Tag: Babangida

By Mike Kebonkwu

 A fortnight ago, the deity and oracle of Minna, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida came down from his sanctum on the Hill Top Mansion and sauntered into Abuja, the federal capital territory.  Although infirm with age, life has been kind to him even at the winter of life.  His presence still elicits tremor in the political firmament in Nigeria.  The presentation of his autobiography was a roll call of who’s who in the ruling elites, with captains of industries, clergies, traditional rulers and politicians.  It was encomium all the way on the wheelchair bound general and ex-military leader and self-styled president.  Life has cast a shadow on the one time sabre rattling general who once possessed the power of life and death.   

It was an occasion for the launch of his autobiography, “A Journey in Service”.  There was great expectation that the autobiography was going to fill the yawning gap in all the speculations about his life and career as military president and especially, the event of the annulment of June 12 presidential election which was adjudged as the freest and fairest in our political history.  Lo and behold, it was not to be as many people went away disappointed that the former military head of state still chose to hide behind one finger.  It is a story of heroic exploit in self-glorification.  

For the record, I have not read the autobiography but hopefully, will do.

One thing I am persuaded about is that there are no epidemics of amnesia or dementia in Nigeria; but there might well be selective memory lost. Babangida lived a lie in both his military and political lives which veiled his persona.  On his autobiography, “A Journey in Service”, one is wont to ask, service to, or for whom? 

For those who came to eulogize him, understandably, it was a payback time to a political godfather that made them in politics and business.  My first insight to the man Babangida was in his biography by the ace journalist, Dan Agbese titled, “Ibrahim Babangida – the Military, Politics and Power in Nigeria”.  In the book, I saw a brilliant and ambitious young man on a personal odyssey manipulating people and religion as cat paw to pull chestnut from the fire.   Babangida is a northerner but not of the Hausa-Fulani stock.  His acceptance into the northern oligarchy was achieved through solid personal achievement in his meteoric rise in the military hierarchy to the top brass and head of a military government after a successful coup d’état.

Babangida was a great military leader, manipulative and full of guile. He understands power and the Nigerian psyche.  He did not miss the opportunity to play one group against the other, using people and dumping them.  He recognized the polarizing role of religion and took Nigeria into the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) in utter disregard to our secularity and diversity just to win the heart of northern establishment.  He called himself the Evil Genius but he was the ultimate evil; like the ‘Devil on the Cross’, in the world of Ngugi Wa Thiongo by that title. 

During the book launch, he raked in over N16 billion and pledge for a Presidential Library in his honour which has become the fad.  Babangida does not need the money.  He is so rich that even Forbes cannot locate and estimate his net worth.   Babangida was generous with our commonwealth spirited from our treasury and made a clique in the elite rich and the nation broke.  For eight solid years, Babangida manipulated everybody; taking Nigeria through rigmarole and an endless political transition that was designed to fail at a huge cost.    

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All the guests at the book launch were VIPs that came to honour him; they had no bad words for him; he was a great leader!  That is understandable because he was a benevolent benefactor to them during his years of locusts as military leaders.  In and out of government, his Hill Top Mansion in Minna became a shrine for politicians for endorsement and hefty handouts to support their political ambitions without discrimination; demonstrating the unity of the ruling elite.  That was what you saw during the book launch. 

Was Babangida’s service in his ‘Journey in Service’ to Nigeria?  Roads, streets and institutions are named after him.  I am yet to see any national institution or road named after Chief Gani Fawehinmi for his entire struggle for the masses of this country, and his footprint in the judiciary, fighting for justice.  It is not too much to name the Supreme Court Complex after Fawehinmi but we will prefer to dismiss him as an agitator and an angry activist with other tribal arguments.  Nigeria is yet to identify her heroes but prefers to celebrate career criminals with official imprimatur.

It is customary with my people in Agbor in Delta State that when people are old, they are expected to speak the truth and make peace with God and man and atone or expiate for every wrong as a rite of passage. That is not in Babangida.  

