Babangida’s Many Lies,

Here is why Journey in Service by Ibrahim Babangida is an autobiography that should not have been written

Richard Elesho

The tact of his capriciousness while he held the country by the jugular with smiles earned him the notorious sobriquet, Maradona. He acquired the nickname after the football legend, Diego Maradona, famous for his dazzling dribbling tactics on the field of play. To underscore his notoriety for deceit, a joke was shared: If he greets you good afternoon, you should always cross-check the time because it could be at the dead of night.

After more than three decades in limbo, Nigeria’s only former military president, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, IBB, has wormed his way back to national discourse and ridicule through the public presentation of ‘A Journey in Service,’ his autobiography and launch of a presidential library.

The event was held on Thursday, 20th February, at the Congress Hall of Trascorp Hilton, Abuja. Only a man with the larger-than-life image of IBB could have pulled the calibre of dignitaries and naira rain witnessed at the event. President Bola Tinubu, former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, who chaired the book presentation, and Goodluck Jonathan, former Heads of State Yakubu Gowon and Abdulsalam Abubakar, former Vice Presidents Atiku Abubakar, and Yemi Osinbajo (book reviewer) were among them. Others were former Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo, who delivered a keynote address and former Sierra Leonean President Ernest Koroma. Instructively, the immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari, snubbed the ceremony. A whopping 17.5 billion Naira was put together as seed for the library.

Forty-four-year-old Babangida took over the country’s leadership on 27th August 1985 in a Palace coup. Until his ascension, he had been the Chief of Army Staff since January 1984 under the rather unsmiling and taciturn General Muhammadu Buhari dictatorship, whom he claimed to be too rigid. Babangida was ingenious from the start, preferring the title ‘president’ and commander in chief instead of head of state, used by his predecessors. He presided over affairs of the country for a most tempestuous eight years, only stepping aside in less than glorious circumstances on 26 August 1993.

Since that time, many of the controversies of the Babangida era have remained shrouded in secrecy. The nation had a long wait for the memoir that was expected to shed light on the opacity that characterised his days in power, which started at Dodan Barracks, Lagos, before moving to Aso Villa, Abuja. The story, as told by IBB, has ended up raising more questions than answers and opening new wounds in an attempt to window dress the past. The aggregate of opinions of readers is that the book is another effort by the self-styled evil genius to collectively pull the wool over the faces of Nigerians over the deeds and misdeeds of his adventures in power.

IBB’s book, Journey in Service

From the first chapter, which contains his birth narratives, to the chapters that chronicle his military career and rise to power, to the last chapter, the book’s half-truths, inconsistencies, and blatant falsehoods assault the mind. Some of the incongruous content challenges old fixatives about the IBB persona. Let us travel through some of the topical issues in no particular order.

June 12

IBB supervised the longest and most controversial transition program in Nigerian history. On the surface, efforts were being made to bequeath an enduring democracy based on the two-party system to the nation. After many experiments and sudden shiftings of the goal post, a presidential election that was considered to be the freest and fairest in the country was held on Saturday, 12 June 1993. It was contested by billionaire businessman Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, and Bashir Othman Tofa of the National Republican Convention, NRC. After voting, Abiola was in a clear lead when the collation of results started.

MKO Abiola

Sadly, to the chagrin of most people, the process was suspended midway through the compilation of results. An ominous air hovered over the nation. Many days of uncertainty were followed by an announcement by the junta annuling the polls. The decision threw the country into unprecedented political confusion and setback. Worse of all, many people, including Abiola, died in the impasse. Popular demand on the matter eventually forced the dictator out of office in August. He has since remained silent on the matter, avoiding it like a plague.

However, in a poetic manner, IBB reserved his own version of June 12 for chapter 12 of his book. Apart from acknowledging publicly for the first time that Abiola won the poll, much of his claims stand the truth on its head. Although he accepted responsibility for the annulment, he did not pretend not to blame others for it. He painted the picture of being manipulated by forces he described as ‘fifth columnists.’ In his puerile narrative, the enemies were prepared to eliminate him and Abiola, so he had to tag along with them in self-preservation.

