Muhammadu Buhari

===Economics===
{{Main|Buharism}}
In order to reform the economy, as Head of State, Buhari started to rebuild the nation's social-political and economic systems, along the realities of Nigeria's austere economic conditions.<ref name="upa" /> The rebuilding included removing or cutting back the excesses in national expenditure, obliterating or removing completely, corruption from the nation's social ethics, shifting from mainly public sector employment to self-employment. Buhari also encouraged import substitution industrialisation based to a great extent on the use of local materials.<ref name="upa">{{cite book|author1=Nwachuku, Levi Akalazu |author2=G. N. Uzoigwe |title=Troubled Journey: Nigeria Since the Civil War |publisher=University Press of America|year=2004 |page=192}}</ref> However, tightening of imports led to reduction in raw materials for industries causing many industries to operate below capacity,{{sfn|Graf|1988|p=162}}  reduction of workers and in some cases business closure.<ref name="autogenerated422" />

Buhari broke ties with the International Monetary Fund, when the fund asked the government to devalue the naira by 60%. However, the reforms that Buhari instigated on his own were as or more rigorous as those required by the IMF.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Vreeland|first1=James Raymond|title=The International Monetary Fund: Politics of Conditional Lending|date=19 December 2006|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-37463-7|page=60|quote=Buhari proved his independence by pushing through economic austerity so severe it went beyond what many advised – all the while he refused IMF assistance.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Mathews|first1=Martin P.|title=Nigeria: Current Issues and Historical Background|date=1 May 2002|publisher=[[Nova Science Publishers, Inc.]]|isbn=978-1-59033-316-7|page=122|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hTs6GpM4zDMC&q=buhari+imf&pg=PA122|access-date=19 January 2015|archive-date=3 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210103155730/https://books.google.com/books?id=hTs6GpM4zDMC&q=buhari+imf&pg=PA122|url-status=live}}</ref>

On 7 May 1984, Buhari announced the country's 1984 National Budget. The budget came with a series of complementary measures:

*A temporary ban on recruiting federal public sector workers
*Raising of interest rates
*Halting capital projects
*Prohibition of borrowing by state governments
*15 percent cut from Shagari's 1983 Budget
*Realignment of import duties
*Reducing the balance of payment deficit by cutting imports
*It also gave priority to the importation of raw materials and spare parts that were needed for agriculture and industry.

Other economic measures by Buhari took the form of counter trade, currency change, price reduction of goods and services. His economic policies did not earn him the legitimacy of the masses due to the rise in inflation and the use of military might to continue to push many policies blamed for the rise in food prices.{{sfn|Graf|1988|p=164}}