Former Nigeria's junta, retired General Ibrahim Babangida, must be having a hard time trying to launch a come back. Iniquities of his stewardship remain a stumbling block and just won't go away.
Late 80's, Nigeria's former junta, retired General Ibrahim Babangida nicknamed IBB was both a military leader and mean-hearted demi-god, chastising this West African country with iron. He made more victim than Idi Amin and Mobutu Sese Seko put together but was miraculously forced out of office by a worldwide combined pressure. Today, almost 13 years later, IBB is aspiring to warm himself back to the same seat he misused and abused.
Will historical records punctuate his advances, or will victory slip through the cracks? In the jungle anything is possible, and so is continental Africa where clean-cut democracy suffers mutilation. In a country like Nigeria, where free and fair election hardly exists, good leadership has remained elusive as retired but corrupt army generals hold tight to economic and political powers, and taking turns in some kind of public money looting known in this region as "sharing of the national cake.
IBB is one of such notorious leaders whose damage to his country years back remains a permanent tatoo, but who still flourish in richness and suffer insatiable thirst for power. His ascendance to office in 1985 was a chance. He was the Chief of Army Staff placed under a secret investigation over a drug deal with son of a prominent Northern businessman already in custody. He was to be removed from office to face a possible interrogation, but smart IBB quickly took over power while his two bosses, military leader, General Buhari and second-in-command Tunde Idiagbon were on religious pilgrimage. But between this time-1985 and 1993 when IBB was forced to step down, he had done more damage than tropical storm Sunami, leaving his country Nigeria brain dead, without any socio-political future. History will forever remember his tenure.
IBB iniquitously operated with every tool he found necessary, setting up a personal secret service operated from the Middle East, while he dealt with his critics and foes without ramose. His deeds made Nigeria's history an x-rated Halloween horror film, most notably with his brutal murder of a journalist, Dele Giwa. Giwa was killed with a letter bomb for possessing information about one of IBB's drug agents presumed to be dead. Using secret agents, stage-managed plane crashes and car wrecks, IBB eliminated his possible rivals and critics, and looted the countr y's reserve bank with military tugs. IBB later promised to hand over power to a democratically elected leadership, but ended up organizing and supervising the worst transition to civil rule in the history of Nigeria.
He set up two political parties by himself, financed their headquarters and personally handpicked candidates of his choice. Finally, in June 1993, Nigerians went to the polls to elect Social Democratic Party candidate Moshood Abiola as the new president of the country, with 58 percent of the vote. This victory was short-lived as IBB annulled the election just on the eve of confirmation of results. This created unrest and disorganized what analysts described as the only free and fair election since Nigeria's independence, 1960. IBB's leadership also witnessed a total lapse in social and economic management. He flip-flopped with the country's economy setting up a so-called Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) - A subject he totally lacked.
He intended to devalue the currency, create mass transit and streamline labor force as was advised by supposedly his foreign lenders, so he ended up creating a money-laundering scenario that rendered his country's currency 'Naira' totally valueless. Despite, this chronology of proven misadministration and triviality of transition process, IBB, now singing in a forgive-and forget-tone believes his country is ready to welcome his acclaimed refurbishment as he systematically warms himself back through a lavish campaign that is currently under fire. Leading a line-up of critics seriously putting pressure against IBB's comeback campaign is Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka. The famous and vocal playwright called for resistance to the return of the corrupt power intoxicated military officers, trusting Nigerians as being matured enough to oppose the return of such looters. National paper, The Guardian quoted him as saying, " I have said this over and over again that this will lead to mufti militocracy.
Military people who want to get to political positions through guns should not be allowed. I'm appealing to Nigerian people not to look into the direction of military people who found their way to power through the gun and who misused their power almost without exception." Furthermore, another pressure from a widow of one of army generals executed under IBB's tyrannical rule is getting a global attention that may prompt an investigation into his deeds. Widow, Mrs. Safiya Vatsa, broke her years of calmness to confront through all means, a man she described as " one of the most ruthless dictators in Africa." Safiya it was gathered is armed with tons of documents that linked IBB to the 1996 assassination of Nigeria's military leader, General Murtala Mohammed. IBB's opposition is growing day-by-day. A popular web site called Againstbabangida.com features a latest update and compilation of IBB's past and present atrocities.
The site management rallied civil rights and democracy advocates and initiated a sophisticated campaign, warning the general public about dangers posed by the ambition of this former dictator.
Damaging documentaries have been aired on national televisions. To make matters worse, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) -the ruling party where IBB took refuge -came out with new ethical rules on its presidential hopefuls, imposing strict guidelines that would make things almost impossible for former corrupt public officers. Besides tough items stipulated in the new guidelines, PDP indicated that any of its candidates must possess clean human rights records - a quality IBB lacks. A probe of IBB's financial misappropriation may further land this former general in a place other than politics. If threats of official probity materialize before the election, IBB may be burning more hours in the courthouses. The Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), International Guardian reliable gathered has been working folders of documents to establish a case over a record public money embezzlement spearheaded by IBB.
Damaging documentaries have been aired on national televisions. To make matters worse, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) -the ruling party where IBB took refuge -came out with new ethical rules on its presidential hopefuls, imposing strict guidelines that would make things almost impossible for former corrupt public officers. Besides tough items stipulated in the new guidelines, PDP indicated that any of its candidates must possess clean human rights records - a quality IBB lacks. A probe of IBB's financial misappropriation may further land this former general in a place other than politics. If threats of official probity materialize before the election, IBB may be burning more hours in the courthouses. The Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), International Guardian reliable gathered has been working folders of documents to establish a case over a record public money embezzlement spearheaded by IBB.
The EFCC chief agent, Nuhu Ribadu, indicated a surprise development in his job to recover stolen fund, but did not elaborate. An agent very close to the commission told our reporter in Abuja that "EFCC is seriously probing billions of dollars Nigerians believe to have been stolen from the public treasury by IBB from 1985 to 1993, and details of the investigations into this steal of the century will shock the nation." Despite all the odds, IBB is desperate and vicious in his mission to come back. He has pumped a few million dollars into his image cleansing campaign as he maneuvers a dilapidated Nigerian system, which he understands, to secure positions for an uncontested victory.
International Guardian gathered he had trained an army of youth and professionals - put them on full time pay roll- in preparation for election rigging through falsification of results. But Nigeria's secret agency - SSS claims it was better equipped for such distractions, vowing to unravel any attempt that would usher insanity to disrupt the election process. Just last week, it dispersed a meeting of youths believed to be political thugs loyal to Vice President Atiku Abubarkar, another aspirant.
