Former Golden Eaglets player (Japan ’93), Ibrahim Babangida has predicted a difficult game for Nigeria on Saturday against USA at the 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile.
Nigeria , who are housed in group A of the 16th edition of the tournament, will be hoping for a winning start after comfortable wins over Argentina’s U-17 and Club Racing in a pre-tournament camp in Buenos Aires.
Meanwhile, Babangida expressed optimism with the team’s chances of living up to the country’s pedigree at this level.
It takes hard work, determination and perseverance for a woman to rise above beauty, luck and a fortunate background and flourish in an environment dominated by men. A lot of people have no idea what beautiful Rahma Indimi Babangida does for a living. They simply assume that she is living on the fame and fortune of her family.
Although she is a proud holder of an MBA certificate in International Marketing from the Lynn University, Frorida, United States of America, Rahama, the pretty daughter of billionaire Chairman of Orietal Energy Resources, Alhaji Mohammed Indimi, and wife of Mohammed Babangida has found fulfillment in fashion business as the CEO of Deva and Deva Petals and Fashion Cafe, both in Abuja.
Beautiful Rahama stands out in her career for creating an avenue where the rich and famous can easily acquire elegant pieces they wear to very special events.
Former military president, Ibrahim Babangida and ex- head of state, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubarkar on Friday called urged Nigerians to support government in the fight against Boko-Haram.
The duo spoke after taking part in the Eid-el-Fitr prayer at Minna Central Mosque, Niger State.
Babangida said President Muhammadu Buhari can only achieve all his laudable programmes for the country if Nigerians rise to give support to the government.
He said, “The best Nigerians can do for President Buhari at this trial moment is to support whatever moves he is making to permanently end this insurgency and make the nation to be economically buoyant.
“Boko Haram members are humans living with us, with useful information to security forces, their activities will be brought to an end.
“My prayer is an end to these senseless killings by Boko-Haram. I call on Nigerians to rally round this government in whatever effort it is making to end insurgency and make our economy buoyant.”
Abubarkar said he is worried by the seeming endless activities of the sect.
“I call on all Nigerians to be vigilant, so that together we can maintain peace without which there will be no progress.”
The ex-head of state urged all Muslim faithful to show love to all Nigerians irrespective of tribal, religious and political affiliations for the progress of the country.
Former military President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, failed to show up for accreditation during Saturday’s governorship and state assembly elections and by extension stayed away from voting.
At the close of accreditation, the former military leader who performed his civic duty during the March 28 presidential and National Assembly elections was conspicuously absent.
The first son of the former leader, Mohammed and his younger sister, Halimat were however accredited.
No reason was given Babangida’s absence at the polls, but a source close to him said his relationship with the fathers of the two leading candidates may have been responsible for his action.
The two candidates are children of retired senior military officers.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Abubakar Sani Bello, is the son of Col. Sani Bello, a former military governor of old Kano State, while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flag bearer, Umar Mohammed Nasko, is a child of Major Gen. Gado Nasko, a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory.
Another source at the Minna Hilltop residence of the Babangidas said the former military president was just resting at home.
“Oga is at home and he is yet to come down. He is in good condition, there is no problem with his health. He has not come down today, but he is in good health and spirit,” the source stated.
Babangida is my father”, President Jonathan recently told reporters after a courtesy call on the ex-military dictator. He, by that declaration, traded off his estranged godfather, ex-President Obasanjo who he now says “is nothing but a motor park tout” for an evil genius and an acclaimed Maradona of Nigerian politics. The truth of the matter is that Babangida and Jonathan have so many parallels that will shock Nigerians. Babangida attained power through act of subterfuge on a night of many knives. Jonathan adopted the same strategy betraying the spirit and the letter of PDP constitution and its rotational policy. Sambo Dasuki, one of Babangida, Abacha and Gusau’s foot-soldiers during their coup against Buhari, became Babangida’s ADC (aide-de-camp). By strange coincidence, Dasuki, is today the National Security Adviser to President Jonathan who is contesting against General Muhammadu Buhari in an election now derailed by what many Nigerians regarded as Dasuki’s spurious security report.
And still on similarities between father and son; Babangida embarked on a ‘transition without end’ immediately after a successful coup and went on to dribble Nigerians for eight years. Jonathan’s first concern on attaining power in 2011 was to float the idea of a six-year presidency. Now after six years of failed presidency, he wants another four years. And Just as Babangida had Arthur Nzeribe’s Association for Better Nigeria (ABN), Jonathan’s Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) that would rather have him adopted than face election. And just as Babangida relied on “Nigerian Army of anything is possible’’ now ably represented in PDP to torment Nigeria for eight years, Jonathan is today using a politicized military to increase our nightmare.
