Landmines fill the road ahead of former dictator, Ibrahim Babangida. One of them: “We recommend to the federal government that all the former heads of state who did not honour summons be considered to have surrendered their right to govern Nigeria and Nigerians at any other time in the future.”
He was the toast of the moment at the Sheraton Hotel, Abuja where dignitaries gathered last Monday to honour him. Since General Ibrahim Babangida, former head of state, left office 13 years ago, he has really not been out of the news. When the issue is not about what he did in office, it is about his role as a kingmaker or his ambition to rule Nigeria again. The Abuja event was not a public declaration of Babangida’s ambition to run for president, rather it was a public lecture organised to commemorate his 65th birthday. But he used the occasion to drop the hint about his decision to participate in the forthcoming election. “I would define the challenge of our immediate next national leadership as this: to make whole again. To that I am committed,” the general said.
That declaration came on the heels of speculations that the federal government may bar him from participating in the forthcoming presidential election. That supposition assumed a life of its own when, a few days to the Abuja event, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, detained Mohammed, Babangida’s first son. The commission wanted him to explain how he was able to pull in his investment in Globacom Nigeria Limited, a mobile telecommunication company.
Shortly before Mohammed’s arrest, Mike Adenuga, chairman of the company, had been questioned by the same commission. The EFCC was probing the movement of money from the account of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund, PTDF, with Adenuga’s Equitorial Trust Bank and how Globacom may have allegedly benefited unduely. Some of Adenuga’s friends then read political undertones to his arrest. They claimed that his closeness to Vice President Atiku Abubakar was the reason he was being harassed by an agency of government. The camp of the Vice President gave credence to that theory when it raised an alarm that the government was moving towards setting up Abubakar, so as to derail his presidential ambition. Similar excuses have been advanced for public officers accused of corruption since the frosty relationship between President Olusegun Obasanjo and Abubakar came to the open.
The same sentiment is in the air again. Friends of Babangida insist that the target of Nuhu Ribadu, chairman of EFCC, is the general himself. They refer to a statement by Ribadu to the effect that he would probe the former head of state if they found anything on him. Babangida may share the sentiment that he was the target. The Daily Trust newspaper of August 16, 2006 reported him as saying “When we allow national discourse to degenerate to a level where we see a difference between our past and present in terms of evil versus good, corruption versus holiness … we are sharpening the edges of conflicts in society.” But the commission arrested Mohammed reportedly because his name featured in the EFCC’s investigations of Adenuga’s companies.
However, an associate of the general is particularly not impressed by the way the commission is doing its work. He said rather than ask Mohammed “to prove his innocence, the EFCC should have proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.” So, what could have been the objective of EFCC? Is it to probe the likely avenues in which Babangida may have invested? But if they found nothing on him in this case, it really would not have cleared the way for his ambition. Reason is that there are a number of other issues that have trailed the general ever since his days in office. These include the death, by parcel bomb, of Dele Giwa, founding editor-in-chief of Newswatch magazine; the execution in 1986 of Mamman Vatsa, a major-general and intimate friend of Babangida, along with some other officers for what is still regarded as phoney coup plot; and his alleged indictment by the Pius Okigbo panel over the $12.4 billion Gulf oil windfall. Other issues include the allegation that Babangida turned corruption to statecraft, his faulty management of the economy and the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, won by Moshood Abiola, multi-millionaire businessman and friend of the general.
