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IBB's
Agenda for Nigeria
By BLESSED
ISI MOMODU
The man Ibrahim
Badamasi Babangida , IBB for short, the self styled evil genius
came into political limelight on the 13th of February, 1976. It
was on this day the coup attempt lead by Isa Buka Dimka claimed
the life of General Murtala Mohammed. IBB’s action or inaction was
said to have played a key role in foiling the Dimka coup. Since
then IBB has plotted to rule Nigeria. His plan, however, materialized
in August 1985 when he overthrew his colleague Buhari and ruled
till 1993. His corrupt military dictatorship like a ravaging viral
epidemic wrecked havoc on the moral fiber of the Nigerian society
to the extent that role models like Tai Solarin were rubbished by
his tyrannical regime.
His disastrous
economic policy of SAP was so excruciating that an alleged Ebony
magazine publication, widely circulated, exposing IBB as the most
corrupt and richest army General in the world spurred the IBB must
go nation wide riots in 1987 in which many Nigerians were killed.
Today, Babangida is said to be worth 25 billion US dollars excluding
the 12 billion dollars from 1991 Gulf war oil windfall which he
refused to account for. His regime’s assassination of Dele Giwa
via a parcel bomb, closing of newspaper houses at will, smuggling
Nigeria into Organization of Islamic Countries(OIC), annulling the
political Bureau report in 1988, annulling the June 12th election
in1993,are the mortal sins of Babangida against the people of Nigeria.
In his military constituency, IBB substituted mediocrity for meritocracy,
homosexuality, drug pushing peaked during his grip on power in the
military. His fanatical booth lickers who became known as IBB boys
were in charge because they were getting enough crumbs from their
master’s table. Babangida was so confident of what his stolen wealth
can do that he sent some of his boys in the military to Egypt. They
were to study the political system that enables the military in
Egypt to control the entire political system. Such a system was
to be perfected for him in Nigeria so that the military whether
in or out of office will continue to dominate the entire political
process.
This is IBB’s
agenda for Nigeria. Lt. Col. Nyiam who participated in Orkar’s revolt
against IBB and a member of his secret mission to Egypt revealed
this in his interview with the defunct weekly concord. So far IBB
has achieved his dream of imposing the military on Nigerians but
can he sustain it? IBB with his brother Gen. Abdusalami aligning
with foreign backers imposed Obasanjo on Nigerians in 1999. Doubting
Thomases can now see that OBJ as part of Nigerian problem historically
is not in any position to put Nigeria on the path to greatness.
His first four years of Trial and error in the act of governance
was a dismal failure. He has exposed himself as a born again hypocrite
playing dangerously with the name of God to the gallery. He was
corrupt in his first coming as head of a military junta, his army
salary could not have built Ota farm, he is corrupt as imposed civilian
ruler since 1999 because corruption has soared in all facets of
governmental dealings, how come he signed two contracts twice for
COJA just to mention but a few.
His refusal
to probe past looters of our treasury betrays his penchant for corrupt
practices. Coming back to IBB, I had said in my previous article
„Arresting the menace of military banditry“, that the military has
succeeded in creating a civilian wing of the ruling class with more
than enough financial muscles to award electoral positions for themselves.
Look at the alleged murderers and coupists like Omisore and Chris
Uba, they are all creations of the military. Such political misfits
grouped together in PDP or any other gang are going to dominate
the scene for a long time if not combated in an organized manner.
This is where the question of opposition in Nigerian politics comes
in. It is the military that is the only organized „opposition“in
Nigerian politics when they are not in power. Here, one does not
mean the real opposition like it is the case in functioning societies
whereby the opposition is the engine for the development of that
society, but in Nigeria, it is an opposition within the same class
that are not mutually exclusive. Either the military or their civilian
lackeys hold the Nigerian state by force for a continued looting
of her resources. In Nigerian politics, opposition is an aberration,
in the first republic, Action Group as opposition was almost liquidated,
in the second republic, NPN wiped out almost all other political
parties, in 2003, the PDP repeated history.
Real opposition
has centered around individuals like the Felas, the Ganis, some
pen writers and most recently the prodemocracy groups. In 1966,
the military played the „opposition“ role, so was in 1983, in the
present dispensation, whether the military will still play the role
of „opposition“ when the chips are down will depend on the balance
of forces. Thus, it has become imperative that all prodemocracy
groups, students, organized labour and genuine democrats should
join hands together to form a formidable opposition to resist the
IBB agenda which he and his co-looters are foisting on Nigerians.
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