Similarly, Babangida institutionalized corruption, but Jonathan, surrounded by indicted party officials and ex-governors who stole in billions and trillions has improved on his ‘father’s legacy. While Babangida destroyed the economy resulting in the devaluation of naira, he was awarded the Fellowship of Nigeria Economic Society, (the authoritative body of Nigerian scholars on Nigerian economy and social problems) as ‘a visionary in the management of our economy’. Now Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Finance Minister and former World Bank celebrated officer, has praised the president for his bold economic strides especially with the rebasing that has now established our economy as the biggest in Africa. This is in spite of millions of Nigerian unemployed university graduates roaming the streets and the exchange rate which was $1-85 in 1999 but now $1-N210.
While the above parallels may be lost on Nigerians and the innocent 18 year-olds President Jonathan has tried to cultivate, the assault on Nigerians last Saturday by President Jonathan should be a source of concern. From the diary of events, it is apparent that postponement of the election was a panic measure by a government facing an imminent defeat hoping to buy time for more sinister strategies and desperate measures just as Babangida did back in 1993.
For instance, until last week when the president’s game of subterfuge finally unfolded, he had pretended his relationship with INEC was anchored on ‘delegation by abdication’. He and his party pretended all was well with INEC. In fact, it was the opposition that was in the forefront of ensuring voters gets their PVCs. It was the opposition that passed a resolution at the Lower House to the effect that the electorate be allowed to use their temporary voters card if INEC failed, and it was the opposition that declared public holidays in the states they controlled to enable voters collect their PVCs .The President remained unruffled. In fact, he in early January still assured Nigerians of his commitment to the election and mandated INEC to ensure all eligible voters receive their PVCs before the election. INEC was working round the clock to achieve that objective when the President’s National Security Adviser went to Chatham House London, to give what he described as a personal advice – that INEC postpones the election to enable all eligible voters collect their PVCs.
The international community that has been treating President Jonathan and his PDP like a bull in a China shop immediately saw through government ploy. They knew it was the hand of Jacob but the voice of Esau. They advised Jonathan against shifting the election date and President Obama went further by sending John Kerry, his secretary of state to prevail on President Jonathan not to tamper with the electoral process. President Jonathan like Babangida back in 1993 assured President Obama of his commitment to February 14. But curiously, on February 4, the NSA wrote a letter, not to the President but to INEC chairman telling him the obvious – 14 of the country’s 774 LGAs are unsafe for the conduct of the election. But long before the NSA’s game of deceit, Nigerians as well as stakeholders from the besieged North-east knew that as a fact. On February 5, the president, still hiding behind one finger, invited his security chiefs to brief the Council of State about the security situation in the North-east. The body rightly washed its hand clean asking INEC to go on with its job after due consultation with stakeholders.
Doyin Okupe was at this stage forced to spill the beans. According to him, the security chiefs “cannot guarantee the security of electoral materials, INEC staff and the voting population in areas currently engulfed by the war against insurgency.” Besides “with the arrival of new effective combatant equipment and machinery, the situation in the affected states will be brought under such reasonable control that will guarantee safety of the electoral process …at a no distant future”, he concluded avoiding mentioning six weeks. Mike Omeri, the Director-General of National Orientation Agency followed with a press conference. He was in possession of a security report that pointed to the possibility of some women infiltrating queues on the voting day to detonate bombs hidden in their Niqabs. Then came Edwin Clark, Alex Ekwueme, Walter Ofonagoro, Femi Okunrounmu, Chukwuemeka Ezeife and others, all rabid supporters of Jonathan’s re-election under the aegis of Southern Nigerian Peoples Assembly, SNPA calling for “the postponement of the February 14 presidential election, the sack and arrest of the Chairman of INEC, Attahiru Jega to allow for the re-constitution, repositioning and reprocessing of INEC to discharge its responsibility of conducting an impartial election.”
Their grouse: Jega allegedly directed the release of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) to Emirs, District Heads and top politicians in the north.
Even if this were true, how can one entrust such roles to people like Chief Edwin Clark under whose watchful eyes, successive governors of the Delta states diverted about 70% of their states allocations for personal use or Dr Alex Ekwueme who saw nothing and heard nothing when some past Anambra State governors expended their state allocations in servicing godfathers or when Ngige was kidnapped in broad day light by aggrieved godfather?
