By Tony Eluemunor

In newspaper advert after another, those who celebrated former Military President Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (IBB) recounted how he changed the Nigerian polity. They were right, he tinkered with everything. Yet, he offered no apology to Nigerians and gave no credible excuse for his consequential missteps.

He told the Daily Trust newspaper of Saturday August 7, 2021: “You want me to be honest with you? If it had materialized, there would have been a coup détat that would have been violent. That is all I can confirm. And that would have given room for more instability in the country.” And unfortunately, he pointed as his justification for that sordid annulment decision, late Gen. Sani Abacha’s flinging out of the window the Chief Ernest Shonekan-headed Interim National Government (ING).

Ah! 28 long years have elapsed since that annulment and many of the journalists that interviewed recently may have forgotten the events of that era. And so, no interviewer remembered that on June 26, 1993, Babangida actually advanced his reason for annulling that election. He said: “To proclaim and swear in a president who has encouraged a campaign of divide and rule amongst our various ethnic groups would have been detrimental to the survival of the Republic.”

So, the coup excuse now seems like an after-thought. Who decided that the winner of that election, late MKO Abiola, had become too divisive to be sworn in as president? IBB did not say. Yet, that such a wishy-washy excuse could have been offered to Nigerians in the heat of that annulment shows how disdainfully IBB viewed Nigerians then and how he ran his presidency.

Power corrupts and absolute power did corrupt someone absolutely! IBB acted like a child at play. It was all a game to him; to see how much he could throw his tantrums, indulge his caprices, fads, and whims. Whatever fancies or impulses that seized his luxuriant imagination received venting, and woe betide anyone who stood against IBB’s desires of that moment; he would be crushed mercilessly. Though IBB was a president, and was leading the country through the woods, making promises and cancelling promises and springing up new ones over an eight-year period, he did not know that Nigerians were tired of his unending shifting of the goalposts.

That was how, most lackadaisical to say the least, he took the decision to annul the June 12 election. I will refresh IBB’s memory a little. On the morning of June 23, 1993, IBB was preparing to attend the funeral of the first republic Minister of Lagos Affairs, Alhaji Musa Yar ’Ádua. Casually, most casually, he instructed the Justice minister and Attorney[1]General of the Federation, Mr. Clement Akpangbor, to draft a statement annulling the election.

ALSO READ: The cross Babangida still carries at 80

He must have left another instruction because before he returned, that press statement had been circulated to the press by the Press Secretary to the Vice[1] President Augustus Aikhomu. So, what stopped Babangida from explaining to the National Defence and Security Council in early July 1993 that an Abiola-presidency was doomed to be truncated by a coup? That meeting lasted for three days as officers engaged in shouting matches.

That council decided to throw a carrot to the politicians; that another election should be conducted before August 27 in which the two presidential candidates would come from the South. It was an impossible sell to the politicians, and it was after it had been effectively killed that IBB settled on ING. Yet, what if Abiola had agreed, and contested that election and won? Would it also have been annulled? That shows how sincere is IBB’s coup excuse!!!

Now, please remember that IBB told Daily Trust that Abacha’s overthrow of the ING proved his decision not to handover to Abiola, for fear of a coup, right. Yet, the decision to make Abacha the keeper of the ING, the only military member of the ING, was entirely IBB’s. This also shows that IBB could have made Abacha retire with him on August 27, but he didn’t. The military high command had decided that IBB and AIkhomu should retire on August 27, 1993, the chief of defence staff, service chiefs and the Inspector-General of Police would remain at their duty posts, IBB changed this after meeting with Abacha alone.

Thus, IBB included something new into the ING Decree 61; that if a crisis broke out, the Secretary of Defence (Abacha) being the most senior army officer should assume power. Dear Nigerians, the great decision to annul the June 12 election, and also to leave Abacha as ING’s strong arm, were taken as casually as was shown above. That was IBB’s style. He behaved as though he had purchased Nigeria and could do anything he wanted with it.

He smuggled Nigeria into the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), in the same shameful and totally disdainful way. September 1969, the late Alhaji Abubakar Gumi, then Grand Khadi of Northern Nigeria headed a delegation to attend an OIC meeting in Morocco. The then Head of State, Gen Yakubu Gowon quickly dispatched a letter to the Moroccan King Hassan that the delegation was not representing Nigeria.

Thus, Gumi and his team were not fully admitted but were recognized as observers. OIC kept inviting Nigeria to become a full member but the Gowon, Murtala/Obasanjo, Shehu Shagari and the Mohammadu Buhari administrations refused. OIC invited Nigeria again in December 1985 to its ministerial conference in Morocco to be held from January 6 to10, 1986. Ahmadu Hamza, Permanent Secretary, External Affairs Ministry, by-passed his Minster, Prof Bolaji Akinyemi, and took the invitation straight to IBB.

With IBB’s approval, Rilwanu Lukman headed a delegation that included Alhaji Abubakar Alhaji Abubakar Gumi, Abdulkadir Ahmed and Ibrahim Dasuki to join OIC. Nigeria’s Council of Ministers never discussed it. Perhaps, the OIC affair was one of the great achievements for which Nigerians celebrated IBB as he turned 80. And remarkably, no journalist remembered to ask IBB any questions on the OIC.

Vanguard News Nigeria