What are the legacies of Babangida?  It is to his eternal credit that that he brought about the erosion of discipline as defining feature in the military;  giving unmerited and unqualified privileges to some junior and middle level officers against their superiors. He institutionalized corruption in Nigeria and everybody has a price.  To those opposed to him, he wooed them, befriended and destroyed them.  When he wanted to use the ace educationist with Spartan discipline, Tai Solarin, he first dressed him in a fine apparel of white ‘babariga’ and cap to match and poured palm oil on him in front of the purpose-designed Peoples’ Bank of Nigeria.  He sold Nigeria to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank and introduced the suffocating ‘Structural Adjustment Programme’ (SAP).  Many Nigerian students were shot and killed during the Anti-SAP protest.  Nobody called on him during the book launch to account for the blood of those Nigerian youths. 

What about Nigerians killed during June 12 protests across the country and numerous bomb explosions?  What about the parcel bomb that killed Dele Giwa; did his autobiography expose those behind it?  He wasted huge resources to conduct an election which he annulled.  If that crowd at his behest were not suffering from memory loss, why did they not interrogate the inner recesses of his conscience and use the opportunity to demand for unreserved apologies to Nigeria and Nigerians?

And the man Babangida looked Nigerians in the face and wrote in his ‘A Journey in Service’ that it was Abacha and his clique that influenced the abortion or annulment of June 12 election; his subordinates and juniors as a military head of state with everything at his behest and beck and call. That is a lie from the pit of hell!  Babangida understands the dynamics of power game and was ultimate Machiavelli personified.  In the military at his time and era, nobody could have stood on his path and lived to tell the story.  He killed his childhood friend Mamman Vatsa after the 1986 Coup d’état.  If Abacha was a stumbling block, he could have done away with him one way or the other.  It is cowardly and immoral to lie against a dead man.  Babangida could have retired Abacha and his clique if they existed and heavens would not have fallen.  What about the over $6 billion oil windfall that disappeared without trace during his regime for which the maverick musical maestro, Fela Anikulapo Kuti waxed an album?   Today, our leaders gathered to honour him with cymbals and minstrel! 

Babangida is an unrepentant master of circumlocution and a vile schemer and super dribbler that was nicknamed Maradona.  As the saying goes, the leopard does not change its skin.  Babangida is as charming as he is deceitful; with half-truths and outright prevarications.  This was the reason why he could not take responsibility and blamed the dead for his perfidious and treacherous act of annulment of June 12 which remains a stain and the darkest moment in our political history.  What he needed was a fine detergent and laundry of his image and reputation which was sullied like crimson but failed to take the occasion to do. By now, Nigerians should know their hero, statesmen and patriots.  We may attempt to rewrite history but at the twilight and winter of life, we should reconcile with humanity and God and speak the truth which is the only rite of passage.

•Kebonkwu Esq, an Abuja-based attorney, writes via mikekebonkwu@yahoo.com

June 12, 1993 marked a significant setback for Nigeria, harking back to the January 15, 1966, coup-d’etat. This unfortunate event pushed the country back by at least a century, primarily due to the suspension of the 1963 Republican Constitution. Although the masterminds behind the coup never explicitly stated that they had abolished the constitution, the consequences of its suspension continue to manifest in Nigeria’s persistent underdevelopment.

Ayo Ademiluyi, a civil rights lawyer and political activist, recently pointed out that the General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida government, similar to previous and succeeding military administrations, was characterized by diarchy. This system of governance, which combines the military top brass and parts of the political establishment, was more pronounced under IBB, as Babangida is known, than any other military administration. This diarchy was on full display during the publication and public presentation of a book, titled ‘A Journey in Service: An Autobiography of Ibrahim Babangida’, and fundraising for the Presidential Library, where startling revelations about Babangida’s military rule came to light.