Desperate times are here again; Panic has set in. It is like Babangida’s era all over again with oil bunkerers and militants responsible for the loss of 500,000 barrels of crude oil a day, fuel subsidy thieves responsible for the theft of N1.6 trillion, banking sector fraudsters responsible for the collapse of the sector, and the stock exchange market back in 2009 and shameless elders assaulting our sensibilities on television. And putting pepper in our eyes, President Jonathan says he is acting in good faith.
Former military President General Ibrahim Babangida yesterday rose in defence of the APC presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, on the genuineness of his secondary school certificate.
Gen. Babangida warned that any attempt to politicise the military would not be in the nation’s interest.
“It is a very dangerous thing to do,” he told The Nation in an interview in Minna.
He said there was no way Buhari would have risen to the rank of a general in the army without possessing the basic educational qualification.
Babangida, who was reacting to the controversy sparked by the certificate in an exclusive interview, said the army, as an institution, subjects all its intakes to proper scrutiny, training and re-training.
He was shocked at the heat generated by the issue and advised those who feel aggrieved to go to court.
He warned that the military should not be ridiculed as it remains,in his opinion, the only institution of national unity and that it is passionate about acquisition of knowledge by its officers.
His words:”The military is one institution that believes in constant learning and training. You receive the initial training from the Staff College. After one year, you go for another round of intensive training that is all encompassing.
“It is one institution that is concerned about knowledge, even in warfare. The military requires you to keep abreast of development in warfare, weaponry and education.
“Perhaps, military is the best institution that is concerned about training and knowledge and about discipline because no officer is considered for promotion without having the prerequisite qualification and must pass the required examinations”.
He cautioned the political class to desist from politicising the military, pointing out that any such attempt will be dangerous for the institution and the nation.
“The military remains the institution of unity. I will not support the idea of politicising the military,” he said.
The former military leader was, however, full of confidence that the military will strive to keep above the scheming of the politicians “as it is capable and will resist any undue attempt to influence it.
“This is nothing but politics. I think those aggrieved should know what to do. Anybody who feels aggrieved should go to court and let the court make a pronouncement that will settle everything”.
All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate General Muhammadu Buhari’s ambition yesterday got a boost from his primary constituency – the military – with former military President Ibrahim Babangida saying his colleagues (retired generals) will support him.
Gen. Babangida, hosting the APC presidential hopeful in his Uphill residence in Minna, said he was proud of Gen. Buhari’s persistence and perseverance in offering himself for service at the highest level.
“You have beaten some of us in proving Gen. Douglas Mc’Arthur’s theory that, ‘old soliders never die but fade away gradually’, but you have refused to fade away,” he told his guest.
He praised APC for honouring the military by nominating Gen. Buhari. “I wish to congratulate members of the party for the honour of nominating my colleague, General Muhammadu Buhari as your presidential candidate in the 2015 election,” Gen. Babangida said.
The former military president said the media misrepresented his relationship with Gen. Babangida alleging that the media had created the impression that the two leaders were at loggerheads.
His words: “You media men have created this impression that we are fighting each other. Look at us here today. He knows what I mean and I know what he means. We both fought to keep Nigeria one when we were young majors then. We were well travelled.
“I want to commend APC for choosing our colleague as your flag bearer. All of us will support you (Buhari) in this course to salvage this country.”
Earlier, the APC candidate said he was in Minna in continuation of his nationwide search for votes to salvage the country from the 16 years of “misrule” of the PDP government.
Gen. Buhari, who was elated by assurance, said he had earlier met with former President Olusegun Obasanjo whom he failed to pull to APC but who blessed his aspiration.
He said the party was set to take over the state, with the calibre of the candidates presented for various offices and the quality of those who defected from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
With Gen. Buhari were the APC Deputy National Chairman Senator Lawan Shuaibu, National Leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Mr. Audu Ogbeh, Chief Bisi Akande, Rivers Governor Rotimi Ameachi, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Chief Segun Oni.
Others are: General Abdulraham Dambazzau, Senator George Akume, Chief Niyi Adebayo, Senator Bukola Saraki, Alhaji Kawu Baraje and Mrs. Kemi Nelson.
The presidential ambition of All Progressives Congress flag bearer, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, on Monday got a boost from his primary constituency, the military, when former military president, Ibrahim Babangida, said they (retired generals) will support the aspiration of the former head of state.
