With barely eight months to the 2007 elections, a foretaste of what would be the relationship between former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida and the human rights community has started to unfold.
Babangida, who has formally declared his intention to contest the race, was at the weekend handed a red card by the nation’s human rights community. The doyens of the civil rights groups including renowned Lagos lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, the President of the Campaign for Democracy (CD), Moshood Erubami and Comrade Shehu Sani told IBB to forget the presidency.
But a loyalist to the Minna-born general and Director General of the National Democratic Party (NDP), Mr. Kazeem Afegbua said the opinion of the human rights activists carries no electoral value.
Speaking with Sunday Sun via telephone from London, Gani described IBB’s presidential ambition as “an unrealisable dream.”
Vowing to mobilise the electorate against Babangida’s ambition, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) lamented the fact that “It is only in Nigeria that a man who virtually destroyed democracy in 1993 after ruling for eight years can aspire to rule the country again.”
He insisted that IBB does not deserve any democratic chance because not only is he “anti-democracy,” but also “wasted the resources of the country for eight years.”
In Fawehinmi’s opinion, IBB “has no integrity. His record in office is littered with murders, corruption and mis-management. Through his Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), he brought untold hardship on the people.”
“Let it be made clear that all lovers of freedom, dignity and democracy would prevent Babangida from ruling this country again because his past stinks to high heaven,” he added.
On his part, Erubami was very dismissive of the presidential ambition of the former military president.
According to him, “Babangida is not important in this dispensation and as such, I do not want to waste my time discussing him.”
He said by the time the electorate is properly sensitised, “Babangida would become history.”
Similarly, Shehu Sani said while IBB “Constitutionally, has the fundamental right to contest the election, he lacks the moral right to do so.”
Calling on the authorities to arrest him for his “crimes against Nigeria,” Sani said “such a man should not be in the Presidency. He should be in prison.”
The President of the Civil Rights Congress (CRC) said Nigerians are not in a hurry to forget the atrocities his government committed, maintaining that “Babangida has a case to answer.”
Defending IBB, Afegbua dismissed the activists, saying their opinions would not have no bearing whatsoever on the chances of Babangida winning the 2007 presidency.
Afegbua, whose party the NDP has already adopted Babangida as its presidential candidate, said, “Gani, Erubami and Shehu Sani are not political assets. I don’t know them to be voters and it is only voters who would determined IBB’s chances.”
He said the activities of Gani and Erubami are nothing but “ethno-centric activism,” adding, “they can be barking like dogs in the South-West, when elections come Babangida will beat them in their backyard.”
Stressing the point further, Afegbua said, “even in Ondo town, Babangida will defeat Gani should he contest the election.”
The NDP chieftain said, “We have done our research, which indicates that nobody is as popular as Babangida in Nigeria today.”
He insisted that the concern of the pro-IBB camp was not the likes of Gani but the sanctity of the ballot box.
“They (Gani et al) are entitled to their opinion but the ethno-centric activism of the Lagos viewpoint does not represent the opinion of the electorate. We are not concerned about them. What we are concerned about is the sanctity of the ballot box,” he added.