Some of these issues are being put forward as landmines on his way to the Presidential Villa by those who do not want him back in office. One of them is Safiya Vatsa, widow of the soldier-poet on whose conviction a question mark has been placed by the recent statement of Domkat Bali, general and Babangida’s minister of defence. He had said in an interview with TheNEWS magazine: “Up till now, I am not sure whether he ought to have been killed because whatever evidence they amassed against him was weak.” Safiya petitioned President Obasanjo to review the said coup and prosecute Babangida. The President has since met with the Vatsa family. The interpretation of this by those who have keenly watched Babangida is that the execution of his friend, in spite of pleas from many well-meaning people, was to intimidate the military so that they would not venture into planning a coup against his government. Four years later, however, Gideon Orka led a bloody coup that shook the government of Babangida to its foundations. He emerged to affirm his hold on government. Even then, that school of thought still believes that by killing his friend, the general might have succeeded in getting the military, and members of the then Provisional Ruling Council, PRC, to defer to him on all issues. Vatsa was said to have taken the liberty of a childhood friend and colleague to appraise issues critically at their meetings. Thus, with his execution, all forms of opposition appeared to have been bottled up. Bali talked about being handicapped to make a case for Vatsa. But in an advertorial last week, one Mahmud Abdullahi from Minna, Niger State claimed that the former defence minister was “arguably, the leader of those who insisted that Vatsa should be killed for his role in that infamous coup”. But those who were in the then PRC would know better than Abdullahi. It is still surprising that none of them has publicly challenged Bali’s statement. Rather, there are some behind-the-scenes moves by military officers to persuade Obasanjo not to allow Babangida to succeed him in office.
But the opposition is not total. For instance, retired military officers are said to be divided over whether or not the man should return as president. The concern of those opposed to him is that he could reverse the gains of Obasanjo whom they say has restored professionalism to the military. The request they made, according to a source, was an oblique reference to the crises of equipment and funding for the armed forces during the regime of the general.
Outside the military, one major opposition that his junta had to contend with then was the media. The killing of Giwa, believed to have been done by Babangida’s security men, was seen as an attempt to declare a psychological warfare on the media. The reaction of that regime to publications on the death of Giwa was also instructive. When his government proscribed Newswatch, purportedly for publishing reports of the Political Bureau set up by Babangida, Nigerians felt that the government was probably pursuing a mission to erase a legacy in the media industry. Gani Fawehinmi, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, went to court, armed with evidence that pointed at the government. Although he could not persuade the court, the death of Giwa remains till date an albatross for Babangida.
Outside the military, one major opposition that his junta had to contend with then was the media. The killing of Giwa, believed to have been done by Babangida’s security men, was seen as an attempt to declare a psychological warfare on the media. The reaction of that regime to publications on the death of Giwa was also instructive. When his government proscribed Newswatch, purportedly for publishing reports of the Political Bureau set up by Babangida, Nigerians felt that the government was probably pursuing a mission to erase a legacy in the media industry. Gani Fawehinmi, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, went to court, armed with evidence that pointed at the government. Although he could not persuade the court, the death of Giwa remains till date an albatross for Babangida.
Maybe it would not have been so if Babangida had seized the opportunity offered by the Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission, HRVIC, headed by Chukwudifu Oputa, retired justice of the Supreme Court. Fawehinmi had filed a petition before the panel, following which Babangida was summoned. In his petition, Fawehinmi asked the commission, otherwise called Oputa panel to recommend that “General Babangida, Colonel (Halilu) Akilu and Lieutenant-Colonel (A.K.) Togun be charged and tried for the said murder.” The lawyer also asked that the three people should pay a compensation of N2 billion to the family and dependants of the deceased journalist. That case could not be heard by the commission because Babangida did not honour the summons of the HRVIC. Instead, he sent his counsel to appear for him. But Fawehinmi argued stoutly that Babangida and his co-accusers must present themselves before the commission, as they could not be adequately represented by lawyers. Citing legal authorities, Fawehinmi submitted that, by refusing to honour the summons, Babangida had committed contempt of the commission. The commission in its report said, “We recommend to the federal government that all the former heads of state who did not honour summons be considered to have surrendered their right to govern Nigeria and Nigerians at any other time in the future.”
If that recommendation is adopted by the Obasanjo administration and invoked, Babangida may well be engaging in a fruitless exercise. But those are just some of the issues that formed the argument of the International Reform Order of Nigeria, I.R.O.N., a group that started a campaign last week on why Babangida should not be allowed to return to office. The group itemised Babangida’s poor human rights record, his grandiose projects like the People’s Bank, Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure, DFRRI, and the introduction, through the back door, of the earlier rejected conditionalities of the International Monetary Fund, IMF. I.R.O.N. also accused the general of creating “conditions malignant to national advancement, such as the institutionalisation of the culture of corruption.”
