BY TAIWO FAROTIMI
Mention the name Ibrahim Babangida in any gathering in Nigeria, and the responses you get will vary from that of admiration to condemnation or lionization of a man who is believed to understand Nigeria so well. Chances are that each of the personalities behind the views will be filled with passion. That is the effect of the reaction to a man who is simply an enigma, a man who describes himself as the ‘evil genius’.
Babangida, retired general and former military president, is a family man, a soldier who romances power, and a leader who loves intelligent people around him. As soon as he assumed power after the palace coup of 1985, Babangida endeared himself to the generality of the Nigerian people. To demonstrate that his was going to be a marked difference from the autocratic reign of General Muhammadu Buhari, his immediate predecessor, he threw open the prisons replete with politicians on superlative prison sentences, opened debates on return to democratic governance and solution to the economic crisis. Thus Nigerians, with or without knowledge of economics, launched into the debate of the impropriety or otherwise of taking a loan from the International Monetary Fund, IMF. Little wonder Professor Wole Soyinka, Nobel laureate, calls him “the genial dictator “.
So, the belief was that he kept Nigerians busy while he plotted for the elongation of his stay in government, claiming to be busy fashioning out an enduring democratic structure he wanted to bequeath to the people. Notwithstanding the direction of the debate, in which Nigerians rejected the IMF loan, his government brought in the Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP. Opinions are diverse on the impact of that economic programme on the Nigerian economy. But Babangida believes that he treated the economy well in his time.
The general also keeps friends. That perhaps explains why out of former heads of state in the country, IBB, as he is fondly called by admirers and non-admirers alike, is the only one who keeps a clan of associates known as “IBB Boys”. Members of this group, either within his primary constituency of the military or the civilian including the academia, have been ever faithful to the general.
They were there for him revving up the political engine when in 2007 and 2010 he attempted to return to power through the ballot. That was before he announced his retirement from active politics in 2011. But Babangida remains a member of the opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP, where he is referred as a party elder.
The unalloyed support of friends and associates must have also been for him the needed buffer when he underwent the trauma of caring for a sick wife who was a great friend, and when Maryam, the wife died in 2009. He probably also had the coterie of dedicated friends to lean on when he had to cope with health challenge in the absence of his doting wife.
But as much as he is loved, he also has a legion of antagonists out there who believe that he does not deserve to be trusted with power. Some of the people in this group are those who are angry that he annulled the June 12, 1993 presidential election won by Moshood Abiola, ironically his friend and candidate of the defunct Social Democratic Party, SDP at that election.
There are also those who lost relatives or friends in the conflagration that characterized the campaign for the revalidation of June 12 annulment. The protests and the ill feelings that greeted the annulment of the freest and fairest election in the history of the country led to the “step(ping) aside” of the general from power.
What followed that stepping aside-the pro-democracy protests and the forceful response by the Sani Abacha-led junta, which recorded its own share of casualties in human and economy- are also partly blamed on Babangida. At some point the former head of state appeared to feel unsafe particularly in the southern part of the country. What was certain is that if he had attempted to run for office, his campaign would have been bugged by references to some issues linked with his administration as a military head of state.
Some of those, aside the June 12 annulment, are the death by parcel bomb of Mr. Dele Giwa, ace journalist and chief executive of the Newswatch magazine, his management of the economy, where the Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP, was seen as the last straw that dealt a heavy blow on the economy of the country and the belief in some quarters that in his time corruption became a state art. But as he would also say, the worse thing is not to do anything than to make attempts and fail to succeed. So, the Babangida junta kept infusing the policy balm that he and his team assumed would solve the problem of the economy.
One thing he would be credited for was being frank and sincere to admit that the economy was not doing well in spite of the application of many economic theories. The general wielded power and peddled influence. Scores among his followers do not mind being called IBB Boys because, for them, it is a tribe of the elite close to the seat of power.
Perhaps, enamoured by the military tactics of surprise, Babangida has a penchant for springing surprises even in his official capacity as head of government. The late Chief Bisi Onabanjo, second republic governor of Ogun State and a columnist nick named him ‘Maradona’, after the legendary Argentine footballer for his deft political moves. The general did earn that title judging by the way he conducted the political programme that failed to transit the country to a civilian administration even after eight years. He legislated two political parties, SDP and the National Republican Convention, NRC. He built secretariat structures for the two across the country with state funds, with the conviction that the country was in need of only two parties, one a little to the left and another a little to the right.
And after a choreographic political movement that saw the banning of old politicians for the emergence of ‘new breed’ politicians (during which he pledged to get rid of the “money bags” who he said had corrupted the political atmosphere), he supervised the conduct of the freest election in Nigeria, where the people voted for a Muslim/Muslim ticket across the country. But before the electorate could celebrate the victory of democracy on June 12, 1993, Babangida took the sail off that achievement. He annulled the election and threw the country into confusion.
While those who are his associates make excuses and apologies for him, the man at the center of the whole thing maintains that he never regret his actions. According to him, he did what he did for the good of the country, and as he said, based on the intelligence report available to him and his colleagues in government then.
Now, out of power and a bit immobile, Babangida , the man who made no pretenses about wielding power, welcomes some of his friends on visit to Minna and politicians who visit to tap from his network of friendship. Some of those who believe in him still remember his birthday, though the expression of their respect may not have come in the form of the flamboyant newspaper advertisements as done when he was in office, they made statements or visited him as he turned 77 on Friday, August 17.
This goes to show that the soldier who dominated his environment, made friends and disarmed foes, is still relevant in the scheme of things. After all his words get some attention in the seat of power.
As he ages gracefully, having even a handful of friends linking up with him, the man who will be on record as the only “military president” Nigeria ever had, takes a restful time at his country home in Minna, Niger State. The Hilltop Mansion may not be as busy as it used to be when it was described as a political Mecca of sorts, but it is definitely not desolate. The high and the mighty still throng the place for consultation.
The difference perhaps may be that Babangida, a much more visible person in office than any of Nigeria’s past leaders, has not enjoyed as much open embrace on the world stage as the others. That is made up for by friends at home and abroad, many of who probably preferred private fellowship.