Today marks the official birthday of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida often regarded as the people’s General. IDACHABA SUNNY ELEOJO writes on the man IBB, his exploits and life after retirement.
On a day like this 80 years ago, precisely August 17 1941, the man whom many see as the rallying point in modern day Nigeria was born. While some see him as an enigma and like a puzzle of a sort that is so difficult to unravel, others see him as someone who understands the various dynamics of the Nigerian society, hence any time he comments on any national issue, it elicits wider analysis. That man is General Ibrahim Babamasi Babangida (rtd), former military president and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria between 1985 and 1993 whose birthday is today.
As a prelude to this year’s anniversary of his birthday, a Lagos-based television sought an audience with him in a recent interview that has gone viral because of the content. Babangida, who had in the recent past canvassed for a generational shift in the leadership of the country, said in the interview that, “I have started visualising a good Nigerian leader. He should be someone who travels across the country and has friends everywhere he travels to and knows, at least, one person he can communicate with.
“Nigerians are very resilient and very resourceful, so leaders should see how to use this to achieve a common objective.”He should be a person who is very versed in the economy and is also a good politician who should be able to talk to Nigerians and so on. The leader should understand Nigeria and Nigerians. Anyone who wants to be a leader in this country must use his intellect to understand the people,” he noted.
The man IBB and his style
Babangida according to Infopedia is a Middle belt Muslim of Gwari origin. “He is Nigeria’s sixth military ruler and as at 1990, the most powerful compared with General Buhari. IBB during his administration was somewhat more methodical and his style was different. Whereas Buhari of the 80s was stern and resolute, Babangida was deft and tactical. He was reported to have taken part in almost all the coups in Nigeria which may explain his confident manner of handling national affairs. He was however so unpredictable, hence the nickname ‘Maradona’ after the order of the Brazilian football legend on the field of play.”
Tributes
While paying a glowing tribute to this former Nigerian leader during a recent dialogue instituted by his family members last week in Abuja, former Senate president, David Mark, who is often dubbed as one of the leading gang members of former military officers styled ‘IBB boys’, was enthralled by the reception that greeted the dialogue and attendance. He said, “I used to hear of the phrase ‘IBB boys’ which to me comprises ex military men that served under him, but I never knew that there were also ‘civilian boys’ judging from the arrays of people here today.
“One thing however is certain. It is the fact that IBB is one person who would borrow money for the sake of someone else; that is the extent of his generosity. I think it is his personal touch in government that has made him such a popular figure in this country. I want to congratulate Aisha and her siblings for putting this together in honour of their father.”
On his part, former information minister, Sam Oyovbaire, who also worked closely with IBB, said the former leader is someone who would not allow family issues to interfere with official matters. While recalling an incident that happened just after the 1985 coup that brought IBB to power at Dodan Barracks in Lagos, the former minister said, “I recall when we formed the Guardian Newspapers within the first week he assumed power, we had this style of publishing unusual photographs in the weekend edition. In one of those editions, we published a photograph of Aminu, his second son, who was less than nine years then riding a bicycle in Dodan Barrack. IBB saw it and after a couple of hours, he called me and a few others. I was curious when I got the call, but the message he had was, ‘Thank you very much for this photograph, but please leave the children out of it, focus on me; I am the one in office, not them.’ To me, the message was that here is a man who values his family and is not willing to make them co-presidents of the country.”
Delayed transition programme and justification
When General Babangida came to power in 1985, his regime abrogated certain draconian laws like Decree 4 put in place by the previous military regime under which many journalists were thrown into jail with all the associated difficulties that regime brought. Also many political prisoners jailed after the coup that brought the military to power in 1983 were released by the new regime. There was no no doubt that Babangida’s leadership was greeted with excitements all over the country.
However under him, while everyone wanted a quick transition programme for the military to return to their barracks, he was rather notorious for constantly shifting the goal post of returning the country to democratic rule, a development he however justified in an interview after he left office.
He said, “When we started the transition programme, I said we would be doing it step by step and by learning. In that case, wherever we meet a hiccup, we would stop, change it and move again. On this, I was honest with Nigerians. I told them that and I expected them to judge me with what I said on that particular issue, but everybody just wanted the military to leave.
“But I did say it that in the process of implementation, we may have a mistake and if we do, we would pause, correct it and then move on. Even the transition after June 12, we gave a time span which again nobody was patient with. We prepared to either have a non conventional election or a general election and everybody said they wanted to see the country carry out a general election and you can’t have election within seven days. Nobody wanted to listen.”
Some of his legacies
Although, IBB as he is fondly called has many snag on his regime, but he was noted for what many analysts refer to as institutional reforms in the country, for instance, what is today known as National Orientation Agency (NOA) was started by his regime in 1985 as Mass Mobilisation for Social Justice and Economic Recovery (MAMSER) headed by Professor Jerry Gana with the aim of giving general orientation to Nigerians about governances issues and citizens responsibilities. That was not all, in 1988, his regime established the Federal Roads Safety Commission (FRSC). By that, it removed the erstwhile Motor Traffic Division which was hitherto under the supervision of the police to the new agency and gave it a legal teeth through an enabling decree.
In 1989, following the clamour for more states in the country, his administration created two additional states namely Akwa Ibom and Katsina in what many saw as a deliberate attempt to pacify the growing agitation for such.
The inception and completion of the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos was done by that administration which up till today has remained the longest in the country, the movement of the seat of power from Lagos to Abuja was seamlessly carried out by IBB, the establishment of two additional Federal Universities of Agriculture in Abeokuta and Makurdi is another legacy of the Babangida era, the creation of two political parties: Social Democratic Party (SDP) and National Republican Convention (NRC) in 1991 to midwife the process leading to the Third Republic was done by his government even though that republic was not allowed to live because of another military interregnum after the June 12 debacle.
Brief background/life after office
Born on August 17 1941, he joined the military of the armoured division corp in 1962, rose through the ranks, fought in the Nigeria Civil War and participated all the various regimes in the country until he became Head of State also in August 1985.
IBB left office in 1993 in what he termed
‘stepping aside’ thereby paving the way for the newly-inaugurated Interim National Government (ING) put together under Chief Ernest Shonekan to midwife the country to another round of election.
He is one of the founding fathers of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that ruled the country for 16 uninterrupted years. Twice, IBB wanted to throw his hat into the ring of seeking presidential office under his party. In each, he got the nomination forms as nudged by his teeming supporters, but like Maradona, just before hitting the ground running, he would withdraw from the race to the chagrin of many.
Today, due to age and health challenges, the people’s General appeared to have bidded farewell to active politics, but his voice on any national matter resonates wider sentiment anywhere in the country. Happy birthday, IBB!
