This has taken the form of hagiographic books, passed off as dispassionate intellectual analysis of the IBB era, a seminar organised in Jos in 2000 titled "The Babangida Regime: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation" under the auspices of The Open Press Limited and The African Centre for Social and Political Research, an odious attempt in 2007 to sell the former President to Nigerians as a possible candidate for another shot at the Nigerian Presidency, and the existence of a stomach-driven coterie of IBB fanatics who cannot make up their minds as to whether the man is truly a "prince", a statesman or a "meal ticket". Give it to him: IBB is determined. He wants a nice mention in Nigerian history. And he is working hard at erasing whatever bad memories we may have of his eight-year reign as Nigerian military Head of State.
But we should not give up too. Each time he tries to speak as if he is addressing an audience of persons without memory, we should stick a pin in his spin and ruin his balloon of deception. This time around, IBB's main thesis sounds like something as follows. One, "I may be bad but Obasanjo is worse". Two, "� am better than Obasanjo and the facts show this to be true". Three, "inevitably history will be kind to me". Thus, he wants us to compare and contrast. Of what use is one tyrant measuring himself against another power-monger? Obasanjo may be going through a rough patch with the Nigerian people after eight years in which he missed the opportunity to deepen goodwill and win the people to his side, but it is not for IBB to say so. He lacks the moral stature to pontificate on the subject of integrity and good governance.
Hear him: "What I would probably say is that I ran an administration for eight years and during those eight years what accrued to the Federal Government was about N565 billion. That is less than what was accruing to the Obasanjo government in a year. What they were getting in one year, we got less in eight years. And I know what we achieved with that little amount of money in eight years. If I had that kind of money, maybe we could have gone places. That I am absolutely confident about and that is number one." No. the General is wrong. The issue is not about the quantum of money in physical terms. What was the inflation rate between 1985 and 1993 when he ruled Nigeria? What was the exchange value of the Naira compared to what it was between 1999 and 2007 under President Obasanjo? By the time he does the calculations, I leave that to him, it will be so clear that indeed, Obasanjo did not necessarily get more money. And even if he did, the question on both sides should be how the funds were managed. IBB considers himself a better manager of resources. That point cannot be proven by simply pointing to a difference in figures, using a volatile Naira and fiscal reality. And by the way, what did he achieve? I shall return to this presently.
But hear him again: "Number two, the world is made to believe that my administration institutionalised corruption. Now, we know better who institutionalised corruption. So, I am grateful to God and may be, history will eventually vindicate me.... History will give us credit that every other thing people are talking about concerning reforms started during my administration" ... If history were a human being, it would sue IBB for defamation! Let him leave history alone. His administration not only institutionalised corruption, it is certainly one of the legacies it passed on to future administrations. I concede however that the Babangida administration made some serious efforts at reform. He managed to put together a team of very bright Nigerians who had great ideas about how to open up the economy. When you read the IBB governance documents even today, you cannot miss the quality of thought that went into the design for example of the privatisation agenda, trade liberalisation etc all of which were the major reforms carried out under General Babangida.
But two things stood in the way of that administration: corruption and power abuse. IBB ended up being regarded as the most corrupt leader in Nigerian history. His economic policies which read so well on paper failed; rather than activate the policies as development mechanisms, IBB was more interested in creating a cult of personality which he sustained recklessly with public funds. When he assumed power, Nigeria was a rich oil producing nation, by the time he left in 1993, Nigeria had become the 13th poorest nation in the world. This was the mess that Obasanjo and the return to democracy was meant to correct, but Obasanjo, IBB's senior in the army, bungled his own chance or the task proved too enormous for him. IBB says in the same interview that "we military men are always very smart". Smart? Always? Between him and Obasanjo, I wouldn't say so.
