It is appalling to see some of our fellow compatriots post the photographs of the former military head of state , General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida on their Facebook walls with remarks and commentaries mocking his “ ailment”.
One of the photographs exhibits his contorted head region, and suggests that he had suffered a partial stroke, or some neurological impairment resulting in a facial twist or palsy. Another showed him walking with a walk aid, depicting a deformity or immobility. This is not fair at all. Let no one play God .
By all standards , IBB is a success and an achiever .
He is a lucky man. Unlike Dele Giwa , the quintessential Nigerian journalist who was blown apart by a parcel bomb in 1986 during IBB’s reign as a military president, at his prime in the afternoon of his life , IBB has lived up to a ripe age of 77. And he is aging with grace. When it eventually will please Allah to take him home , by the grace of Allah , there will be no controversy surrounding his transition. No advocacy group or a fiery human rights lawyer would be asking “ who killed IBB” , like Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN did for Dele Giwa , until his demise in September, 2009 .
IBB had an impressive military career , and he was not assassinated , nor was he imprisoned while he was in service, unlike some of his contemporaries. Unlike , Tafawa Balewa , the Prime Minister of Nigeria at independence, who,unfortunately, was assassinated in the first military coup on January 15, 1966; or Major General Aguiyi Ironsi , who, sadly , was assassinated on July 29 , 1966 , he was not assassinated in office. Unlike the then military head of state , Major General Muhammadu Buhari , who was overthrown in a palace coup on August 27 1985, and was detained for three years by IBB himself , IBB was not overthrown from office, nor did he suffer the indignity of being detained for three years by his supplanter. And Allah was kind to him , unlike General Sani Abacha , he did not die in office, let alone being mocked upon death by enemies insinuating that his demise came courtesy of poisoned apples he was served during a sex romp with visiting Indian prostitutes.
During his illustrious military career in which he organized or co-organized many coup de tats , he never suffered the disappointment of a failed coup . He was never arrested , detained, tried, or convicted in respect of any unsuccessful coup; unlike his friend Major General Manman Vatsa and others who were alleged to have planned a coup against IBB ( without executing the real or phantom coup ) , for which reason they were executed in 1986. In spite of the impassioned plea of Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe and J.P Clark, for his life ( being a poet and a member of the Association of Nigerian Authors). And unlike Major Gideon Orkar and his disloyal military officers who carried out a bloody but unsuccessful coup in April 1990 , resulting in their execution. In that Coup , the Allah in whom IBB had an absolute trust saved him. Death was close but he escaped it . His ADC , Lt. Col U.K Bello (Paiko) was killed . That was how close death was .
And during his reign , IBB did not suffer any personal loss. Unlike the many officers who died in the Air-force Hercules 130 Crash in Ejigbo , Lagos , shortly after take off in 1992, IBB was not involved in any air crash . His children were not . Unlike General Abacha , whose son , Ibrahim , very unfortunately died in 1996, while he and his friends were cruising in a presidential jet from Lagos to Kano , one evening, reportedly while they were on a frolic.
It is also a good thing to remember that during his military regime, he was well beloved by his military confidants. That was a testimony to his military genius. He kept a compact core of loyal officers , a fact which made his overthrow impossible. So loyal were this corps of officers that even when IBB had a leg condition called “radiculopathy” which took him on a medical vacation to a German Hospital for about two months, for surgery and recovery, there was no dent to his firm hold on power, in spite of the inherent instability of military regimes , which were products of conspiracies and treachery.
And when he returned to Nigeria, he did not suffer the embarrassment of being told that he had been cloned. No lie was told that he had died and that a replacement had been found for him from Somalia. He was effectively “ in office and in power”. And that was a famous quote from him .
Although , according to the Dr Okigbo Report, stating that more than US $ 12 Billion Oil Windfall earned by Nigeria during the 1991 United States- Iraqi war could not be accounted for at the CBN ( meaning that the money was stolen ) , IBB left office with his head held high . Nobody could challenge him or ask him to account for the missing money. In any case, he was not the only military head of state or President whose government was accused of graft . The Gowon Administration was accused of corruption by the succeeding Murtala Muhammed Administration. The Obasanjo Administration was accused of corruption. During that Administration in which Muhammadu Buhari served as the Petroleum Minister , the sum of # 2.8 Billion ( more than today’s US$ 2.8 ) was said to be missing. A panel was set up to probe the missing money. And the panel found that the money was not missing.