A gentleman on the podium stated that he and others present owed their success not to entrepreneurial spirit, but rather to state capture and favours. In contrast, entrepreneurs like Adeola Odutola, Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu, and Aminu Dantata from the previous era achieved success through genuine entrepreneurial zeal and innovation. Unfortunately, under Babangida’s regime, state favours became the primary means of economic advancement, leading to a society that is uncompetitive

The concept of state capture, which originated in South Africa, was exemplified in Nigeria during the IBB era. However, for Nigeria to make progress, it should focus on promoting entrepreneurship among its citizens. Notable examples include Bayo Ogunlesi of Global Infrastructure, Olugbenga Agboola, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji and Adeleke Adekoya of Flutterwave, as well as Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi of Paystack. The new generation banks, led by individuals like Atedo Peterside and Fola Adeola, are also worth mentioning. Instead of promoting entrepreneurship, the IBB book presentation unfortunately celebrated an era marked by ‘man-know-man’ and ‘padi padi’ arrangements, commonly referred to as state capture. This approach will not make Nigeria competitive, create much-needed jobs, catalyze growth, or achieve sustainability.

One of the most troubling aspects of the June 12, 1993, election saga is how Babangida inadvertently relinquished his authority as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. By refusing to uphold the mandate of the free and fair election, Babangida exhibited a cowardly cop-out, as noted by Reuben Abati in his column. Abati’s critique, however, stopped short of drawing a more profound conclusion. A more incisive analysis would have contrasted Babangida’s actions or inactions with those of Chile’s democratically elected President Salvador Allende Gossens, who made the ultimate sacrifice for his principles on a fateful night in 1973.

In a tale of two leaders, Salvador Allende, a medical doctor-turned-president, stood in unambiguous contrast to General Ibrahim Babangida, who rose through the military ranks. When faced with a coup, Allende’s commitment to his people and his mandate was unwavering. Despite an American plane waiting to whisk him to safety, he opted to fight alongside his Chief of Staff and eleven ministers, refusing to give up their mandate. It’s one of the most remarkable arts in recent political history. So, who’s a ‘General’? Allende, a trained medical doctor, or Babangida, who entered the army straight from secondary school?

Lieutenant Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi’s ultimate sacrifice for Major General JTU Aguiyi-Ironsi during the 1966 military coup in Nigeria also exemplified the enduring power of loyalty and duty in the face of overwhelming adversity. So, there’s no point in blaming General Sani Abacha, Augustus Aikhomu and others, who are no longer here to defend themselves; and dead men tell no tales! What’s more? IBB has simply shot himself in the foot, for, certainly, he has not presented himself as a Commander-in-Chief!

The entire book presentation was clearly a jarring celebration, utterly disconnected from the somber reflections that events like the Holocaust or Soweto Massacre demand. As Peterside aptly noted, such tragedies cannot be commemorated amidst joviality. This is a very bad taste, which should not have happened. In sane climes, the occasion would have been an opportune moment to establish a Trust Fund for the countless individuals who suffered irreparable losses – lives, limbs, and livelihoods – due to the annulment. Many of these brave souls are still alive, struggling to rebuild their shattered lives.

In this context, President Bola Tinubu, himself a victim of the annulment, has a unique opportunity to make amends. By setting up the Trust Fund, he can provide long-overdue rehabilitation and support to those who risked everything for democracy. This gesture would honour their sacrifices while allowing him to forge his own path, distinct from the shadows of the past, and create a more just and compassionate society. The last word is that, June 12, 1993, allowed the genie to escape from the bottle. All manners of long dormant and suppressed agitations came out of June 12 across the six geopolitical zones and the political will to resolve these issues has still not been found.

In his 1852 book, ‘The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon’, Karl Marx famously remarked: “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” As Marx pointed out, and as Babangida demonstrated, June 12, 1993, was a tragic event and the scars are still showing with broken limbs, disrupted lives and people suddenly becoming orphans. On the other side of the coin, the book presentation and the launch of a proposed Babangida Presidential Library was a pure farce.  

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Now that the book presentation has again highlighted the shame of a country, IBB can still hold his head high, not because of any personal merit, but because Nigeria’s flawed system often enables leaders to deflect accountability. This phenomenon is deeply ingrained in our national psyche, where the failures of leaders are frequently downplayed or even celebrated. Here, our justice system remains defective, yet society inexplicably applauds it. Nigeria’s complexities are well-known to those familiar with our unique brand of ‘Nigerianness’ – a reality marked by pervasive shock, anxiety, uncertainty and chaos. Our nation has become a contested territory, where the lives of countless individuals are being squandered amidst this turmoil.

