General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, a master in the dark art and metaphysics of annulment, whether physical, democratic or national, was on hand again penultimate Thursday to impose himself on and dominate the Nigerian environment once again thirty two years after surrendering power in dismal and distraught circumstances. In an autobiography that has since gone viral, the Minna-born general tried to absolve himself of complicity in the greatest democratic tragedy that has befallen the nation since independence and to plead for mercy and understanding from his compatriots. In the process, he has triggered off a trail of abuse, recriminations and shrill denunciation the type normally reserved for historical scoundrels. It is as if many Nigerians have been waiting for an opportunity to pounce on IBB.
As it is said in the book of Job(31.35), “mine desire is that my enemy hath write a book”, it is obvious that thirty two years after, Nigerians are still traumatized by the ignoble drama surrounding the abrogation of the democratic will of the nation by a group of military officers, a development which they trace, directly or indirectly, to their current economic distress and political woes. If few Nigerians outside the loop of power understood what was going on in those days of utter confusion and political perplexity leading to and after the summary dismissal of the electoral sovereignty of the nation, fewer still do after reading Babangida’s mea culpa which has been dismissed as a litany of lies, misinformation and disinformation by irate Nigerians.
General Babangida has touched some raw nerves. It is curious that Babangida who claimed ignorance of the poorly worded unsigned document announcing the annulment while he was still a sitting military ruler and all-powerful president was on hand to endorse the annulment two days after. Not only that, a few days after formally ceding power, the general still had the daring and temerity to be announcing new military postings from his Minna redoubt through Chief Duro Onabule his veritable mouthpiece, a development which was swiftly countermanded by the duo of Abacha and Diya in the name of “service expediency”. Perhaps it was only then that the general finally roused from his trance and political somnambulism. As Arthur Nzeribe, his closet collaborator, wickedly and disdainfully put it, the general lost command.
Yours sincerely was in Abuja penultimate Thursday to witness the historic spectacle. As one of the severest critics of the general when it became obvious that the transition was a grand charade, namely: The Transition As Transfiction; Alternatives to National Suicide, The Game is Up, At the Barricades, The Lonely Long Distance Runner, The Birth of Tragedy, Bridge Over Interim Waters, Remember Rueben etc, General Ibrahim Babangida remains a figure of deep historical fascination for this writer. There is an odd, deeply psychic entwinement between artist of power and the power-artist beyond abuse and vulgar recriminations. Perhaps as Gbolabo Ogunsanwo famously intuited, there is a Babangida in every one of us. The story of Babangida is also the story of Nigeria. One is deeply enthralled by how a deeply endowed and politically resourceful man could lead the nation and himself to such a cul de sac from which it has never recovered. It speaks to some satanic foibles and deeply malign misconfiguration which are at the heart of the Nigerian Conundrum and which also makes the struggle for power and ascendancy in the nation far from being a beauty pageant.
So when the opportunity to witness this historic gathering of the Nigerian consortium arose, it was too good to be passed over. But due to some distractions, the party missed the deadline and by the time we arrived at the venue, the gates were firmly locked with all vehicular movements prohibited as a result of the presence of the incumbent president and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu. In the event, rather than being well-seated inside the hall, we found ourselves outside among a crowd of berserk humanity pulling at everything and violently pushing and shoving everybody in a journey that ended in a brick wall of fierce looking security people who avoided direct eye contact so as not to be seen committing a heinous breach of protocol. After a lull, we were approached by a new set of security personnel who led us through a private door that suddenly opened into the gallery above the hall where the technical crew were ensconced as they captured the extravaganza for posterity.
It was indeed a spectacular pabanbari, a historic showstopper straight out of the surreal cinematography that gave us The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. Minus the numerous dead who have paid their death duties to mortality, almost everybody who is anybody in the national eclipse of sixty years since the advent of the military was seated in that gloriously phosphorescent hall like some alchemists of geo-political perdition. General Gowon did not disappoint anybody. Armed with his usual arsenal of platinum platitudes, amiable and good-natured Jack went on and on about how he owed the restoration of his rank to the celebrant and how earlier, he nearly made the young Major Babangida his aide de camp.
Without any sense of irony, Gowon went on to assert that Babangida’s regime was the most consequential for the nation. In the case of General Obasanjo despite having dismissed Babangida’s regime as deficit in honour, credibility and integrity in the heat of his collapsing Transition programme, he went on to shower sedulous praises on his subordinate and political benefactor urging him to take the possible backlash against his autobiography as an example of “bad belle”. The earlier quarrel between the two about who is a fool at seventy has been forgotten but the Nigerian jury has returned an open verdict of misadventure by mutual semantic cancelation.
