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There is a popular saying that those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad. This saying holds true for General (rtd) Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (IBB), Nigeria’s military president from 1985 to 1993. Babangida’s latest ranting is that of a deeply troubled man. I agree with Okey Ndibe ("Census, IBB, Taylor and other failures", The Guardian 30/3/06) that the journalists who interviewed Babangida recently did a "disservice to their professional mettle" by asking "soft" questions. That interview was contrived at best. But even at that, there was nothing coherent in what IBB had to say. He evaded questions and blamed everybody but himself for the problems in Nigeria.
IBB just has to say something. This is not the first time we have heard from this General who speaks out of both sides of his mouth since his ignominious exit on August 26, 1993. A few years ago Babangida was quoted in an interview with the New York Times that he regretted the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election won by his "very genuine friend for 25 years", Chief MKO Abiola. "From the day we met, there was rapport. I had my friend there waiting to take over. Truly, it would have been a great destiny," he was reported to have said.
Just an aside. Babangida’s son Mohammed, who was present during his father’s mea culpa noted that "there were other generals, including the late Sani Abacha, who said that if power was ceded to a southerner like Chief Abiola, the North will have nothing left. They then put my father in a corner, they threatened him". This interview followed on the heels of another Babangida had with the London Guardian, the gist of which was that he had no regrets for annulling the June 12, 1993 election.
For a man who craves attention and enjoys adulation, Babangida’s latest interview was nothing but an attempt to remain relevant. Listen to him carefully. You would think you were getting a lesson about democracy from a democrat not a General who manipulated and destroyed Nigeria’s best chance at democratic renewal. "I am trying to put across to you that there is something fundamentally missing in the way we play politics in this country," IBB said.
"And, until we get it right, we will continue to be beating about, if I may use that phrase ... It is still only in this country that you get ballot boxes filled up before the actual election and somehow they get to be counted. So, I am trying to wake up the consciousness of people to understand that all they need is to be made to believe that the vote he has means something and he should protect it at all cost against manipulation, against rigging and so on. If I achieve that in politics, then I have achieved something for the growth of this country."
It was 13 years ago. June 12, 1993, to be exact. It was the culmination of eight years of treachery (IBB had thrice shifted the date for return to democracy) and a decade of military rule (IBB had been part of a coup that overthrew the 2nd Republic on December 31, 1983). For many of my generation it was perhaps the first practical experience of voting in an election. It was the IBB show and Nigerians let him run it. He had created two political parties (Social Democratic Party and National Republican Convention), written their manifestoes and constitutions and spent billions of naira building party headquarters in all the states of the federation.
n election day, to give the devil his due, millions of Nigerians went out to vote. For a country known for its ethnic and sectarian divide, it didn’t matter that the two presidential candidates, Bashir Othma Tofa and Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola were Muslims. There was little or no hitches compared to previous elections in Nigeria. Some have described it as the "freest and fairest" election in Nigeria’s checkered history. Suddenly, it seemed a new era had dawned in Nigeria. The results started trickling in. Suddenly, everything changed. On June 23, 1993, IBB issued an order on a piece paper stopping the results and voiding the election. The rest, as they say, is history. Babangida banned both presidential candidates from taking part in new elections. Such effrontery!
On July 31, IBB announced that an interim government would be inaugurated on Aug. 27, 1993, the eighth anniversary of his coming to power and a day after he would have "stepped aside". He put the bumbling Ernest Shonekan (Chairman of the Interim National Government, ING) as his replacement but not before decreeing that in the case of the death or resignation of the Chairman of the ING, he would be replaced by the highest-ranking military officer (Gen. Sani Abacha). On Nov. 17, 1993, a distraught Shonekan, foaming in the mouth on national televison resigned and handed the country over to Sani Abacha. Babangida left for Egypt.
Today, IBB blames Nigeria for this tragedy. This is what he had to say in his latest interview:
"I left in August; that constitution allowed that Interim Government to be in place for six months. There ought to have been an election in February of 1994. The constitution was very specific. Thank God, there were a lot of very brilliant lawyers; this is not a military thing. I consulted the best brains as far as this thing was concerned and, so, we gave them six months."