IBB’s ‘invented’ excuses have been a means to an end, but the question remains: what is that end? Now that he has exhausted his justifications for past inadequacies, what’s next? This raises questions about accountability and the lack of genuine introspection. But, wait a minute, the attendance of notable figures like Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria’s former Vice President, and Bola Tinubu, the current president, at IBB’s event is also perplexing. While Tinubu’s presence might be attributed to diplomatic obligations, Osinbajo’s attendance is harder to justify, given his reputation as a democrat. Moreover, Tinubu’s participation in the laugh-it-off competition with the evil genius, a man often regarded as one of Nigeria’s most notorious leaders, is particularly jarring.

Agreed, the dead are dead, and nothing can be done about that again! Twenty-six years after Nigeria’s return to democracy, it is essential to reflect on the sacrifices made by individuals like Abubakar Umar, who relinquished their military commissions, and others like Ambassador Musbau in Mushin-Lagos, who went totally blind during the agitations, all in support of the June 12 movement. How does the democratic system honour their memory and sacrifices? A former warlord reportedly advised Abacha to “hang” MKO Abiola, the winner of the June 12, 1993, presidential election, for treason. Ironically, his wife is now a Minister in Tinubu’s cabinet!

So, ‘eni to ku ni tie gbe! Indeed, he who is dead has lost it all!

May the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, grant us peace in Nigeria!

• By Mobolaji Sanusi

On Thursday, February 21, 2025, despotic retired General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida launched his book titled: “A Journey In Service-An Autobiography.” The book is obviously an attempt to appease almighty God, not any human being.

As he revels in the twilight of his life and with the mindset that he’s currently enjoying an age bracket where going the mortal way is imminent, the fear of eluding aljannah if necessary atonement is forsaken here on earth cannot be overlooked.

At his book presentation that was well attended by all known notable living victims of his misrule in Abuja, the demonic military ruler in Nigeria’s political history, for once , publicly expressed halfhearted contrition to wit: “I regret June 12. I accept full responsibility for the decisions taken and June 12 happened under my watch. Mistakes, missteps happened in quick succession. That accident of history is most regrettable. The nation is entitled to expect my expression of regret.”

With those carefully crafted words in Babangida’s usual deceptive language come a sense of nostalgic feelings about an avoidable act of a military power monger that threw the country into a yet-to-be-overcome democratic and economic rigmarole.

For Babangida, other power mongers and living creatures, time teaches the value of life but people only change when faced by compelling experience of life’s reality. The dawn of Babangida’s sad reality has arrived during his 83rd birthday celebration. And the truth about the acknowledgment of his criminal annulment of June 12, 1993 Presidential election that Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola convincingly won has just been made by him. He has dodged this reality in his bid to preserve his pride and already badly dented leadership reputation for decades.

In a country with contemporary generation of youths that lacked a veritable sense of their history, the depth of Babangida’s book launch might be taken with levity. To them, it’s not difficult to dismiss it as a routine, frequently embarked upon by political leaders masquerading as authors to garb history in their preferred clothes colour.

What’s not impossible from the foregoing is the likelihood that Niccolo Machiavelli had Babangida and perhaps other Nigerian political gladiators in mind when he opined several decades ago: “Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.” For Nigerians that are old enough when Babangida was an imperial military ruler, the truth that his book launch audience failed to throw on his face is that he is one power-obsessed political monster who ruled this country and nearly ran it politically and economically aground.

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With the assemblage of brilliant minds that he surrounded himself with during his imperial reign in power, he espoused astounding policy philosophy that he never embodied empirically. In actual fact, Babangida is an embodiment of the widely known cliche of leading by precept rather than example.

Currently, the stark reality staring IBB in the face is reinforced by the fact that at the apogee of his political power, he failed to trust his instincts which are altruistic messages from his soul. He gleefully succumbed to pleasures of the flesh. And with his conscience giving him sleepless nights over his misrule over Nigeria and especially misdeeds to MKO Abiola, he has now grudgingly through his autobiography come out to half heartedly confessed the sad truth of how he deprived Nigerians the opportunity of having a president in Abiola that holds, till date, the record of winning an untainted election ever in the anal of presidential elections in this country.