It might have been due to the combination of exhaustion and exhilaration but in the trance-like sedation one suddenly felt transported back to early Jacobean period in England watching the remarkable play, Volpone, or the Sly Fox, by Ben Jonson, a merciless satire on lust, cruelty and greed compounded by grand deception. Written around 1605/1606, Ben Jonson could well have had post-independence Nigeria in mind and devious military rule in the country and its unique exemplar in view. The main character, a man known as Volpone, already wealthy from dubious and fraudulent exertions, piled up additional riches duping people by pretending to be on the verge of death. Among his clients were the wealthiest citizens of the land. In the end, manipulated by his own manipulation, his ruse falls apart. He starts out fooling everybody but ends up fooling himself, a fool in fools’ costumes.
At least the real Volpone, (or is it the fictional Volpone?) receives his just desserts and is punished for his diabolic trickeries. Nigeria’s problem can be traced to serial tragedy without catharsis or the prospects of it. Impunity which is a symptom of lawless anomie and a disordered society reigns supreme. No society can make meaningful progress in such circumstances. Having escaped punishment for abolishing the sovereignty of the Nigerian electorate, General Babangida has come back to demand to be paid for his pains, and he got it handsomely with a seventeen billion pay cheque. It is akin to being rewarded for fouling up the community pool. The Nigerian ruling class is unable and unwilling to purge itself of political and economic miscreants.
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It is important to locate the current regime within the continual crisis of the abdication of ethical responsibility given the balance of extant forces by the time the military was forced to return to the barracks. Like all its predecessors in the post-military dispensation, the regime is not a product of a revolutionary momentum or organic radical stirring within the society, despite the upsurge of separatist rumblings in many sections of the country.
It is a product of a unique conjuncture: a coming together of hitherto countervailing forces, namely a sizeable chunk of the progressive elements from the South West and vital conservative groups from the core north. The occasional creaking of the engine and the clattering of the wheels notwithstanding, if only the coalition can push through some fundamental reforms which are at the heart of political and economic modernity without coming unstuck, Nigeria would have avoided a situation in which a handful of military officers can act in a way that alters the fundamental trajectory of the nation and a situation in which they condition themselves to confuse their personal destiny with the larger destiny of the nation.
By the time he was driven from power, Babangida had become a major casualty of his own machinations. As a veteran coup plotter himself, Babangida knew when the odds were overwhelmingly against him. Sani Abacha had so loaded the military dice against him with strategic positioning of his arch-loyalists that he could take him down at any moment. It was the culmination of a power struggle which began the moment Abacha saved him from Major Orkar. In the confusion that followed, Abacha could easily have neutralized Babangida and taken over. But the dark-goggled general from Kano knew that he was such an object of disrespect and ridicule among the officer corps that a momentous bloodbath could have ensued.
Shortly afterwards, a group of officers wrote to Babangida asking him to remove Abacha as Army Chief to save the army and the nation from further ridicule and disrepute. Afraid of inviting Abacha’s apocalyptic ire, Babangida dithered and vacillated for a while before settling for a compromise. Abacha was kicked upstairs but allowed to keep all the power and appurtenances of army chief including the official residence which he refused to vacate. So riled and miffed was the gentleman-officer who was designated as Chief of Army Staff, the excellent and impeccably conducted General Salisu Ibrahim ,that he exploded on the eve of his retirement that his beloved army had become “an army of anything goes”.
In the case of Mamman Gulu Vatsa, it was obvious that the much admired poet was a victim of his own professional delusions and political naivete. Despite early youthful bonding and friendship, professional rivalry tore the two future generals and former classmates apart. The outward show of conviviality and camaraderie did not mask the rivalry and rancour. It was said that after General Babangida’s victorious putsch, Sani Abacha had approached him to retire Vatsa but Babangida told him to hold on. Unknown to him, Vatsa had been sent as a decoy to follow Tunde Idiagbon on pilgrimage to Mecca so that he did not constitute himself into a military nuisance when Babangida made his move. This was why he signed on late upon his return to Mecca.
At the swearing in, Babangida jokingly asked his friend not to sign in Arabic language but Vatsa kept a stern straight face. But after returning to Abuja as minister, Vatsa began jumping and humping around letting everybody know that WAI was still in operation in the federal territory. This was like running a red rag in front of Babangida’s bull, or declaring his own autonomous territory. Shortly afterwards, Babangida gave a speech ominously hinting that those who were trying to cause problems for his regime would be neutralized with incisive professional skill. It was obvious that Vatsa’s goose had been cooked. Shortly thereafter in December 1985, the Gulu-born soldier-poet was arrested and charged with coup-plotting never to regain his freedom.
It was the beginning of a period of bloodletting and officer-wastage that was unprecedented in the history of the nation culminating in a politically prohibitive annulment of the freest and fairest election in the history of the nation all because of a handful of military officers. If General Ibrahim Babangida seeks restitution and genuine atonement for his infractions against his nation, he should go about it the right way. The obscene spectacle in Abuja penultimate Friday was like putting the wrong foot forward.
