Nigeria: A Major General and a President

[This Day] The first time I heard the name, "Major General Muhammadu Buhari", it was a compliment -- as it were. That was on the evening of December 31, 1983. Early in the morning, we had woken up to martial music, followed by words that stuck to my head: "Fellow countrymen and women, I, Brigadier Sani Abacha of the Nigerian army, address you this morning on behalf of the Nigerian armed forces... " I actually crammed the speech. It was fun. I was very young -- a tiny secondary school boy -- and quite naïve. My s