Rather than make direct regrets and pointed plea for forgiveness from his country patriots, IBB was busy passing buck on General Sani Abacha and Aikhomu through his secretary that he claimed released the annulment press statement while away in Katsina state, without his imprimatur. This is despite his knowing that both were not alive to defend themselves.

Unfortunately and obviously in a deliberate strategic timing by Babangida, he ensured that most of those he orchestrated the devilish June 12, 1993 presidential annulment saga with; that could corroborate or debunked his lies including Arthur Nzeribe, Abimbola Davis, , Clement Akpamgbo, Justices Dahiru Saleh and Bassey Ikpeme, Professors Humphrey Nwosu and Omo Omoruyi and more importantly General Sani Abacha and Vice Admiral Augustus Aikhomu are all dead. That is vintage Babangida for young Nigerians to know.

What is actually a take away from the chapter in his book dwelling on his journey to nowhere political transition policy is for Nigerians to stay away from IBB’s deceptively buck passing presentations by his acting like a victim in a problem he willfully created, inflicting indescribable anguish and despair on Nigeria/Nigerians in the process.

IBB, through his gap-toothed deceitful smiles during his rulership of this country was loved but not trusted by millions of discernible Nigerians.

Babangida’s recent confession is a confirmation of Benjamin Franklin’s aphorism that: “Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.” The tragedy of IBB’s life and times as military ruler of this country is that he’s getting wise the fact. That is, after his willfully dastard political orchestration.

Alexander the Great once said: “In the end, when it’s all over, all that matters is what you’ve done.” What matters to Nigerians with a dispassionate sense of history is that true statesmanship and reliable leadership are all over for IBB.                  All  that matters to us is not his belated confession but how he unforgettably messed up our political turfs with insincere policies and economic terrain through his insincere foreign induced Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) that led to devaluation of the Naira and abysmal craze for seeking and obtaining looted loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

What is on records is that Nigerians tried to stop IBB’s political transition and economic journey-to-nowhere.

Yours sincerely was at the time on the streets with other patriots to protest against his inimical policies and political abracadabra. Yours sincerely joined other patriotic journalists, writers and activists to write damning articles, editorials in newspapers but the ‘evil genius’ and his team of tyrants ignored us. No wonder that Thomas Paine once admonished that “A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.” Babangida and his team foisted themselves on us and held themselves accountable to none of us. Such a ruler’s narrative on June 12 annulment or plea for regret should not be believed.

Despite Babangida’s dubious confession, his being weighed down by the pain of June 12 Presidential Election annulment regrets may yet not abate considering that this also led to his ignominiously being forced to step aside from power nearly 33 years ago.

We can’t easily forget his statement that he was “not only in government but also in power. A statement he made to sternly warn millions that were and are still June 12 Presidential Election devotees protesting against his decision at that time. Babangida was ready to burn this country down even if he was to rule over its ashes with his undeniable obsession for power at that point in history.

Seeing the way that especially victims of Babangida’s destructive torment are heaping glowing praises on him at his book launch, yours sincerely keeps reflecting over what the reactions of late patriots like MKO Abiola, Gani Fawehinmi, Beko Ransome-Kuti, Dele Giwa, Kudirat Abiola, Bagauda Kaltho and millions that were martyrs of struggles against Babangida’s tyranny will be in their graves.

This in my humble view is the worst scenario created at the evil genius 83rd birthday book launch. Babangida might take solace in the divine injunction stating that “to err is human but to forgive is divine.”

For most Nigerians with conscience, the injustice of June 12 criminal annulment and the cruel elimination of MKO Abiola can be aptly summed up by the words of Thomas Aquinas to wit: “No evil can be excused because it is done with a good intention,” not even on any phantom national security report. Herein lies the futility of Babangida’s half hearted regret at his book launch.

• Sanusi, a journalist/corporate legal consultant wrote in this piece from Lagos.