BY SUFUYAN OJEIFO<\/p>\n
I had, in the past, written a number of tributes on the occasion of the
\nanniversary of former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi
\nBabangida (IBB). I penned the last one in 2017 on his 76th birthday
\ntitled: \u201cAt 76, IBB sustains his essential rhythm\u201d. I had introduced
\nthe subject matter by pointing out how special the month of August is to
\nhim, being the month of his birth and the month he stepped in and out of
\nthe saddle as military president.<\/p>\n
Nothing has changed or can change the fact that the eighth month in the
\nannual calendar holds a great deal of significance for him and intense
\nattraction to his admirers in the contemplation and celebration of the
\nIBB persona, which is wrapped in enigma. The phenomenal individuality
\nthat lives on the mythical Hilltop in Minna marks his 78th anniversary
\non August 17.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, at an age shy of 80, IBB continues to maintain his
\nimportant beats. But, it is about time he confronted his existential
\nconundrums before he takes his deserved place in the pantheon. At 78,
\nIBB can laugh death to scorn. In other words, as a veritable human
\ninstitution, he has overcome the fear of death- certainly no more points
\nto prove. He can fittingly appropriate the Latin phrase attributed to
\nJulius Caesar, in a letter to the Roman Senate around 47 BC after he had
\nachieved a quick victory in his short war against Pharnaces II of Pontus
\nat the Battle of Zela, \u201cVeni, vidi, vici\u201d, meaning I came, I saw and
\nI conquered.<\/p>\n
As a sui generis statesman, IBB had defined his eon with the magnitude
\nof his character, military discipline and political beliefs. He had
\ncompulsorily fought a number of battles; he had also deliberately chosen
\nsome battles to fight while in the face of imminent defeats in some
\nother battles, he had beaten tactical retreats; and, perhaps guided on
\nthose occasions by the eternal words of Demosthenes, an epic Greek
\norator, after the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC where, according to
\nnotes, he deserted, to wit: \u201cFor he that fights and runs away, may
\nlive to fight another day.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of such occasions was the annulment of the June 12 presidential
\nelection won by the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola.\u00a0 IBB had stepped aside
\nfollowing national and international pressure against his plan to
\nelongate his stay in power. The other was the battle to return to the
\npresidency via the ballot box, but which plan he abandoned in 2007 under
\nthe tension of counter goal and intimidation by the powers-that-be. By
\nstepping aside amid the ballyhoo that greeted the annulment of the June
\n12, 1993 presidential election, IBB had cleverly negotiated his survival
\nagainst so many forces that had engaged him in a survival battle.<\/p>\n
That episodic event was after he had been largely sustained in power
\nwith the support of a carefully selected crop of academics and brilliant
\nminds, with whose cerebral resources, he had survived the dialectics and
\npolemics of intellectual interrogations of the contents of his
\ntransition programme from the wider community of the nation\u2019s
\nanti-military eggheads. IBB had also surmounted the political
\nconfrontations by the old guard of barely principled politicians, who
\npiled pressure on him to surrender power to civil authority, as well as
\nthe tangible strain of his own military constituency, which was ready to
\nexplore the coup option as a last resort to bring his regime to a
\nterminus.<\/p>\n
As I wrote before, in the peak of the commotion, the army general who
\nsurvived a bloody coup masterminded by Major Gideon Orkar, had decided
\nto stop the seeming unending mesmerism of the polity, characterized by
\ncontinuous shifts of and adjustments in the transition timetable.\u00a0 In
\nthe face of obvious loss of popular support and national goodwill, the
\nfamed Maradona of Nigeria\u2019s political landscape, had thrown in the
\ntowel and emplaced an Interim National Government headed by Chief Ernest
\nShonekan. He had retreated to his Hilltop mansion in Minna for
\npower-brokerage communion.<\/p>\n
Since 1993, the avuncular IBB has continued to minister to the needs of
\nhis loyalists as an oracle of sorts, building for himself a seemingly
\nimpregnable myth of the ultimate power broker until it was shattered in
\n2006 when the then president, General Olusegun Obasanjo, unleashed the
\nEconomic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on his first son,
