BY SUFUYAN OJEIFO
I had, in the past, written a number of tributes on the occasion of the
anniversary of former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi
Babangida (IBB). I penned the last one in 2017 on his 76th birthday
titled: “At 76, IBB sustains his essential rhythm”. I had introduced
the subject matter by pointing out how special the month of August is to
him, being the month of his birth and the month he stepped in and out of
the saddle as military president.
Nothing has changed or can change the fact that the eighth month in the
annual calendar holds a great deal of significance for him and intense
attraction to his admirers in the contemplation and celebration of the
IBB persona, which is wrapped in enigma. The phenomenal individuality
that lives on the mythical Hilltop in Minna marks his 78th anniversary
on August 17.
Interestingly, at an age shy of 80, IBB continues to maintain his
important beats. But, it is about time he confronted his existential
conundrums before he takes his deserved place in the pantheon. At 78,
IBB can laugh death to scorn. In other words, as a veritable human
institution, he has overcome the fear of death- certainly no more points
to prove. He can fittingly appropriate the Latin phrase attributed to
Julius Caesar, in a letter to the Roman Senate around 47 BC after he had
achieved a quick victory in his short war against Pharnaces II of Pontus
at the Battle of Zela, “Veni, vidi, vici”, meaning I came, I saw and
I conquered.
As a sui generis statesman, IBB had defined his eon with the magnitude
of his character, military discipline and political beliefs. He had
compulsorily fought a number of battles; he had also deliberately chosen
some battles to fight while in the face of imminent defeats in some
other battles, he had beaten tactical retreats; and, perhaps guided on
those occasions by the eternal words of Demosthenes, an epic Greek
orator, after the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC where, according to
notes, he deserted, to wit: “For he that fights and runs away, may
live to fight another day.”
One of such occasions was the annulment of the June 12 presidential
election won by the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola. IBB had stepped aside
following national and international pressure against his plan to
elongate his stay in power. The other was the battle to return to the
presidency via the ballot box, but which plan he abandoned in 2007 under
the tension of counter goal and intimidation by the powers-that-be. By
stepping aside amid the ballyhoo that greeted the annulment of the June
12, 1993 presidential election, IBB had cleverly negotiated his survival
against so many forces that had engaged him in a survival battle.
That episodic event was after he had been largely sustained in power
with the support of a carefully selected crop of academics and brilliant
minds, with whose cerebral resources, he had survived the dialectics and
polemics of intellectual interrogations of the contents of his
transition programme from the wider community of the nation’s
anti-military eggheads. IBB had also surmounted the political
confrontations by the old guard of barely principled politicians, who
piled pressure on him to surrender power to civil authority, as well as
the tangible strain of his own military constituency, which was ready to
explore the coup option as a last resort to bring his regime to a
terminus.
As I wrote before, in the peak of the commotion, the army general who
survived a bloody coup masterminded by Major Gideon Orkar, had decided
to stop the seeming unending mesmerism of the polity, characterized by
continuous shifts of and adjustments in the transition timetable. In
the face of obvious loss of popular support and national goodwill, the
famed Maradona of Nigeria’s political landscape, had thrown in the
towel and emplaced an Interim National Government headed by Chief Ernest
Shonekan. He had retreated to his Hilltop mansion in Minna for
power-brokerage communion.
Since 1993, the avuncular IBB has continued to minister to the needs of
his loyalists as an oracle of sorts, building for himself a seemingly
impregnable myth of the ultimate power broker until it was shattered in
2006 when the then president, General Olusegun Obasanjo, unleashed the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on his first son,
Mohammed, for his alleged 24 percent shareholding in Globacom under the
chair of Otunba Mike Adenuga. The melodrama of Mohammed’s invitation
by the EFCC happened about the eve of IBB’s 65th birthday in 2006. It
was also a prelude to the widespread agitations by IBB’s followers to
have him join the race for the presidency in 2007.
Between hunting down Adenuga, who was believed to be a trusted business
ally of IBB and Mohammed, was IBB himself who, although was untouched,
got the message that he should not attempt to vie for the presidency on
the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or any other
party’s platform for that matter. Since that incident, which saw IBB
withdraw his interest after picking the expression of interest form, he
has remained content with his pastime as a perceptive “prophetic”
or “oracular” diviner. His influence in shaping the direction of
leadership and governance has not been diminished by the reality of the
socio-economic and political conditions that served as an endgame to his
regime in 1993.
I have always argued that the political ferment that culminated in the
anti-climax of his historic egress was an inalienable part of the corpus
of knowledge that underpinned the nation’s ill-fated Third Republic,
over which his regime superintended. Notwithstanding, he chose to be his
own prophet, declaring that he was stepping aside. He did so with the
intention of returning to power some day, but his prophecy did not come
true. The year 2007 had marked a dramatic retreat by IBB into his shell.
It was a denouement of sorts.
Opposition to his presidential aspiration had come from Obasanjo, the
man he helped to power in 1999. He had to withdraw from the race
because he could not secure Obasanjo’s critical support. In his letter
of withdrawal, which he sent to Obasanjo, he had said he was withdrawing
because of the moral dilemma occasioned by the entry of General Aliyu
Gusau and Alhaji Umar Yar’ Adua both of whom he described as a friend
and a younger brother respectively into the race.
Surprisingly, in 2010, following the death of President Umaru
Yar’Adua, IBB was listed among the northern presidential aspirants
shortlisted by a group of northern leaders chaired by the late Malam
Adamu Ciroma for the choice of a consensus candidate that would be
supported by the north in the PDP presidential primary. But Atiku
Abubakar had emerged the eventual consensus choice of the northern
leaders. IBB had maintained a studied silence subsequently, not acting
in any way that would unsettle the polity.
Perhaps, since after the 1993 experience, he considers no sacrifice too
much to make for national unity. This must have informed his resolve in
2007, in particular, to quietly ease out of the presidential race
without embracing the idea of confronting Obasanjo in a witty and gritty
succession battle. Even now, the gap-toothed general understands better
the dynamics of the Nigerian political landscape. He knows how to
sustain his own political rhythm or relevance.
But, in sustaining his essential relevance in the ambit of the
perception, conception and construction of a united and stable nation,
IBB must be fair to himself by taking steps to shed the garbs of “evil
genius”, “Maradona” and other insalubrious monikers that had been
foisted on him by the significant others in describing his
individuality. What do I mean? It is time IBB declassified once and for
posterity his roles in a number of incidents in which he reportedly
featured prominently.
Consider some of them: the coup for which his best friend, General
Mamman Vatsa, was killed in order to clear some insidious insinuations;
the June 12, 1993 presidential election annulment to clarify the roles
played by all the actors; the allegedly misappropriated $12.5 billion
Gulf Oil Windfall despite a court dismissal of the suit against him in
2012; and the assassination of Dele Giwa via a parcel bomb under his
regime, among others. An autobiography is a veritable medium by which he
can declassify his roles and those of the significant others;
otherwise, he would go with his own sides of the stories to his grave.
But is this the essential legacy, a legacy of unresolved riddles and
obfuscated brainteasers, that IBB wants to leave behind as a statesman?
He must obligatorily ponder this on his anniversary. This is wishing IBB
well on his 78th birthday.
*Ojeifo, an Abuja-based journalist, contributed this piece via
ojwonderngr@yahoo.com
Sufuyan Ojeifo
Editor- in- Chief
The Congresswatch Magazine