“I would later find out that the ‘forces’ led by General Sani Abacha annulled the elections. There and then, I knew I was caught between ‘a devil and the deep blue sea’!! From then on, the June 12 elections took on a painful twist for which, as I will show later, I regrettably take responsibility.”

He traced the root of the annulment to the Association of Better Nigeria, ABN,  an infamous group led by his friend Athur Nzeribe, a billionaire and maverick politician from the southeast. IBB claimed that the group had been agitating for an extension of military rule without his approval.

“From out of nowhere, on June 10, two days before the presidential election, the same shadowy group, ABN, which had been campaigning for an extension of military rule, approached the Abuja High Court of Justice Bassey Ikpeme for an injunction to stop NEC (National Electoral Commission) from conducting the elections,” he said in his memoir.

“Unknown to me at the time, Justice Ikpeme, who was relatively young at the Bench, had worked in the chambers of the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Clement Akpamgbo. Strangely, Justice Ikpeme, in the dead of night, in clear violation of Decree 13, which barred any court from interfering with NEC’s conduct or scheduling of the elections, granted the ABN an injunction stopping NEC from conducting the June 12 elections. There was confusion everywhere.”

Promptly, he recalled quickly convening an emergency meeting of the National Defence and Security Council (NDSC), the country’s highest governing body, to discuss the way forward.

“On Friday, June 11, as the NDSC meeting was going on, I learned that a Lagos High Court had ruled that NEC should go ahead with the elections. The NDSC meeting on Friday, June 11, only hours before the scheduled elections, was one of the stormiest meetings I ever conducted as president. Strangely, the Attorney General and Justice Minister, Akpamgbo, who was the nation’s chief law officer and who ought to know that the Justice Ikpeme court order violated an extant law (and was tacitly supported, it turned out by some of my topmost military officers), advised that the elections be postponed in compliance with the Abuja court order. Professor (Humphrey) Nwosu (NEC chairman) insisted, to the dismay of my top military colleagues, that he had enough powers under the law to proceed with the elections.

“The arguments went on for hours in a tense atmosphere, peopled by some who wanted the elections postponed, among them the Chief of Defence Staff, General Sani Abacha, Lt-General Joshua Dogonyaro and a few Service Chiefs. But I had my views bottled inside me! Even before Professor Nwosu presented his compelling argument, I decided that the elections should proceed, backed firmly by the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-General Salihu Ibrahim.”

The former president said he gave Nwosu the go-ahead for the election and directed him to “hold a world press conference and tell everyone the elections will be held tomorrow as planned.”

He said on June 16, Nwosu suddenly stopped the announcement of the election results even though the voting was peaceful and orderly.

“And then, on June 16, without my knowledge or prior approval, NEC Chairman Professor Nwosu announced the suspension of the June 12 election results ‘until further notice’. I knew instantly that certain fifth columnists were at work and that there was a need for extra care! And even after that suspension of the announcements of results, ABN obtained another ‘strange’ court order from Justice Saleh’s court in Abuja, stopping the release of the results of the elections,” he wrote.

The most intriguing part of IBB’s confession or cover-up is when he claimed he heard of the official annulment of the results while on a condolence visit to Katsina. He recalled that he left Abuja for Katsina on June 23, to commiserate with the Yar’adua family over the death of their patriarch, Musa Yar’adua, a former minister of Lagos affairs. Read him.

“The funeral had taken place, and as I got ready to leave, a report filtered to me that the June 12 elections had been annulled. Even more bizarre was the extent of the annulment because it terminated all court proceedings regarding the June 12 elections, repealed all the decrees governing the transition, and even suspended the NEC! Equally weird was the shabby way the statement was couched and made. Admiral (Augustus) Aikhomu’s press secretary, Nduka Irabor, had read out a terse, poorly worded statement from a scrap of paper, which bore neither the presidential seal nor the official letterhead of the government, annulling the June 12 presidential elections. I was alarmed and horrified,” he narrated.