IBB Reforms? It was the Babangida administration that introduced a Structural Adjustment Programme through the back door as it were, and completely against the wishes of average Nigerians. SAP as it is otherwise known was a prescription for chaos. It impoverished the Nigerian people as poverty grew wings and damaged the people's lives. By the time IBB took over in 1985, Nigerian universities were among the best in the world. Teachers and students came to Nigeria from all over the world to teach and study. University lecturers were confident, the schools were well-equipped.
By the time the IBB government withdrew education subsidy and also began to victimise the Academic Staff Union of Universities, the country's education system began to fail. We have not yet recovered from this. Yes, IBB encouraged the private sector, and under him there was an explosion in the banking sector. Every family, anyone at all who had access to the Presidency got a banking licence or an importation licence. This had no real effect of deepening the economy but it created a few more millionaires and billionaires and turned the Nigerian economy into an arena for speculators and middle men. This was one of the things former President Obasanjo tried to correct when his government through Soludo's Central Bank introduced a policy of consolidation in the banking sector.
Who institutionalised corruption? Accountability and transparency were foreign words under the Babangida administration. IBB was known as a "generous President" who doled out money at will to buy loyalty. People flocked around him not because they wanted to make a contribution to statecraft but more because they were sure of getting their own share of the national cake. Today, there are many Nigerians with dubious wealth who will readily boast: "�BB made me." Ask them to explain what contributions they made to Nigeria, they don't know and they don't care. Before IBB can speak about integrity, let him answer questions about the Okigbo panel report. The Pius Okigbo panel indicted the IBB government for misappropriating the $12. 4 billion dollars Gulf oil windfall in 1990. Babangida's response was that "development is about spending money". The Okigbo panel report has since been declared missing! Under IBB, NNPC accounts were mismanaged. Because his government was a military government, he was not accountable to anyone. Indeed, many of the young Governors and ex-Governors now looting the treasury with reckless abandon are the children of the IBB era. Under IBB, the average Nigerian was taught that it was alright to "misapply" public funds! The worst form of corruption under IBB however was the abuse of power evidenced by the murder of Dele Giwa, the assault on human rights, and above all the annulment sf the June 12, 1993 Presidential election. By 1993, IBB had plunged Nigeria into chaos. Nigeria became a pariah nation. Abacha came along. The people lost hope. The people's insistence on democratic rule by 1999 was a cry of anguish against the pain that the IBB government and its immediate successors had inflicted on the people.
In 2007, IBB had flown the kite about the possibility of his return to power as a civilian President. There were billboards all over the country and campaigns in the media and pretensions about the building of an IBB political machinery. In his Peoples' Magazine/PointBlank News.com interview, IBB says the reason he did not eventually run for President was because "� would not like a situation at my age and having been the President before, maybe, to now see me competing against somebody I considered a brother, somebody I considered a friend." In other words, he shelved his ambition because he did not want to be seen to be competing against the present President, Umaru Yar'�dua.
I hasten to say that the main reason IBB hid away in his Minna mansion was because that gambit exposed the scope of public animus against him. The entire Nigerian civil society was up against the IBB for 2007 project, with the exception of course of those for whom the campaign was a meal ticket and an opportunity to be relevant again. The expression of outrage was widespread. Joe Igbokwe and Peter Claver Oparah wrote a book titled 2007: The IBB Option. A group of Nigerians also set up a web site: againstbabangida.com (still running) which they describe as a project by CITIZENS FOR NIGERIA... to stop Ibrahim Babangida from ever ruling Nigeria again." IBB also says one of the reasons he supported Obasanjo's candidature in 1999 is because the man cannot be intimidated by the media. Wrong. The Nigerian media at home and abroad intimidated Obasanjo and forced him to abandon his Third Term agenda, more or less the same way the media has continued to intimidate IBB to accept the truth.
That IBB is now one of the public assessors of the Obasanjo government must be seen by Obasanjo himself as a tragedy of monumental proportions. Obasanjo is at his lowest depths. He is being kicked by anyone with a foot. His humiliation is completely self-inflicted.
