Iyke

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Published: February 10, 2009

Have you heard the latest in this Amusement Park called Nigeria? General Ibrahim Babangida, the self-styled Military President, told Nigerians last Wednesday that he annulled the June 12, 1999 presidential election, won by Chief MKO Abiola, because he wanted to avert “a bloody coup.” This great confession is coming 16 years after that heinous crime was committed and after so many other hollow and fallacious reasons had been given. A guest on Mosunmola Abudu’s Mnet talk show programme, ‘Moments with Mo,’ Babangida gave what, perhaps, will qualify as his most specious reason so far for annulling an election he admitted most people acclaimed to be “free and fair.” Said he: “June 12 was accepted by Nigerians as the best of elections in Nigeria. It was free and fair. But unfortunately, we cancelled that election. I used the word unfortunately, for the first time. We were in government at the time and we knew the possible consequences of handing over to a democratic government. We did well that we wanted ours to be the last military coup deta’t. To be honest with you, the situation was not ripe to hand over at the time. Forget about the wrong things that happened in politics. The issue of security of the nation was a threat and we would have considered ourselves to have failed, if six months after handover, there was another coup.” To drive home this hollow argument, Babangida further said: “The issue was the security of the nation and we considered that we would have failed after handing over power because six months after, there would have been a coup….The security threat was that at that time there was all these fears. I went through a coup d’etat. I survived a coup d’etat. We did not want it to happen.” Asked if indeed there was any real threat of a coup, he answered in the affirmative. “Yes, that’s right and it would have been a bit bloody. But then, not many people wanted to believe what we said. But we knew what was going on.” Now, Babangida is no ordinary Nigerian. He was not a run of the mill soldier either. And at the time he was making this all-important decision, no Nigerian (living or dead) was more dexterous at the evil pastime of coup plotting. Now, to avoid a coup against a government that was to emerge through a tortuous and multi-billion Naira political transition his regime foisted on the country; a coup he knew the plotters, an offence that carries maximum punishment; this master coup-plotter, who had ensured that tens (perhaps hundreds) of the finest officers, most of them his personal friends, paid the ultimate price for plotting against his own government opted to annul the election. To avert this ‘looming bloodshed,’ Babangida decided to supplant the electoral will of the people by installing an illegal Interim National Government (ING), members of which he unilaterally constituted. “So, we started the interim government with a life span of six months, from June 1993 to November 1993 …during which there would be new political system, new elections and new government also,” he pontificated. How puerile and specious can an argument get? How can an interim government, which was lame duck from the outset, a government that lacked legitimacy from day one be a bulwark against coups? How could a hapless and illegitimate ING be better positioned to rebuff the threat of ambitious political soldiers than a legitimate government? How could Babangida, a master coup plotter, have shied away from the last, and come to think of it, first selfless service he would have rendered this country – using his wealth of experience to rein in the would-be coupists and safeguarding the incoming civilian governmnet? The self-acclaimed Evil Genius left the task for Chief Ernest Shonekan, a man that had no clue what to do with power. Did Babangida tell Shonekan that some military officers would plot against his government? If he did, did he also give him the antidote? If Babangida, who flagged off his dubious transition programme shortly after he seized power on August 27, 2007 could not conjure a coup-proof talisman in the eight years he was in power, how did he expect the ING to create a “new political system,” conduct “new elections,” and form a “new government also,” in six months? In any case, for fear of a “bloody coup,” which at best is phantom and in his self-confessed “patriotic” (or is it messianic) zeal to ensure that his government remained the last military regime in the country, Babangida annulled a free and fair election. And what was the outcome? In five months, there was a military putsch that threw up the most fascist regime this country ever had. In ensuring that his regime was the last military government, Babangida created conditions that made it easy to have two military governments after him; the country was pushed to the brink of disintegration; many lost their lives while escaping from the crisis precipitated by the annulment; properties worth billions of Naira were lost and Nigeria became a pariah in the international community. What a dubious way to save the country from itself. Babangida may well tell his cock and bull story to the marines. It is both an unintelligent and cowardly excuse to make for such a grievous crime against fatherland which will continue to haunt him. But the question Nigerians should be asking is this: Why tell this fairy tale now? The answer lies in the politics of 2011. Asked if he would run for the Presidency in 2011, he riposted “under what circumstance” before remembering that he is “not getting younger.” Although in his characteristic evasiveness, he refused to categorically answer the question, it was easy to read his lips. And the obvious message, despite his obfuscations, is that a shot at the presidency in two year’s time is not ruled out. But lacking the courage to take the bull by the horn, he would not want to join the fray unless he is sure there would be no contest. He wants to be assured that the presidency is his for the asking before he will show his hands. The circumstance he is asking for is the same circumstance under which Olusegun Obasanjo became President in 1999, a circumstance which he, almost single-handedly, created. Babangida talked about “correcting certain things, which a lot of you will not buy because it will look to you as punitive.” And you wonder. This is a man that was in power for eight years as a maximum ruler, a man to whom power was an end in itself, rather than a positive force for common good. Babangida wielded power for all the wrong reasons and 16 years out of power, he has never done anything that shows he has imbibed a new philosophy of power. So, what is he going to correct? A man that finds it impossible to apologise for the annulment of the June 12 election, how can we be sure that given a second chance, he will not do same again? Truth be told, Babangida is an unrepentant dictator who has nothing to offer Nigerians in terms of leadership in a 21st Century world. His time is in the past. As Obasanjo proved most conclusively, recycling yesterday’s men in leadership positions is a recipe for disaster. At a time like this when world leaders are battling to save their countries from global economic crisis, what will a President Ibrahim Babangida bring to the table? How to plot coup and plunder a country’s patrimony? He should remain a relic of our past, one of the sad reminders of the great opportunities our country missed because of the greed and shortsightedness of a few parasites that call themselves leaders. The time to say, ‘No Babangida, not again, is now.’