Book review
Title: Ibrahim Babangida:
The Military, politics and power
in Nigeria
Author: Dan Agbese
Reviewer: Clem Baiye
Publisher: Adonis & Abbey Publishers
Pagination: 448
As Agbese points out, SAP had its political price as labour and students’ leaders battled the regime on the streets and the airwaves. “By 1989, the main planks of SAP had become rusty.” Babangida decided to pursue his political agenda. Clearly, the failure of the structural adjustment programme to address issues of poverty and the elimination of the middle class meant the further enshrinement of crony capitalism. Those who had friends in high places were shielded from the harsh economic climate.
What is more, the various organs birthed by the programme, Directorate of Foods, Road and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI), the Federal Urban Mass Transit Programme, the National Economic Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND) and the Peoples’ Bank failed to meet expectations. Babangida admitted that “we had problems in implementation” He felt, nonetheless, that the anti-SAP riots were attempts “to destroy the credibility of the military institution.” Some policy measures which had long-lasting positive impact included the abolition of import licences and the scrapping of the commodity boards.
What is Agbese’s assessment of the various organs set up under Babangida’s economic programme? The Federal Urban Mass Transit Authority (FUMTA) “joined a long list of wonderful national developmental efforts that died, taking the dreams of millions of people down with them.” The Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI) did not fare better as
“Exaggerated claims and, in many cases, outright falsehood put out by officials of the directorate showed first how desperate they were to mollify public disenchantment with a programme which promised so much but was giving the public disappointingly very little.”
Babangida’s political programme with its whiplash-inducing fits and starts, also promised so much but ended in the repugnant annulment of the 12th June, 1993 presidential elections. Agbese writes: “[his] great gift was in his ability to convince the country, at each stage of his political engineering, to trust him… He was a great political salesman.” The political programme went into a free fall soon after the ban on political parties was lifted and the politicians acted more like gladiators with daggers drawn. He had this strong belief that for the new politics, “old” politicians had to be kept severely away. The Nigerian Tribune referred to it as “authoritarian supervision of a democratic order.” He wanted to be the last military leader hence he set out an elaborate if confusing process to elect the new breed politician into power at all levels of governance.
The question of why the presidential election of June 12, was annulled will continue to be asked of Babangida. Agbese asked him. He did not support Alhaji Bashir Tofa presidential candidate of the National Republican Convention (NRC), because he was “not a winning candidate.” Babangida said that he contributed to Abiola’s campaign. He told his biographer that though “he would have been a happy man” if Chief Moshood Abiola had been sworn in as president, he claimed that both the military and some politicians were not comfortable. “Nobody was (comfortable). The military wasn’t; the politicians were not.” the late Prof Omo Omoruyi, a close adviser to Babangida claimed that the former president feared that had he sworn-in Abiola as president, his life and that of Abiola would have been at stake.
“They will kill me; they will kill the president-elect, Chief MKO Abiola”, Babaginda once said to Omoruyi. Should not one look to Babangida’s past statements to decipher why the presidential election was annulled? Did not Babangida hint that he would not hand over power to certain people or persons? Agbese writes that he would “not hand over political power to any person or persons, no matter how distinguished or wealthy but to a virile political organization which is openly committed to the proper use of power in the national interest. Those who think otherwise and who are now parading themselves as aspirants in 1992 would be disappointed in the end.” Agbese interviewed many close associates of Babangida but he did not talk to Dr Tunji Olagunju, one of his closest political advisers. This is a significant omission.
This absorbing biography does not shy away from unresolved controversies, including the murder of Dele Giwa, the popular columnist and colleague of Agbese’s at Newswatch. “That question dogged Babangida…. And still dogs him, and may, indeed, do so for the rest of his life… Nothing has yet ended the suspicion that his administration was to blame for it.”On his part, the former president in an interview with Newswatch in June 2000 blamed the media for not helping the police with their investigation. “The press and individuals should help the police, but I am not sure that, you are helping them. You are not helping them to do their job.”
Agbese writes about the so-called “Babangida mystique.” Here was a man who would lay out a good and supposedly well-intentioned agenda but he would “willingly sacrifice principles for expedience.” He wanted to run an inclusive government but some young elements of the army led by Major Gideon Okar felt so alienated they nearly toppled him in April 1990. The abortive coup “gave me real shock…” and “I became more individualistic”, said the former president. He yearned to have a military that was not driven by power blocs as in Latin America but ended up with “Abacha and Babangida factions of the Armed Forces.” A departing Chief of Army Staff, Lt- Gen Salihu Ibrahim observed that it was “an army of anything goes”
Babangida believed that his regime would probably be the last to be run by the military as his new type of politics would foreclose the military’s involvement in politics. But, as he himself said in a speech at Jaji two months after the Gideon Okar putsch. “The attraction of political power for young elements in the military put the future of the military in jeopardy.” Indeed, the damage, done to the military’s spirit de corps due to its involvement in politics was long-lasting, if not irreversible. There are more benign elements of the Babangida mystique. His well acknowledged knack for remembering names and faces, and his ability to influence his friends and close associates, for which he was nicknamed THE BOSS. His civil war comrades recall his bravery. Brigadier John Inienger said Babangida took risks, “risk which some of us under normal circumstances would be scared to take.” Babangida’s teacher, Mr Akande, who supported his nomination as head boy at Bida mentioned his unpredictability.
“I have always thought that this is a young man who is most calculating and who will surprise anybody. I think Nigerians have really got a dose.”
For a meticulous planner, Babangida’s transition programme turned out to be a mishmash which ended in the doomed Interim National Government headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan. The elaborate plans for the 1993 presidential elections went hand-in-hand with the sleight of hand of the Association for a Better Nigeria, the Justice Bassey Ita Ikpeme ruling against the conduct of the election and subsequent annulment which Agbese described as an “insensitive political decision.” He added “June 12 became and remains Babaginda’s Albatross.”
In the wake of the many crises faced by his administration, Babangida said, “we must not let the military as an institution be humiliated or be disgraced out of office as was the case in some countries.” Yet, he must carry enormous responsibility for the failure of the ill-fated Interim National Government and the seizure of power by General Sani Abacha and the squalid dictatorship of the Abacha years in power.
Agbese concludes, “The ship of [Babaginda’s] greatness foundered on the rocks of June 12. June 12 sabotaged him and erected a permanent wall between him and greatness. And because of June 12, history is compelled to take an unkindly view of Babangida’s place in the political history of Nigeria.”
This is a serious book, with no place for tittle-tattle. It is a profound statement about Agbese skills as a biographer. Critical but fair, it is deserving of a wide readership by all who are interested in the political history of Nigeria and the role of the military. For me, it is not only useful for scholarship, it will enrich our political culture and will, arguably, become a standard by which other books about the life and times of Ibrahim Babangida are assessed.
•Baiye, a business executive, is based in Lagos.