Babangida said this when he played host to the APC presidential hopeful in his uphill residence in Minna.
The former military leader said he was proud of Buhari’s persistence and perseverance in seeking to offer himself for service at the highest level in the country’s young democracy.
He said, “You have beaten some of us in proving Gen. Douglas Mc’Arthur’s theory that old soldiers never die but fade away gradually. But you have refused to fade away.”
He commended the APC for honouring the military by nominating Buhari.
“I wish to congratulate members of the party for the honour of nominating my colleague, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari as your presidential candidate for the 2015 election.”
The former military president later said the media had misrepresented their relationship, alleging that the media had created the impression that the two leaders were at loggerheads.
“You media men have created this impression that we are fighting each other. Look at us here today, he knows what I mean and I know what he means. We both fought to keep Nigeria one when we were young majors then. We were well traveled.
“I want to commend APC for choosing our colleague as your flag bearer. All of us will support you (Buhari) in this course to salvage this country,” he stated.
Earlier, the APC presidential candidate said he was in Minna in continuation of his nationwide tour ahead of the February 14 presidential election.
While inaugurating the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial campaign committee of his state, self-styled Chief Servant of Niger State, Governor Babangida Aliyu was reported to have remarked to his new ‘disciples’ that their first task was to win the state for the party at all costs in the coming elections. Aliyu, in his own words said; “If you cannot lie, get out of politics. Anything you are involved in has its own rule. You are in politics to win, win first and let other things follow. Don’t be the one crying louder lest you will be the one they will take to court. If you are talking of honesty or morals, go and become an Imam or Pastor. Politics cannot be the way it used to be. The challenges are more now, the variables have changed….Our society is not as grateful as it used to be, the values and morals have gone down. If you want to win, use the modern morality.”
While the statement was indeed loaded with everything that a public figure such as a governor must never say in public, it should not be entirely surprising that it came out of the PDP camp. After all, we had been warned on several occasions that the party would rule for at least 60 years as far back as when the party was barely four years into coming to power at the federal level. You may call these pronouncements their moments of delirium or naïve optimism, but they probably must have perfected something towards the realization of this objective, no matter how sinister, appalling, ridiculous, despicable, and nauseating – going against all the tenets and norms of democracy. But for the statement to have emanated from none other than Babangida Aliyu who was, not too long ago, among the PDP stalwarts that formed the ‘New PDP’ because they told the world, himself in particular, that they jumped the ‘old PDP’ ship because it had lost the moral anchor upon which it was founded requires further interrogation.
From the surface, Aliyu’s statement should no doubt draw the ire of those nostalgic Nigerians who may still retain the ‘old and medieval morality’ in their DNA, which is no longer suitable for the current Nigerian reality. These custodians of the ‘old morality’ are now being made to realize, by Aliyu, that the societal mores as the glue that binds and sustains the human community, which prevents their lives from being nasty, brutish and short, where the people ‘eat’ their own kind are of no value. But if one is to dissect Aliyu’s every word, phrase, and sentence in the statement, one cannot but feel sorry for the man. He may actually be crying out for help not only that he may be saved from himself, but also that the country may be saved from his likes before it is too late.
Nigeria is no doubt in a big mess. It is believed that the rot in which the system is mired is fundamentally structural, which can consequently be fixed with the leadership that is endowed with vision and noble ideals. But the moral depravity into which the people have sunk, as exemplified by some of their behavioral pattern, and as encapsulated by Aliyu, is completely a different matter. It’s hard to see how the society can really thrive if this moral decay is not quickly arrested. Otherwise, why should an occupier of a seat that embodies order, justice, and equity in a society make such a patently egregious public statement and still be called the chief of state? In developed societies, Governor Aliyu would have been history in the government house by now, having been forced out by the sheer weight of his own moral burden to continue in office. Or he would have been forced to resign by the people for desecrating their unwritten but psychically ingrained moral codes. These societies are called “developed” not only because of the physical infrastructures of the road networks, bridges, monuments, skyscrapers that adorns their landscapes, or their institutions that works unceasingly almost with precision but more so because of those intangible but noble, societal ideals they all subscribe to and fervently aspiring towards. A violation of any of the ideals by those entrusted with public office is therefore met with swift retribution. No ifs and buts about it. This is the real reason why they’re more evolved. Our own president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has admitted – probably without realizing it – that even our close ‘cousins’, the South Africans, are more evolved than us when he referred to them in his presidential flag-off speech in Lagos as the “superior power.” This was in reference to the system that kept Henry Okah behind bars in that country. By implication, our president believes that the government he heads is inferior to the South African government. Our condition cannot get any more depressingly pathetic than that.
