Patrick Omorodion, Vanguard
WHEN Libyan strongman, Colonel Muamar Gaddafi (if he were a Nigerian president, he would have become a Field Marshall by now) labelled Nigeria a big for nothing country many years ago, most of us, especially the military apologists, didn’t take it lightly. He was castigated and called all sorts of names to the extent that some of these apologists were celebrated when he was almost killed by the missiles from another war monger, President Ronald Reagan of the United States.
WHEN Libyan strongman, Colonel Muamar Gaddafi (if he were a Nigerian president, he would have become a Field Marshall by now) labelled Nigeria a big for nothing country many years ago, most of us, especially the military apologists, didn’t take it lightly. He was castigated and called all sorts of names to the extent that some of these apologists were celebrated when he was almost killed by the missiles from another war monger, President Ronald Reagan of the United States.
Gaddafi went ahead to prove that we were really a big for nothing ‘Giant of Africa' when he stormed here with his bevy of beauties as security guards. He didn’t allow our security men to get near him and when some of our overzealous security officials tried to challenge the Libyans, they got bruised and were left with black eyes.
And only recently, Cameroon has again shown us that we are really a big for nothing brother. Imagine Nigeria ceding her own land, Bakassi to Cameroon without throwing a common stone, all in the name of a United Nations Peace Accord.
Why am I going into all these? Nothing except the fact that because we are big for nothing, we are sold different dummies and we swallow it, hook, line and sinker. It started many years ago when the British colonialists left us to govern ourselves and the Northern part of Nigeria felt that they were more in number (according to the 1963 census figures (which they doctored) and as such must produce the nation’s leaders. Over the years, they have always got away with this with the strong connivance of either the South-eastern part of the country or the so-called minority groups now labelled the South-South.
However, one man, the late Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola changed all that in 1993 when he stood like a colossus, beating the Northern oligarchy to their game. He had wined and dined with them to know their secrets. He started many years ago, sowing the seed of philanthropism which went beyond rhetorics, but actually touched the lives of the commoners across the country.
The North presented a paper weight called Alhaji Bashir Othman Tofar, thinking as usual, they will again sweep the stakes. Unknown to them, Abiola was more acceptable to all, Moslems and Christians, rich and poor, old and young as well as the other ranks of the armed forces except the high echelon, then led by self styled President Ibrahim Babangida.
The election results were well known but not yet authenticated. Just when the then National Electoral Commission (NEC) chairman, Professor Humphrey Nwosu began to reel out the results with Bashorun Abiola in clear lead, General Ibrahim Babangida and his cohorts stopped the announcement and subsequently annulled the election results. What followed thereafter is already history and posterity will judge all those involved.
Ironically, 13 years after General Babangida destroyed democracy, our joy and hope for a better future with Bashorun Abiola who had come to be respected around the world more than some presidents, he has come again, not even begging us, but insisting that he is the best person to rule over us when Chief Olusegun Obasanjo quits next year.
This agitation is being defended rather arrogantly by some of the stooges he used to destroy our self-esteem as a group of people. Each day, they go on the radio, television and even on the pages of newspapers to proclaim how ‘saintly’ General Babangida is. They have told us he was not responsible for the collapse of our economy when we are aware that he destroyed our currency with his so-called economic reforms which led to the massive devaluation of our once powerful naira in 1986.
The same year, respected journalist, Dele Giwa was killed in a circumstance which suggested the agent of death came from the presidency but his boys continue to deny that neither Babangida nor his government had any link with the killers of Giwa who have remained a mystery till date. Almost at that same period, a coup was announced and General Mamman Vatsa and a group of soldiers were killed for their perceived complicity in the supposed plot.
An adage says the covered anus of the fowl will be exposed the day a ferocious wind blows around it. That day came recently when General Domkat Bali (even though he is now denying after many days of silence) blew the whistle that re-awakened the consciousness of Vatsa’s wife and children who are now crying for justice.
Again the stooges Babangida used in destroying our country have dusted their gongs and have been going around trying to sell him as the best candidate for the 2007 polls and making denials for IBB, as the self acclaimed evil genius is called. This is apart from the insult rained on Nigerians that only God can stop IBB because they see him occupying Aso Rock next year.
Nigerians are not happy with this arrogance but the mention of the name of God gives them the relief that these enemies of progress at least know that God is the sole determinant of all destinies. When they equally told us that only General Sani Abacha has the knowledge to rule Nigeria, God told them they were wrong and their god, Abacha, fell like a chicken with Newcastle disease.
ambition to become First Lady. Mr. Gbanite has by this pronouncement shown that he is not only a stooge but a sycophant. Even if he benefitted most from IBB’s misrule, shouldn’t he have hidden his head in shame rather than insulting himself the more?
He spoke as if he was part of the so-called coup and Vatsa’s wife confided in him. If there was anyone who was ambitious to become First Lady, I think it was Babangida’s wife, Mariam, because after her husband overthrew his friend and boss, General Mohammadu Buhari, she elevated the once docile First Lady position to such a height that she not only became the defacto vice president but budgetary allocation was made for the office. We knew how she introduced so many projects like the wasteful Better Life programme through which billions of our scare resources were siphoned.
Because she was power drunk, she ensured the same thing was done at the state and local government levels. Through this, she ensured there was a parallel government for women and presided over by her. Stories were told how she scolded some governor’s wives who didn’t believe in her philosophy. So between Safiyat and Mariam, who could be described as power hungry. Nothing was heard about Safiyat or how she harassed wives of officials of the FCT all through the reign of her husband as the minister.
People like Mr. Gbanite should let us be and allow us look for a new president, irrespective of where he or she comes from to bail us out of the pit IBB threw us into between 1985 and 1993. We need a break from the past, whether politicians in agbada or military khaki. If we felt that Abacha was not the messiah as he claimed and turned down Obasanjo from perpetuating himself through the third term agenda, we are once again telling IBB that, even though he claims to be a saint, we will prefer to be left alone. If it is true that all the evils attributed to IBB were not of his making but caused by his colleagues in the Armed Forces Ruling Council, it goes to show that he was not a genius, that he lacked the will power of a leader. It also shows that he was just a pawn among other military rulers and was being led by the nose It is an insult to say that out of about 150 million Nigerians, only IBB has the magic wand to move us forward. We then ask, where did he leave this wand between 1985 and 1993?.
