By Olabode Lucas
General Ibrahim Badamasi Babaginda, the only military president to have ruled Nigeria presented his much-awaited autobiography last week at Abuja. The presentation was well attended by political and business bigwigs in Nigeria. Those in attendance included President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and all the living former Heads of State except Muhammadu Buhari who sent a representative.
The big crowd at the presentation and the whooping N17 billion collected at the presentation for the Babaginda’s presidential library are indisputable testimonies that the General who stepped aside in ignominy 32 years ago for good or for bad, is still a force to be reckoned with in Nigeria’s political dispensation. He was lauded to high heavens by speakers at the event and the book reviewer, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, the former vice president, made light of all the involvements of Babaginda in many previous coups in Nigeria. President Tinubu who was almost trapped in Babaginda’s orchestrated political quagmire referred to him as visionary, while the revered General Yakubu Gowon thanked him profusely for restoring his military rank which was removed by Obasanjo’s administration after the failed Dimka coup of 1976.
Babaginda, who ruled Nigeria from 1985 to 1993 no doubt affected tremendously the socio-political trajectory of the country during that period and the effect of his rule is still felt in the country up till today. In his foreword to the book, General Gowon acknowledged this by writing that in the post-civil war period, IBB’s tenure was easily the most remarkable and Gowon called him a natural leader. During his administration, he was variously referred to as ‘Evil Genius’ and ‘Maradona’ because of the devious and unpredictability of his actions while in power.
Many momentous and controversial events happened during his eight-year tenure, and this included the Nigeria OIC membership, Dele Giwa’s death through letter bomb, Mamman Vista coup, C-130 Hercules plane crash, Gideon Orkar coup, SAP riot, Gulf oil windfall, the seemingly unending and winding transition programme and June 12 election debacle.
I understand Babaginda tried to explain and justify his actions on all these events in the book. The startling admission he made in the book is his regret for annulling June 12, 1993, election which was the freest election in our history. He belatedly admits now that Chief M.K. O. Abiola, the presidential candidate of the then SDP won the election squarely. In the book, he blames the annulment of the election on his right-hand man then, the late Sani Abacha who according to him was beholden to northern political establishment. According to Babaginda, he was in faraway Katsina when Abacha annulled the election. To me, he can tell this to the Marines.
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As expected, General Babaginga’s new stands on June 12 election and the acknowledgement of Abiola’s victory at the election have elicited a lot of negative comments about his personality. This is to be expected because this unfortunate annulment brought untold grief to Nigeria and shook the country to its fragile foundation. Many lives were lost and there was general dislocation and fear in the country. With the annulment, Babaginda brought darkness to the country and the country’s onward march to democracy was halted abruptly. From his new revelations, many people now feel that despite his bravado and his geniality as a smart and no-nonsense soldier, Ibrahim Babaginda was nothing but a coward in an Army General’s tunic because he was afraid to do the right thing at the appropriate time.
History shows that many leaders around the world had had their names in infamy and in the mud and dustbin of history because of the precipitous, ill-conceived and unpopular actions they took while in power. In this group of leaders, we have people like Adolf Hitler who plunged the world into Second World War because of his ambition to make his Aryan race to rule the rest of the world, Neville Chamberlain for his appeasement agreement he had with Hitler in 1937, Mussolini of Italy for aligning with Hitler during the Second World War, Richard Nixon for the Watergate scandal of 1974, Joseph Mobutu in DR Congo for running down his otherwise very endowed country and Idi Amin of Uganda who unleashed a reign of terror on his people. Unfortunately, for his annulment of the freest election in Nigeria, Babaginda is now in the same league with leaders whose names are in infamy in history of the world. This is a personal tragedy for a man who strived to have his name in the right side of history but now he cannot escape the albatross of June 12 on his neck.
June 12 is about the enthronement of democracy in our country. The country eventually had democratic dispensation in 1999, thanks to the struggle of organisations like NADECO and others who fought the military to a standstill. It is now almost 26 years since we embarked on this democratic journey, and this is a convenient point to assess how we as a country have fared in the dispensation.
If we are going to be honest with ourselves, apart from the fact that the present dispensation has been the longest in our history, we cannot say that our practice of democratic norms has been above average. Our elections are still marred by high level of unimaginable irregularities. None of our elections since we started the present dispensation has come near the June 12 election in terms of authenticity and credibility. None has been found to reflect the true wishes of the people like the June 12 election. The electoral umpire INEC is not truly independent because its members are appointed by the party in power. In addition, our system of governance is still financially intimidating gulping a sizeable portion of our resources. The geo-political setup presently in place in our country is retarding our progress as true federalism is still a mirage in the country.
Perhaps, the greatest blight in the present dispensation is the states of the federation where the executives have muzzled the legislature, the judiciary and the local governments. During the First Republic with all its imperfections, there were free District Councils elections where opposition parties could easily win elections to control the District Councils. This has become an abomination in the present dispensation where the party in power always win all the local government elections. The local government council election in Osun State last week is a pointer to this. It is certainly not Uhuru for democracy in Nigeria.
June 12 eventually ushered in democratic dispensation in Nigeria but unfortunately the political class has disappointed the people in their behaviour towards true democratic norms, as our politicians are in politics to serve themselves and not the people. It is good that Babaginda whose administration kick-started the process leading to June12 has acknowledged its authenticity, but he has unwittingly become its casualty for his inaction when it mattered most.