\nMohammed, for his alleged 24 percent shareholding in Globacom under the
\nchair of Otunba Mike Adenuga. The melodrama of Mohammed\u2019s invitation
\nby the EFCC happened about the eve of IBB\u2019s 65th birthday in 2006.\u00a0 It
\nwas also a prelude to the widespread agitations by IBB\u2019s followers to
\nhave him join the race for the presidency in 2007.<\/p>\n
Between hunting down Adenuga, who was believed to be a trusted business
\nally of IBB and Mohammed, was IBB himself who, although was untouched,
\ngot the message that he should not attempt to vie for the presidency on
\nthe platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or any other
\nparty\u2019s platform for that matter. Since that incident, which saw IBB
\nwithdraw his interest after picking the expression of interest form, he
\nhas remained content with his pastime as a perceptive\u00a0 \u201cprophetic\u201d
\nor \u201coracular\u201d diviner.\u00a0 His influence in shaping the direction of
\nleadership and governance has not been diminished by the reality of the
\nsocio-economic and political conditions that served as an endgame to his
\nregime in 1993.<\/p>\n
I have always argued that the political ferment that culminated in the
\nanti-climax of his historic egress was an inalienable part of the corpus
\nof knowledge that underpinned the nation\u2019s ill-fated Third Republic,
\nover which his regime superintended. Notwithstanding, he chose to be his
\nown prophet, declaring that he was stepping aside.\u00a0 He did so with the
\nintention of returning to power some day, but his prophecy did not come
\ntrue. The year 2007 had marked a dramatic retreat by IBB into his shell.
\nIt was a denouement of sorts.<\/p>\n
Opposition to his presidential aspiration had come from Obasanjo, the
\nman he helped to power in 1999.\u00a0 He had to withdraw from the race
\nbecause he could not secure Obasanjo\u2019s critical support. In his letter
\nof withdrawal, which he sent to Obasanjo, he had said he was withdrawing
\nbecause of the moral dilemma occasioned by the entry of General Aliyu
\nGusau and Alhaji Umar Yar\u2019 Adua both of whom he described as a friend
\nand a younger brother respectively into the race.<\/p>\n
Surprisingly, in 2010, following the death of President Umaru
\nYar\u2019Adua, IBB was listed among the northern presidential aspirants
\nshortlisted by a group of northern leaders chaired by the late Malam
\nAdamu Ciroma for the choice of a consensus candidate that would be
\nsupported by the north in the PDP presidential primary.\u00a0 But Atiku
\nAbubakar had emerged the eventual consensus choice of the northern
\nleaders. IBB had maintained a studied silence subsequently, not acting
\nin any way that would unsettle the polity.<\/p>\n
Perhaps, since after the 1993 experience, he considers no sacrifice too
\nmuch to make for national unity.\u00a0 This must have informed his resolve in
\n2007, in particular, to quietly ease out of the presidential race
\nwithout embracing the idea of confronting Obasanjo in a witty and gritty
\nsuccession battle. Even now, the gap-toothed general understands better
\nthe dynamics of the Nigerian political landscape.\u00a0 He knows how to
\nsustain his own political rhythm or relevance.<\/p>\n
But, in sustaining his essential relevance in the ambit of the
\nperception, conception and construction of a united and stable nation,
\nIBB must be fair to himself by taking steps to shed the garbs of \u201cevil
\ngenius\u201d, \u201cMaradona\u201d and other insalubrious monikers that had been
\nfoisted on him by the significant others in describing his
\nindividuality. What do I mean? It is time IBB declassified once and for
\nposterity his roles in a number of incidents in which he reportedly
\nfeatured prominently.<\/p>\n
Consider some of them: the coup for which his best friend, General
\nMamman Vatsa, was killed in order to clear some insidious insinuations;
\nthe June 12, 1993 presidential election annulment to clarify the roles
\nplayed by all the actors; the allegedly misappropriated $12.5 billion
\nGulf Oil Windfall despite a court dismissal of the suit against him in
\n2012; and the assassination of Dele Giwa via a parcel bomb under his
\nregime, among others. An autobiography is a veritable medium by which he
\ncan\u00a0 declassify his roles and those of the significant others;
\notherwise, he would go with his own sides of the stories to his grave.<\/p>\n
But is this the essential legacy, a legacy of unresolved riddles and
\nobfuscated brainteasers, that IBB wants to leave behind as a statesman?
\nHe must obligatorily ponder this on his anniversary. This is wishing IBB
\nwell on his 78th birthday.<\/p>\n