s story is shaped by moments when authority meets resistance. The peaceful handover of 2015 showed democratic progress, but the memory of Fela Kuti’s imprisonment reminds us that freedom is measured by how a nation treats its critics, especially when power is uncomfortable.
References
Amnesty International, Nigeria, The Case of Fela Anikulapo Kuti (1985).
Amnesty International, Amnesty International Annual Report Entries on Nigeria 1968 to 2010 (release noted in April 1986).The Guardian, Nigeria’s new president Muhammadu Buhari is the man who put Fela Kuti in jail (1 April 2015).
