Reuben Abati 
I
think I know why former President Ibrahim Babangida won't give up on his ambition to return to Aso Villa as Nigeria's President. The reason is deeply rooted in the nature of the Nigerian state and society, IBB's understanding of it, and his belief that he can ride the storm, and win whatever battles are being waged against him in the court of public opinion. It will be na?ve to assume that IBB is not aware of the strong opposition to his proposed candidature in the 2007 Presidential elections. He has been attacked to no end by opinion writers who hold him responsible for the failure of the Nigerian state. Books have been written about how he destroyed the Nigerian economy through the introduction of a culture of graft, and the promotion of nepotism. He has also not been forgiven for annulling the Presidential election of June 12, 1993.

In a particularly remarkable book, 2007: The IBB Option by Joe Igbokwe and Peter Claver Oparah, the man is further accused of every evil under the sun. On the internet, there is a special website that is devoted to the anti-Babangida campaign. No man has attracted as much passion and hate in recent Nigerian history. Once, his pair of slippers was allegedly stolen at the Minna mosque! The general impression is that the thief must have done so deliberately. But is IBB bothered? I don't think so. In other societies, this man's ambition would have been determined by his popularity rating. His strategists would have studied his ratings in the polls and he would have been advised not to waste his time. But why is IBB so confident that the PDP and ultimately the Nigerian people will accept him?

On Wednesday, he finally brought his hide and seek game on the question of the 2007 elections to an end when he went to the National Secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abuja to pick up a nomination form for the party's Presidential primaries. His reception at the PDP secretariat was grand but suspicious. He was accompanied by his supporters, who were principally members of his government when he served as President. He was escorted by the nation's security agencies including the police, the SSS, the Civil Defence Corps and the Federal Road Safety Commission. The Inspector General of Police also had to abandon more important issues to oversee security arrangements for the former President!

It took IBB about 25 minutes to cover a distance of 15 metres into the PDP premises. He made a speech in which he no longer spoke of his plans to "renew Nigeria", but of his commitment to President Obasanjo's reform programmes. Even the PDP Chairman, Ahmadu Ali was so excited, he allowed himself the indulgence of declaring that IBB's entry into the "Presidential race in the PDP shows that it is the party to beat". The entire ceremony was so ludicrous, you would be tempted to think that the PDP has already chosen its Presidential flagbearer. Ahmadu Ali should wait for the party primaries. His assignment is to ensure a free and fair process, not to pre-empt the process by praising one candidate unfairly. Other aspirants had gone to the Wadata Plaza, the PDP Secretariat, to collect nomination forms, nobody paid any attention to them. The way these things go in Nigeria, there may be an unspoken attempt by the PDP elite to use IBB to facilitate a "hidden agenda".

IBB spoke about the importance of voters in the electoral process. We should thank him, shouldn't we? for remembering us, we, the ordinary things of Nigeria. In 1993, he did not believe in the powers of the same voter that he is now eulogising. What lessons has he learnt since then? The only reason a Babangida with his past record can stand up publicly in Nigeria and seek power for a second time is because he knows too well, that Nigerians forget too easily, and that we are capable of rationalising anything. We do not always judge people on the basis of their ability or achievements. Our standards of evaluation are tainted by emotion and fear. Our moral values are inverted. A nation that loses its own memory is doomed, and because we do not have a sense of history, or a framework of morality, charlatans often present themselves for public office, knowing that they could easily get that which they seek.

Was it not here that a former Inspector-General of Police told us that many of the people in the National Assembly at a time had been investigated by the police for one crime or the other? Babangida can stand up and rewrite history and get away with it, because not many Nigerians still bother about the past. In recent times, the leaders of Ijaw and Ndokwa tried to make a difference when they announced that certain persons who had conducted themselves badly as public servants would not be allowed by the community to seek public office again. That kind of action is unusual.