Yet, we must interrogate Aliyu’s statement for whatever it’s worth. Telling members of his committee to get out of politics if they cannot lie should not set us on the edge of our seats. It is already a given that a significant part of the stock-in-trade of politicians (even the world over) is to lie. Thus if a politician promises to build bridges, give generous tax breaks, build schools, and provide boreholes to a multitude with diverse interests but eventually built just the bridges and gave the tax breaks, he has done well by those who needed the bridges to commute as well as those who would reap financial windfalls from the tax breaks. But to those looking forward to the schools for their wards, and others already thirsty for potable water but got neither, the politician had lied. Contestants enter a game because they wanted to win but how far each contestant would go to achieve his ultimate goal, including contemptuously violating the rules of the game becomes a question him alone must come to terms with. If the integrity of the game, his own values and morals matter to him, he would contest within the confine of the rules and still see himself a ‘winner’ even if he had lost. But if these virtues are insignificant to him and sees morality as belonging to the dogs, he would go to any length to extract a win, by hook or crook. Babangida Aliyu is in the league of these latter contestants.
His advice that the committee should “go and become an Imam or Pastor” if they want to talk “honesty or morals” was indicative of a very desperate man. He probably shouldn’t have used Nigeria’s Imam or Pastor as the embodiment of “honesty or morals” because they too, as collectives, are hopelessly compromised members of society. A monk would have been apt. Again, where in any developed societies would they have a man still presiding over a national religious body whose aircraft was involved in illegal cash haulage and arms procurement? Aliyu’s sermon that “Politics cannot be the way it used to be” because “the challenges are more now” and “the variables have changed” was indeed very instructive. We should ask, what makes him think that “politics cannot be the way it used to be”?
Why are the challenges more and who is to blame? Has the Chief Servant reflected on why “our society is not as grateful as it used to be” because “the values and morals have gone down”? Whose fault? Aliyu’s injunction to his ‘disciples’ that they should “use the modern morality” if they “want to win” may well be the mother lode of this statement. The problem is that the Chief Servant fell short of informing us what this “modern morality” entails. What are its attributes? We need to know all this so that those of us who are still ‘trapped’ in the old and medieval morality may convert to this new and improved “modern morality”. But by deductive reasoning, Aliyu’s brand of “modern morality” cannot be a social ‘good’ because it is inherently full of vices. It therefore ceases to be called morality. It can either be immorality or amorality. Or it can be a cross between the two. This is what the Chief Servant of Niger State wants the indigenes of his state in particular, and Nigerians in general to have as their new and modern moral compass. A leader cannot get any more depraved than this.
ALHAJI Hassan Jallo, a close associate of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, has denied the claim that the former military president endorsed President Goodluck Jonathan for next month’s presidential election.
According to him, what Babangida and Jonathan discussed were “security issues and the unity of Nigeria”.
Jallo added that the former military president promised to support Jonathan in that direction, insisting that it did not mean that Babangida endorsed Jonathan for re-election.
Jallo, who addressed reporters in Kaduna on the issue yesterday, said: “I am saying this on behalf of IBB… So, don’t expect him to descend very low to come out himself and debunk this so-called endorsement of President Jonathan. I am saying this for him, and I believe the endorsement is the creation of the media.”
Confirming that he was not at the meeting, he explained that available information showed that Jonathan was only there to consult with Babangida on the challenges facing the nation and the way forward.
Jallo said issues relating to endorsement or 2015 elections were not part of discussions, stressing that Babangida has not endorsed any of the presidential candidates.
He maintained that the former military president “is a strong member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)”.
According to him, the former head of state’s statement was misinterpreted for Jonathan’s endorsement in the general elections.
His words: “President Jonathan is not the first to visit the former head of state. Other presidential aspirants and leaders have paid him visit, regardless of their political parties for one consultation or the other.
“I want you to quote me very well that IBB has not endorsed Jonathan or any other presidential candidate for the 2015 presidential race.
“Jonathan requested to visit him. And he couldn’t have turned down a president’s request as an elder statesman. There is no man like IBB in Nigeria of today. I therefore urge media men to express professionalism in their reportage to avoid misleading the public.”