For about two weeks, the nation has witnessed the activities around the 80th birthday of former military president, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. For some, especially those who have had direct dealings with him, it has been a flurry of praises for the man whom many have come to know as the Maradona and affectionately referred to also as IBB or the evil genius.
Babangida has the unenviable record of aborting what everybody has come to accept as the best thing to happen to our electoral evolution as a nation. He scuttled the June 12, 1993, presidential election which he midwifed and for which he received accolades for organizing the best election ever held in the country.
First, it was Babangida in an interview with Arise TV, where he clearly spoke like the intelligent man that he is. He also showed that apart from the troublesome leg which has practically left him immobile, he did not disappoint with his intelligent responses to questions put before him. His ability to vividly recall all events around his life as a soldier and a military president even at age 80 stands him out as a brilliant officer. He clearly stands out among his peers and his understanding of issues within and outside the country you can hardly find that with many of our leaders today.
He also used the opportunity of the interview to attempt to rewrite history and project himself as a man of impeccable character. He told his listeners the stories around his private life and his marriage to his delectable late wife, Mrs. Maryam Babangida.
Truly, of all those who have ruled as military heads of state, it is difficult to identify anyone who comes near Babangida in terms of intelligence and his ability to assemble some of the best brains in the land irrespective of their religious or ethnic background. He made friends across ethnic or religious divides. He is a true pan-Nigerian leader who also took his only wife from the South and remained faithful to her, even in death Babangida still recalls their union with so much nostalgia.
Babangida enjoyed tremendous goodwill as head of state having seized power from the draconian leadership of General Muhammadu Buhari, whose ironfisted regime performed so woefully that there were jubilations on the streets heralding the coming of Babangida in August 1985.
However, he faced the same economic problems that Buhari had struggled with and the same domestic dissatisfaction. He came to an agreement with the International Monetary Fund and received new loans from the World Bank, but the resultant devaluation of the naira, the local currency, led to social unrest, which he addressed by dissolving part of the Nigeria Labour Congress and temporarily closing the universities.
Babangida announced early in 1986 that a civilian government would be formed by 1990 but later extended the date by two years to allow more time for preparation. He decreed that no politicians from the civilian regimes or office-holding military officials could stand as candidates. He allowed no political parties during the transition period and approved only two political parties when campaigning eventually began. Expressing dissatisfaction with the process of fielding new political parties, the Babangida government created its own parties, the National Republican Convention (NRC) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP). As a further move to show that he was firmly in control, Babangida dissolved the Armed Forces Ruling Council in favour of smaller bodies and dismissed many of his closest military colleagues.
The fulfilment of Babangida’s pledge of a return to a civilian government seemed imminent when a presidential election was finally held in 1993. Initial results indicated that businessman, Moshood Abiola, the SDP candidate, was the apparent winner but before the official results were announced, Babangida annulled the elections—a decision which proved to be controversial and unpopular. In the wake of the civil unrest that ensued, he handed control of the country over to an interim civilian panel headed by businessman, Ernest Shonekan and “stepped aside” from the government.
Babangida had the golden opportunity of bequeathing us a democracy for which posterity would have ever remained kind to him but he missed it and will forever be haunted by that singular wrong judgment he made. His explanation during the interview that the annulment of the elections was in the interest of the nation does not hold water. After all, the same coup which he feared still happened to the Interim government of Shonekan which he hurriedly assembled as he left the stage when Gen Sani Abacha staged a palace coup.
Babangida owes the nation unreserved apology. Only then can he begin to have the peace of mind which he so much needs at this stage of his sojourn on earth.
Given our current experiences as a nation, it will be much easier to forgive Babangida because as he also pointed out during the interview, if his government is compared to the one of today, then IBB is a saint.
The spirit of June 12 has since departed us. June 12 election would have served as a catalyst for redefining our electoral process, because it was a process devoid of all the inanities that define our politics today.
Today, our empty political office holders have continued to drive a wedge against the unity of the country, regaling us with the rhetorics that separate, rather than unites us. They have concentrated more on our fault lines and played up these sentiments because they obviously have nothing to offer. No critical analysis has been done to see why June 12, 1993 was symbolic and why we must build on it to launch us into the league of sane nations.
The everyday-man on the street is the least concerned about where the president is from or what religion he professes.
In 1993, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidates of Chief MKO Abiola and Alhaji Babagana Kingibe won that election across the nation flooring even Alhaji Bashir Tofa in his Kano State base. They were both Muslims and their faith was not hidden from the public, yet they got the votes of the Christian south and Muslim North.
The moral lesson from this for all leaders is that they must do what is right at all times because posterity is an unforgiving judge. So, whatever they do today will turn around to haunt them tomorrow.
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