As for Abacha , his criminal loot is still being recovered.
Since he retired, God has been faithful. IBB was a disciplined husband. Unlike some other Generals , he was married to one woman, Mrs Mariam Babangida , of blessed memory . Since she passed , IBB has not taken another wife. And he does not have the ill luck of being accused by his male children of having an illicit love affair with their wives.
Since , he left power , his post-service life has been blissful . He has not been implicated in a military coup or in an act of treason since he left power , let alone being tried by his juniors in the military, and being jailed for allegedly participating in a botched coup de tat . And evidently, so guiltless and blameless is he that, unlike General Olusegun Obasanjo , who was jailed by General Sani Abacha , he had no need for a state ( presidential) pardon.
As for his transition to civil rule programme , which was derided as a scam , a transition without end, and a highway to nowhere , he was not the only “annuller”. He carried out the annulment in the best interest of Nigeria. He knew what many Nigerians did not know. Abiola was too prosperous to be given Nigeria to run . If he was allowed to be president, he would have commingled his personal prosperity with the fortunes of Nigeria . And it would be difficult for Nigeria to separate the assets which belonged to Nigeria and the ones which belonged to Abiola. No declaration of asset with the Code of Conduct Bureau would have cleared that confusion . In any case, IBB was ably supported in his annulment of the outcome of the June 12 1993 Presidential Election by military generals , including Sani Abacha, Nimyel Dongoyaro, David Mark , Jerry Useni, and others ; and aided by many civilians, including Arthur Nzeribe, Abimbola Davies, Tony Anenih , Ibrahim Dasuki , and others . He should not be persecuted because of that annulment.
He was able to lay a lasting foundation for democracy in Nigeria, by setting up an interim government, headed by Ernest Shonekan . One is certain that if that interim government had not been overthrown by Generals Abacha , Oladipupo Diya , Bamaiyi and others , the interim government would have ripened to be a permanent government.
IBB was an internationalist and Africanist par excellence. He intervened in Liberia , sending Nigerian soldiers to go there and patriotically die for Africa, if need be , by defending Samuel Koiyan Doe, the Liberian authentic , aboriginal statesman, who phenomenally staged a coup as a sergeant, and succeeded in overthrowing the descendants of the settler power elite in Liberia, who had been monopolizing political power in that country. After he seized power , he promoted himself a General and successfully organized an election which he won , and he became a civilian president .
IBB knew that there was a lot to learn and copy from Doe , a Sergeant turned General and Civilian President. He knew that it was in the strategic interest of Nigeria that his example and his legacy be protected and preserved . And so , he felt it would not be a bad idea , creating ECOMOG , a West African sub regional armed force to protect Samuel Doe, even if that would lead to the death of Nigerian soldiers .
Unfortunately, he was misunderstood, and Charles Taylor , who later became a civilian President after winning the Liberian Civil War, was helped into gaining the upper hand by Prince Yormie Johnson, who ambushed Samuel Doe and butchered him .
It was to the eternal credit of IBB that by his intervention in Liberia , he created an opportunity for many Nigerian businessmen who were cronies of the military. These businessmen made a lot of money supplying food and other necessities and war provisions to our soldiers in Liberia.
If Samuel Doe had not been betrayed , chances were that IBB’s transition programme experiment, meant to ensure his transmutation from a military president to a civilian president, would not have floundered. And by now , under his life presidency , he would have turned Nigeria into a first world country , as the father of the nation.
IBB’ hands are clean . His hands are not stained with blood. He is a good man who democratized the opportunities of office amongst his lieutenants. He was not miserly or “ eating alone” while in government . He is a hero . He is not a villain .
This vilification must stop . He is a visionary leader , that will be fully appreciated when he is no longer with us.
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