After 32 years of stepping aside, Nigeria’s former military leader, Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, has finally admitted culpability in the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election believed to have been won by the late business mogul and politician, Chief MKO Abiola. In his long-awaited autobiography, A Journey in Service, the self-styled military president accepted responsibility for the cancellation of the June 12 election. He also broached on major issues that dogged his nine-year reign as a military dictator and other national issues that have defined our chequered history as a nation. He also revealed that the January 15, 1966 coup was not ethnic as was erroneously interpreted in some quarters. Before him, a major participant in the coup, Adewale Ademoyega, has stated so in his book, Why We Struck. According to IBB, “As I have said elsewhere, as a young officer who saw all of this from a distance, probably, ethnic sentiments did not drive the original objective of the coup plotters. For instance, the head of the plotters, Major Kaduna Nzeogwu, was only ‘Igbo’ in name. Born and raised in Kaduna, his immigrant parents were from Okpanam in today’s Delta state, which, in 1966, was in the old mid-western region. Nzeogwu spoke fluent Hausa and was as ‘Hausa’ as any! He and his original team probably thought, even if naively, that they could turn things around for the better in the country.” Nigerian experience has shown that military intervention in politics is an aberration.
The book is about Babangida and his interface with Nigeria and his stewardship as a military man and later as a military leader. The book can be regarded as IBB’s personal history of Nigeria. Like all biographies, it is a story of growth, from childhood to adulthood, family background, parents, siblings, schools attended and influences, including relations, friends and teachers. Like all biographies, the fidelity to truth cannot be fully guaranteed. Some truths may be varnished or embellished. Others can be twisted to polish the subject in bright colours. As a soldier and retired general, and one who happened to become a head of state, the book is more about his military career, and most of the military coups, the civil war, the reconciliation efforts, his service as a military president and his tempestuous and unsteady transition programme.
The IBB’s book is an attempt to admit one’s faults and ask for forgiveness in a manner of confession, a cardinal rite in the Catholic Church. Since the public presentation of the book in Abuja and the naira rain that followed, IBB has as usual dominated the entire Nigerian media space for every conceivable reason, including the good, the bad and the ugly. The book has also generated enough heat, altercation and debate among Nigerians. IBB has regaled all of us with his own slice of Nigerian history, whether it is palatable or not. It has driven our thoughts away from the drab altercation between the APC loyalists and members of the opposition over what will happen in 2027 and who will be or not be in Aso Rock Villa.
Apart from football, the best sport in Nigeria is politics. It is played by everyone, including market men and women. Unfortunately, we play bad politics laced with tribe, religion and other mundane considerations. Some play the politics of eba and egusi soup. That is why Nigeria is still where it is and refused to grow like other nations it started the journey of nationhood like India.
IBB is a military leader but he is also a politician. He has manifested some signs of erudition and intellectualism in and out of office. He is also charismatic and controversial. While he was the military president he assembled the best brains to help him rule the country. He tinkered with our political philosophy and set up a committee that came up with two party systems, the SDP and the NRC, a little to the right and a little to the left. He brought Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), which nearly sapped all of us but made us to sit up and be more entrepreneurial. He brought MAMSER, NDLEA, FRSC, TAC and others. He created more states which our lawmakers are afraid to do now.
IBB’s regime started on a good note and ended on a very bad one. One area IBB failed most Nigerians was his unsteady transition programme through which he dribbled all Nigerians, especially the politicians and even himself. His annulment of June 12 general election was his greatest undoing. Because of his dribbling prowess, he was nicknamed Maradona after the Argentine mercuric footballer and master dribbler, Diego Maradona. He was also called the ‘Evil Genius’, a tag he vehemently refuted in his book. IBB’s greatest sin is his annulment of June 12 election. Perhaps, this book is his atonement of that great wrong doing. It is his own way of saying, I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Forgiveness heals both the offender and the offended.
Nigeria is where it is today because of that election annulment and other past wrongs. We must begin the process of righting past wrongs, without which we will remain where we are. He also admitted that Chief MKO Abiola won the June 12 election. According to him, “Looking back now, the June 12 saga was undeniably the most challenging moment of my life and, in certain respects, one of the most painful. I don’t remember who first said that ‘sometimes, life can only be understood backwards’! Or that one can only accurately Transition to Civil Rule and the June 12 saga connect the dots that constitute one’s life by looking not forward but backward, which is another way of saying that hindsight is 20:20!! To be sure, hindsight may not always be 20:20, but it can be helpful in understanding what went right or wrong and how to learn from similar situations in the future. If I had to do it all over, I’d do it differently.”
“However, faced with the circumstances of those moments, as President and Commander-in-Chief, painful as it seemed, I did what was in the country’s best interest, for which I take full responsibility. Although I am on record to have stated after the elections that Abiola may not have won the elections, upon deeper reflection and a closer examination of all the available facts, particularly the detailed election results, which are published as an appendix to this volume, there was no doubt that MKO Abiola won the June 12 elections,” IBB stated.
Writing of any kind is politically implicated. IBB’s autobiography cannot be an exception. The book is his story and his politics. You may not believe everything written in the book. You can also not dismiss everything in the book. The book may contain some intended and untended errors or lies or even half-truth. No book is perfect or complete. Some writers believe that a book of this kind should cause the reader a headache. It appears the IBB’s book is both causing a headache and heartache already. IBB has written his own story to the best of his ability based on the prevailing circumstances of his time, which the reader may not be aware of.
There is no doubt that those who develop toothache because of the book will find ample time write their own story. According to the author, “My decision to write this book, a reflection of my journey, was not hasty. It was a natural progression, a response to the circumstances of my departure as President, and a compelling need to share my unique perspective on my presidency and the narrative of my Nigerian odyssey, which is intricately woven into our nation’s history.”
However, one major drawback of the book is that most of the major participants of the IBB era have passed away. As such, they cannot respond to some of his claims in the book. Whether the critics like it or not, IBB’s memoir is another addition to others written by past military/civilian leaders and other major participants in the nation’s history, the coups, the civil war and other features of our undulating journey to nationhood. Let other Nigerian leaders write their memoirs for the more the merrier.