Shehu Shagari - Presidency

Presidency

Shagari's Ministers
OFFICE NAME TERM
President Shehu Shagari 1979–1983
Vice President Alex Ekwueme 1979–1983
Transportation Umaru Dikko 1979–1983
Agriculture Ibrahim Gusau 1979–1982
Adamu Ciroma 1982–1983
Commerce Maitama Bello Yusuf 1981–1983
Communications Akanbi Oniyangi 1979–1981
Isaac Shaahu 1981–1983

Steel Audu ogbeh

Minister of Defence Iya Abubakar 1979–1981
Akanbi Oniyangi 1981–1983
Housing Wahab Dosumu 1979–1982
Alhaji Ahmed Musa 1982–1983
Abuja John Kadiya 1979–1982
Abubakar Iro Danmusa 1982–1983
Education Sylvester Ugoh 1982–1983
Foreign Affairs Ishaya Audu 1979–1983
Justice Richard Akinjide 1979–1983
Steel Ali Makele 1979–1983

Shagari won the 1979 election with the help of his campaign manager, Umaru Dikko, political men of prominence in the North and among southern minorities, and some money bags interested in protecting their interest. Nevertheless, the party captured the ethnic and social demographics as good or even better than his adversaries. The party's motto was "One Nation, One Destiny" and it tried to promote this motto even to its detriment. Shagari, made Housing, Industries, Transportation and Agriculture as the major goals of his administration, particularly in his early stages of governance during the oil boom. However, most of his programs had incongruous outcomes. In Housing, he launched a large scale housing program that built estates such as "Shagari Estate" but also launched the careers of Nigeria's legendary money bags who swamped the Nigerian ports with imported cement to complete the housing projects. In Industries, Shagari completed the Delta Steel complex in 1982, and spent hundred of millions of dollars on the Ajaokuta Steel complex and the Steel rolling mills. However, allegations of kickbacks to prominent politicians hovers like a cloud on those projects. In transportation, he launched road networks across the country, the ministry headed by Umaru Dikko, was vital in the programs of the NPN led government. In terms of agriculture, a Green Revolution program was initiated to foster the use of mechanical machinery in farming. It favored large scale farmers in order to produce mass products. However, it was hampered by the prevalence of retired military officers, who had acquired land as parting gift under the previous administration and had the necessary hectares to influence large favors under the program.

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