But in his own advertisement, Abdullahi tried to debunk some of these allegations. He wrote, “For some time now, there seems to be a sort of conspiracy among a loose group of elites (sic) determined to reduce the eight years of that administration into two boxes marked ‘corruption’ and ‘June 12’. Of course, on the face of it, it does appear an impossible task. The Babangida administration is far and away the most innovative, and the most active regime ever in Nigeria’s history.” This recommendation was the basis of the support of Initiative for Equal Co-Existence, IEC, sponsored by A.S. Idris and Tola Adekoya. The group said Babangida is the “preferred candidate,” presumably for president. With such support, the ambition of the general is thus given impetus. So, it was not surprising that he spoke of having been “inspired by the enthusiasm and optimism of our youth… the pain of dashed hopes, the agony of thwarted dreams and the regrets of expectations not met”. The man and his associates leave the audience in the dark about the turmoil that ruled over the country and the crisis of identity that Nigeria and Nigerians suffered in the international community years after he left office. There was also the sense of insecurity that ruled the land and the joke he made of the political system, to such an extent that the late Bola Ige, former attorney-general of the federation and justice minister, decided to assume a siddon look position in politics.
Despite what some may regard as the foibles of the present administration, democratic tenets have proved that, however crafty Obasanjo may be, there will be an election next year. That must be why Babangida is warming up to partake of the gains of a system against which he worked. But he had served notice apparently convinced that, notwithstanding public outcry against Obasanjo’s ambition to extend his tenure, there will be an election in 2007 Just as Babangida talked about making Nigeria “whole again,” Obasanjo approved the release of funds for election. Apart from that, the former military president may have been further encouraged by his inclusion in the meeting with Northern elders in Abuja last Monday. The elders met with him, the Vice President and General Muhammadu Buhari, Obasanjo’s major contender in the 2003 presidential election. The meeting, which held at the Niger House, Abuja, impressed on the aspirants to promote Northern interest above their personal ambition. It is said to be the first of a series of meetings designed to get aspirants in the North together and make them imbibe the regional spirit. This group is said to have been spurred by the fear that a campaign by another group of elders for a Southern president in 2007 was gaining currency. Also, last week’s meeting drew the attention of the three aspirants to the danger of working at cross-purposes and the risk of not getting power back to the North next year. The meeting, which was convened by Yahaya Gusau, had Northern elders above 70 years of age who probably will no longer nurse political ambition. The meeting with the elders is also not a ticket for any of them. This is because, at its meeting in Kano, the group had identified certain qualities of a candidate for the office, and these include popular acceptance.
Even then, Babangida may have reasoned that even if the President was not sincere about conducting an election in 2007, this transition programme would not take as long a time as his own that lasted for about five years, and for which he committed over N30 billion. In the process of the unwholesome transition, his regime built secretariats for the two parties he decreed into existence after rejecting the applications of 13 political associations formed by tested politicians. Babangida introduced the term “newbreed politicians” into the country’s political lexicon. But he had a shocker waiting for those newbreed politicians who ran for offices on the platforms of Social Democratic Party, SDP, and National Republican Convention, NRC.
He had conducted elections at the local government and state levels, and had sworn in governors who then related with him as president, a title he already assumed. Then it is on record that the National Electoral Commission, NEC, under his regime, in 1993, conducted what has been adjudged the freest and fairest presidential election in Nigeria. Suddenly, the process of collation of results was halted and the election annulled. Humphrey Nwosu, a professor and chairman of the electoral body, apparently shocked by his experience, has since remained somewhat of a recluse.
The annulment threw the nation into turmoil. There was fear of a possible civil war. The Igbo, fearing an imminent calamity, started relocating to their home states. Many were the lives lost. Thirteen years after that political misadventure, the nation is yet to recover from it. And anytime the matter is raised, Babangida wears a perpetual bold face, and has refused to apologise to Nigerians. All he likes to say is, “I take responsibility for all that happened during my tenure”. Who else should take responsibility?