Sadiq Abacha, son of the man on whose neck Babangida sought to hang the blame for the annulment, rose in defence of his father. He said IBB’s diatribe is a product of unbridled envy against Abacha. Sadiq, in a Facebook post, defended his father.

“The man Abacha—you have always been the one they envied with silent deceit. History shall remember you for being a better leader,” he wrote, suggesting that the criticisms against his father are fueled by jealousy.

In the same vein, a human rights lawyer, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, expressed pessimism about the IBB book, pointing out that it is “filled with allegations against dead men and women who can no longer speak for themselves.” He questioned why IBB waited so long to share these details, calling it a one-sided narrative.

IBB’ cock and bull account on June 12 does not connect with the command structure of the military neither does it tally with his finicky reputation for details and discipline. It is either the general is an incurable coward who has been living on borrowed linens of courage, or he concocted the stories. Readers are at a loss as to why IBB left Abacha, the man he claimed triggered the June 12 crisis behind after stepping aside.

The June 12 election annulment was the peak of IBB’s misgovernance. Under his watch for eight years, the giant of Africa witnessed significant regressions and monumental controversies in other areas. The retired general treats the challenges of leadership in chapter ten of his book. He sheds light on the death of Dele Giwa, the Vatsa coup, the Gideon Okar coup, the Organization of Islamic States, the OIC palaver, the Structural Adjustment Program, the 1989 SAP riots, and the C-130 air crash in this chapter. His accounts on the issues are drab and self-santimonious.

Dele Giwa:

He described the late journalist as a good friend, like a few other senior journalists in the country. “We spoke often on the phone and met a few times. I valued his deep insight on national issues and respected his views and reach as a media leader,” he wrote.

Dele Giwa

He recalled that Giwa was at his breakfast table with Newswatch’s London Bureau Chief, Kayode Soyinka, when the parcel bomb that killed him exploded. He noted that the killing came less than a year after he overthrew General Muhammadu Buhari and just weeks after the OIC controversy, which led to the retirement of his deputy, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe.

“I saw Giwa’s wicked and cruel murder as part of a series of booby traps and acts of destabilisation being hatched against the administration. Undoubtedly, our choice of the path of rigorous reform had earned us unintended adversaries…

Giwa was loved by his audience and the rest of the public. Targeting him would shock the public and paint the administration in a feeble light,” he added.

He flatly rejected insinuations of state involvement in the murder. “The insinuation that the parcel may have come from the headquarters of the administration was cheap and foolish. Why would an officially planned high-level assassination carry an apparent forwarding address of the killer? Why would a government-planned and executed crime point directly at the suspect?

He said he directed the police to get to the root of the crime but blamed the media, the Newswatch legal team led by the then indefatigable Gani Fawehinmi, and unnamed political fugitives for the poor outcome.

“What the campaigners failed to realise was that even under a military regime, crimes will be committed by persons and agencies that may not be directly related to either the military establishment or the government. The best way to cover up for heinous crimes would be to craft them in a manner that includes the government among the suspects so that what should ordinarily be a criminal investigation is drowned by political actions and populist sentiments..

“The Giwa, like all mysterious murders, has remained unsolved after so many years. I keep hoping the truth will be uncovered in our lifetime or after us,” he enthused.

The execution of Gen. Vatsa

Mamman Jiya Vatsa was a childhood friend and classmate of IBB. The army general was the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, when he was accused of unsuccessful coup plotting against the junta in 1985. He was court-martialed and found guilty. In March 1986, Vatsa, along with nine others, was executed against public opinion.

In his remarks on the saga, IBB said he initially doubted Vatsa’s involvement until investigators gave him compelling facts, including an alleged attempt to escape from detention. To justify the execution, he said he had to choose between loyalty to a friend and preserving the system and that Vatsa himself was well educated on the fatal implications of a failed coup.

