IBB denies endorsing virtues of military over democratic governance
From John Adams, Minna
Former military president, Ibrahim Babangida, has disowned a post on an X account which claimed he had endorsed the virtues of military rule over democratic governance.
Babangida, in a statement in Minna, yesterday, by Mahmoud Abdullahi for his media office, said the dubious and fake X account: @General_Ibbro, carries Babangida’s picture and name, and the coat of arms of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for added effect, stressing that “it does not belong to him, nor does the former president sanction any post appearing there.”
“Our attention has been drawn to a post on a parody account on X, formerly known as twitter, which carries the handle, @General_Ibbro, in which former President Babangida, was supposed to have endorsed the virtues of military rule over democratic governance,” he said the statement.
Babangida pointed out that the same fake X account had, in the past, especially during the 2023 presidential elections, posted a blatant falsehood that the former president had endorsed a particular presidential candidate and his party, thereby causing public confusion and some embarrassment to the elder statesman.
“We have just learnt that it has posted a similarly fake statement where the former president was supposed to have said: ‘Nigeria has the best years under the military, democracy made things worst (sic)’.
“We want to state, unequivocally, that neither the twitter or X account, which is essentially a parody or pretend account, nor the statement made therein, ever belonged to the retired general.”
The statement further added Babangida believes that Nigeria’s democracy is resilient and has come to stay, adding that “we must do everything we can to safeguard the process.
“As a nation, we are currently facing a number of challenges, but the former president has always expressed the view that we will eventually overcome these challenges and come out a stronger, more progressive nation. The solution to our problems, as he had said previously, is ‘more’ democracy, not less.”
The statement maintained that Babangida truly believes that the era of military intervention in Nigeria’s politics is long gone, saying he is proud that the Nigerian military has stood firmly behind multiple democratic governments in this country since 1999, “thus giving us the longest run of civilian administration since independence.”
Babangida, in the statement, expressed regrets that the user of the unfortunate parody account, which was gather was traditionally supposed to be an account that imitates or at least mirror the sentiments of the original twitter or X account that it copies, has serially chosen to use the account to undermine democracy and spread stories capable of causing animosity.
“Sadly, there seems very little we can do to make the overseers of X or twitter to remove or sanction this tiresome account, so we are again obliged to advise the public to ignore any post from this account that purportedly claims to represent my opinion,” he said.