By the time he “stepped aside” in August 1993, Babangida had further built an obstacle in the way of the return of civilian rule. The decree backing up the controversial Interim National Government, ING, headed by Ernest Shonekan, had a clause that empowered the minister of defence to take over power in the event that the head of ING resigned. Sani Abacha, a general and minister of defence, took over power in November that year after the purported resignation of Shonekan. Abacha’s government arrested Abiola and detained him, turning deaf ears to pleas from within and outside Nigeria. For five years, Babangida’s protégé rode roughshod on Nigerians, mercilessly suppressing human rights’ activities and turning a blind eye to activities of his men who killed and maimed at will. Some of his victims were Alfred Rewane, a septuagenarian whose offence might have been the provision of funds for the opposition National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, and Kudirat Abiola, wife of the President-elect who was gunned down in her car in Lagos. Hamza Al-Mustapha, chief security officer to Abacha, and others are still standing trial for that murder. The same group allegedly failed in their bid to kill Abraham Adesanya, leader of NADECO, and Alex Ibru, publisher of The Guardian who resigned as member of Abacha’s cabinet.
By the time Abacha died on June 8, 1998, he had not only looted $7 billion from the nation’s treasury stashed in 131 bank accounts abroad, his plans to transform to civilian head of state had reached advanced stage. Those opposed to Babangida’s return to power say since he foisted the general on Nigerians, he is vicariously liable for all his misdeeds in power. Barely one month after Abacha’s demise, Abiola too died in detention. That threw up a great political quagmire, for Nigerians became suspicious that those who did not want Abiola as president might have conspired to kill him.
The ensuing political crisis further accelerated the country’s economic problem. Abdukarim Daiyabu, president, Movement for Justice in Nigeria, said in an interview with TheNEWS magazine in April last year: “IBB (Babangida) caused the crisis we are facing today. He caused the power shift crisis.” Maybe that is why he wants to return to power so that he can correct his mistakes. The general told his Abuja audience last week, “Out of public office, I have found time to reflect on times past; on the roads taken and the paths not explored. I have taken a close look at the compass of our national horizon and come to definite conclusions about what needs to be done and my own place on the road ahead” (see box). If the general is so clear about the way out, maybe he could be given a chance to redress those issues that have become the bane of Nigeria. There are Nigerians who would rather the nation did not take chances. Daiyabu insisted, “It is madness for IBB to return to power after he had ruled us for eight years with nothing to show for it.”
When arguments like this are presented, it is not as if Babangida made no efforts. But they say every effort made, particularly to revamp the economy, failed because of the man’s style. For instance, the Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP, originally sold to Nigerians as the necessary therapy for an ailing economy, ended up as a poison. The result is that Babangida himself later admitted that his government had reached a dead end in efforts to fix the economy. Yet some people argue that the problem may not have been with that economic theory, but with its implementation by government. That, perhaps, informs the conviction of Daiyabu when he said that “Babangida killed our economy, killed our naira.” By implication, the problem was with the Babangida persona.
Yet, the criticisms are not limited to policies at home. For instance, critics wanted to know what he did with his initial gains of an African-centred foreign policy. One of the critics argued last week that Nigeria’s involvement in international politics also took a toll on the country’s economy. He has a point because the creation of ECOWAS Monitoring Group, ECOMOG, a regional force sent to Liberia, cost Nigeria men and enormous resources. Yet the crisis ought to have been resolved before the situation went out of hand. But it is believed that Babangida allowed his personal consideration for Samuel Doe, the embattled Liberian president who was his friend, to take pre-eminence. He opted for a longer time to resolve the issue. In the process, some of Nigeria’s finest soldiers met their death, about $12 billion went down the drain and military equipment was lost. One major gain of his administration then would have been that he engaged trained military men who might have, in their perceived idleness, been tempted to plan coups against his government.
But whatever gains that may have accrued from these issues appear to have become sour now. They form the landmines in the race of the ‘evil genius’ for the office of president. The I. R. O. N. has even hosted a website, www.againstbabangida.com, to propagate its mission. How he will remove the landmines remains a major challenge for him and his associates.
