Date Published: 04/01/10

Is Destiny Beckoning on Babangida again? By Emmanuel Chukwuma 

Any perceptive person can see very clearly that destiny is once again knocking on the door of former military President General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida to come out of retirement to lead this nation again. This may not be known to Babangida himself. He may himself not even be keen to answer such a call. But as a patriot who believes so much in the Nigerian Project, I think Babangida has a responsibility to answer this national call even if it is very much against his will and desire.

We have several examples of former leaders who were compelled by circumstances in the life of their nation to offer themselves again for national leadership even when they are personally reluctant to do so.

I think such a time has come for IBB to answer a most urgent national call. Nigeria is today more or less facing an emergency situation. President Umaru Musa Yar’adua is sidelined by ill-health. Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has been promoted acting president to act in a caretaker manner until the first term of the Yar’adua presidency expires. But in line with the PDP zoning formula in which the presidency has been ceded to the north for eight years, the party has come out to say that acting president Goodluck Jonathan will only complete the remaining portion of the Yar’adua presidency after which a northerner will come up in 2011 to complete the slot of the north.

In case Dr. Jonathan does not run as decided by the leadership of the party, who in the north is worthy enough to be relied upon by all Nigerians irrespective of their geo-political zones to take up the mantle of leading the nation to glory? Having surveyed the vast field of contenders for the throne, I want to say with all sense of responsibility that I see no one better qualified than Babangida in the North or any where else to be president in 2011.

It is true that so many names are being bandied about as possible candidates for the 2011 presidency from the North. As far as I am concerned some of the names mentioned are mere pretenders to the throne but the real prince who should stand up to be recognized is former president Babangida.

Why will I pitch my tent in the camp of IBB? The answer is that the man will get to that seat with a track record of solid performance. I root for him particularly because I see him as the man best placed to fix one of Nigeria’s major problems: her politics and political recruitment process. Possibly more than any one else in the polity today, Babangida possesses a keener understanding of the need to reform the political process so that we can have an effective system of recruiting persons who will lead us. Very few persons realise that the main thing worrying Nigeria is the lack of an effective system which guarantees that we have a free and fair system of deciding who will represent them at various levels of leadership.

There are many in our country today who remember with certain nostalgia, the two-party system that Babangida introduced during the political transition period. There was real politicking in the days of the SDP and the NRC. Nigerians were more united under that arrangement than we are today. The SDP-NRC arrangement was set to eliminate regional, religious and ethnic cleavages in our political and social life. That helps to explain why the SDP evolved a winning formula by choosing a Muslim-Muslim ticket and Nigerians did not kick against it. Today, in spite of the fact that we have 57 political parties, people do not get to power through canvassing on the platform of those parties but mainly through imposition and manipulations. Nigeria is today less democratic than in the days of the so-called military dictatorship of General Babangida. We are also more divided than ever before both in our thinking and in our relationship with one another as countrymen and women.

We also remember the option A4 introduced by IBB which did so much to curtail rigging that has remained the main challenge to our electoral process. Because of Option A4 and the desire on the part of Babangida for a clean recruitment process, we had the 1993 elections that have been adjudged as the freest and fairest elections Nigerian has ever had in her life. It is however one of the greatest ironies of life that due to circumstances beyond the control of IBB those elections could not stand.  

Surely, if by the grace of God, IBB comes to power again in 2011, as I am canvassing he should be summoned to do, he may not have to decree two parties into existence or impose Option A4 through a military fiat like he did in those days because the circumstances have changed. I merely cite this example to show that IBB has a good understanding of what needs to be done so that Nigeria can have a workable democracy.

IBB will do Nigeria great good by vigorously pursuing the reformation of the political process.

IBB is a broadminded Nigerian and statesman who can be counted upon to act in a statesmanlike manner. In his first coming, he surrounded himself with the brightest and the best that Nigeria could offer. Little wonder his administration is credited with some of the most innovative and revolutionary ideas most of which have endured till today.

We have lost a lot of grounds with the illness that afflicted Yar’adua and the fall-outs of that ill-health. We can not therefore entrust our destiny into the hands of an inexperienced person. IBB has seen it all and it is reasonable to expect that if he comes back it is to do a greater good for the fatherland.

IBB has many attributes that easily render him as the most eligible for the mantle. He has an appeal that transcends beyond the region from where he comes and he will be the least difficult of candidates to sell in a nation-wide campaign. IBB will not be perceived as a northern candidate but as a Nigerian from the north who wants to offer his service to the fatherland in times of great need for such a service. While leaving the scene in 1993, he made a statement that would prove prophetic today. He said he was propelled by personal sacrifice to step aside. Let him now step back into the ring.

As I said earlier IBB has a responsibility to answer the national call on his life. There are many who are very anxious to be asked but we should not call upon such ones because we have in IBB a man most suitable in a time like now. 

Chukwuma is an Abuja-based public affairs analyst.