"Its primary responsibility would have been to use that period to organize the electoral body, to plan for election and by February 1994, there ought to have been a general election, which could be most acceptable to Nigerians because the culprit is no longer there; so, it would not be manipulated or tampered with and so on and so forth. I expected Nigerians to back him; the politicians said, no, their interest was somewhere else. You were living in this country then; there were pronouncements that it was (not) elected; there were pronouncements by eminent citizens that it should be kicked out and so many other things."
"Nobody was listening; and, this is the tragedy about us as a people. So, they quickly encouraged the military. Poor Shonekan! He got there in August 1993 and by November 1993, he was out. Now, if the public was serious at that time, somebody would have raised an alarm to say that, look, we were supposed to have an election in three months’ time, why in the name of God is this coming to be this time? But, people hailed it in this country."
That was quintessential IBB. Always dissembling. In between Babangida’s coming to power and his last despicable act we witnessed the execution on March 5, 1986, of his classmate, "dear friend" and best man, Major-General Mamman Vasta and nine others accused of "conspiring" to overthrow the regime. Interviewed in January 2001 on the execution of Vasta, IBB gloated: "Despite the fact that he was my friend, play mate and course mate, he had to be executed. Vatsa was like a scorpion in one's pocket. If he had been retired he could still have planned a coup from outside."
We also witnessed the death by a parcel bomb, on October 19, 1986, of Dele Giwa, one of the country’s finest journalists; the mysterious crash at Ejigbo, a Lagos suburb, on September 26, 1992, of the Nigerian Air Force C-130 Hercules plane with over 150 of the cream of the country’s military personnel. It’s been twenty years since Babangida foisted the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) on a country that was vehemently opposed to this dubious economic agenda. SAP sounded the death knell of the Nigerian economy.
IBB unleashed his death squads against anti-SAP protestors across the country killing and maiming hundreds of Nigerians, including students. He closed universities and bribed anybody bribable in civil society to support and oversee his numerous white elephant projects. The only job this man has had was being in the army. Well, as military president he was also the gatekeeper of the national treasury. Today, we are told, he lives in a 50-room hillside mansion in Minna, Niger State. This, in a nutshell, is IBB’s legacy!
abangida is a fraud. He has nothing new to offer Nigerians. This man can’t be trusted. Obasanjo once noted: "If Babangida tells you good morning, peep out of your window to ensure it is actually morning before you answer him." IBB is evil personified. In a normal society he should not be walking free. He should be on trial for his crimes against Nigerians. When asked if he will contest in 2007 Babangida said: "Once the whistle is blown, I will do, depending on what the mood of the people is, I would not let them down. Okay, why don’t I tell you this: if I get the nomination of my party, I will contest."
Babangida let Nigerians down in 1993. We have yet to recover from that shock. He had eight years of absolute power and all he did was send the country to the abyss. I think I am speaking the minds of majority of Nigerians when I say to IBB that the mood of the people is clear and unanimous: Please spare us the calamity. Nigerians have suffered enough. There is so much a people can take in a lifetime! Perhaps if IBB is looking for what to say, he should tell us why he betrayed his best friend; why he annulled the 1993 election; who killed Dele Giwa? What happened to the oil windfall from the first Gulf War?
I remember when the military and their imperialist backers a.k.a. the international community wanted to foist Obasanjo on us in 1999, one on the many reasons I gave for my opposition to Obasanjo apart from his disastrous human rights record was that political hacks would use him as a justification for the return of IBB. Let’s face it, Obasanjo (as a military dictator from 1976-79) had as much a horrid record as IBB. It is not surprising that former information minister, Alex Akinyele, and National Chairman of the National Democratic Party (NDP), Habu Fari are already gathering around IBB like flies to feces. Akinyele believes IBB’s chances are absolutely broad; Fari thinks "Babangida is indispensable. Apparently, he is the only one that can save us now."
We don’t know the kind of blood oath Obasanjo and Babangida took. But one thing is certain. It is either IBB’s latest taunt is a diversion or the unholy alliance between IBB and OBJ is beginning to unravel. Either way, Nigerians have their work cut out for them. We don’t need to be told that this period requires eternal vigilance.
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