IBB knows that it is possible to rent a crowd in this country and create an impression of momentum and acceptance. The large crowd which caused traffic hold up for 25 minutes on a 15 kilometre stretch, pretending to be supporting the retired General, was obviously rented. If not, then the size of that crowd confirms the terrible nature of our circumstances. IBB wants to be President, and he has done an outing service, because anything is possible in this country. He knows that the articulate crowd that is busy criticising him on the pages of the press and the internet may not vote on election day. The ordinary people who would go out to vote can be influenced on election day. In any case, the party primaries and the later elections can be rigged. If the PDP Chairman is already kow-towing to General Babangida, does he know something that the rest of us do not know? IBB is ambitious because there is no shortage of sycophants around him who must be telling him that he is popular and that he is "the messiah" that Nigeria needs.

Consider the following statement for example which tumbled from the mouth of one Obi Mbadiwe, a self-styled IBB for president campaigner: He says: "People keeping making the same mistake about leadership in our country, Nigeria. There must be something unacceptable about every leader: Gen. Buhari is a religious bigot. Ukiwe is an Igboman and it's the turn of the South-South, Odili is OBJ's boy and therefore he's not suitable. Duke is a neophyte and it's not about entertainment. Jerry Gana is a joker and very talkative, Atiku is a para-military man and he's not in OBJ's good books, Muazu is inexperienced, Orji Kalu is (a) rabble rouser, Chris Okotie is a preacher and therefore very sentimental, Pat Utomi will make a better Senator than President and the Presidency is about practicals, not theories. Victor Attah should settle for one - either President or Vice President and not chasing shadows; Bafarawa is lost in the pack, Baba is considered a double agent and a sell-out, Buba Marwa is a sojourner. Yerima is simply overzealous and actually trying at it, Rochas Okorocha is doing a fanfare jamboree in charitable style. Critics will always find something to say about every aspirant, so I am not surprised when a section of the elite says some of these things about IBB. How many of them vote on election day? Go out there and ask the masses, the real electorate, and you'll be surprised how hugely popular IBB is with them and how desperately want him back." (The Sun, Saturday, November 11, 2006 at page 8).

Is this the quality of reasoning in the IBB campaign group? But Obi Mbadiwe is wrong on all scores. Meanwhile, there is no shortage of Pastors and seers who are also campaigning for IBB as in the case of one Archbishop John Obiekeke who is also quoted in the Saturday Sun at page 54, that "he had been told earlier by God to ask General Babangida to indicate interest, he (IBB) would have died or been killed by God if he had refused that call." May be the media is also part of the problem. We keep reporting IBB; we publish his photographs on our front pages, we continue to write about him. He obviously treats our commentaries and the attention we pay to him as free campaign material, as a veritable signal of his relevance!

With his declaration of interest in the Presidency of Nigeria, he has thrown a challenge to all Nigerians: to our sense of justice and decency. He is determined to exercise his rights as a free citizen. We cannot legitimately deny him that. But at the PDP primaries, the delegates have a historic task to perform. They must choose as PDP flagbearer, a man that Nigerians can identify with, and that man needs not be IBB. And should IBB win the PDP ticket, the Nigerian people must feel challenged to use the power of their vote. We do not hate IBB but we should love Nigeria. A man who had demonstrated such disdain for democracy should not be rewarded with another shot at the Presidency. His emergence as a candidate can only have the effect of deepening growing pessimism about Nigeria's immediate future.

Now let Joe Igbokwe and Peter Claver Oparah have the last word on this matter. In the preface to their book, they write instructively as follows: "This book, in focusing the klieglights on Babangida and his misdeeds while in power, is merely trying to locate history in its rightful prisms and hold leaders accountable to their deeds in power. That Babangida scripted the template for the present rudderless drift of the state is a fact of history that had not been challenged beyond the feckless efforts of the court jesters around him to manipulate and re-mould history to their favour. That he must answer for his misdeeds is a fact that we hold sacred..." Obi Mbadiwe: any problem with this?


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