He dug in, further alleging that Vatsa had always been envious of him way back. “With the benefit of hindsight now, I recall that a constant part of our relationship as teenagers and young men was a continuous and recurrent peer jealousy on his part towards me. He was always envious of my achievements, especially when he thought I was progressing better than him, either in school or our military career path.

“For instance, when I became Head Boy at Bida Secondary School, Vatsa often made it a duty to put obstacles in my way as a leader. He frequently disregarded my instructions, insisting that there was nothing so special about being the Head Boy.

“That trend continued through our military career but tended to diminish as we both progressed in our respective military careers. Still, he was envious of my career path and postings up to when I was chosen as a member of the Supreme Military Council under General Murtala Muhammed,” he wrote.

Could such petty and childish jealousies justify the killing of a friend? The Vatsa family, in a reaction, dismissed the book as worthless research material that is full of lies.

The spokesperson of the family, a former commissioner for Information Culture and Tourism in Niger State, Jonathan Vatsa described Babangida as a man who has lost out in the affairs of honour over the many lies contained in the autobiography.

He advised the former president to stop desecrating his victim. “Since Babangida has refused to allow the late General Vatsa to rest in peace after killing him, we will let him know that even in death, late General Vatsa was a more honorable man because he had an identity and came from a home.”

Gideon Okar coup

Babangida recounted how he and members of his family were ferried to safety by loyal forces when Major Gideon Okar led a coup against his government. That was on the night of 22 April 1990. He recalled retiring to bed at about 1 am, after his last set of visitors left. He said his wife, Mariam, had gone to use the bathroom when she noticed and alerted him of unusual movements in the residential area of Dodarn Barracks. In no time, bullets were flying in all directions.

Gideon Okar and Babangida

The mutiners had taken control of Radio Nigeria, where they accused the government of corruption, announced a regime change, and expelled five northern states from the country.

Expressing shock, IBB said the leaders of the rebellion were personally known to him, and he had helped some of them along the way. He dismissed them as childish and divisive. Babangida admitted he was heartbroken. “Some of these officers were people I had helped in their careers. It was painful.” However, he insisted that the incident made Nigeria stronger. “The coup’s failure proved that no force can divide this country. We took steps to improve military communication and prevent future betrayals.”

He gave kudos to his ADC, Col. U.K. Bello, who unfortunately died in the attack and Abacha for his survival and quelling the rebellion. He claimed most Nigerians rejected the message of the coupists.

C-130 air crash conspiracy a wicked rumour’

In 1992, a C-130 military plane crashed into a swamp in Lagos three minutes after takeoff, killing all 159 officers on board, including nine foreigners. There were suspicions that the regime was behind the crash to permanently close the door against possible future coup plotters.

“Mischief makers and rumour mongers were colouring the public perception of this accident. Some speculated that regime opponents in the armed forces had sabotaged the aircraft to vent their anger in the direction of the administration.

C-130 military plane crash in Ejigbo

“A more wicked version of the rumour was that the administration had somehow plotted to assemble these officers in one consignment for elimination for fear that they might be planning a coup against the military administration’s leadership based on the failed Gideon Orkar coup that had taken place earlier,” Babangida wrote.

Faulting the speculations, he said an independent investigation found the crash was caused by technical faults and lapses in aircraft maintenance.

“It was, however, an indication of the level of decay to which our public perception and discourse had descended,” he added, lamenting how political opponents weaponised tragedies against his administration. Babangida said his government focused on ensuring the welfare and entitlements of the deceased officers’ families while taking measures to prevent a similar tragedy.

The question still remains: Why should the government allow officers to travel in a poorly maintained aircraft?

Conclusion:

A Journey in Service has more or less raised many questions than answers. For instance, in an attempt to shed light on the linguistic incongruity of his middle name, IBB left questions behind. He said his grandfather, a devout Muslim, had given the name ‘Badamosi’ to his father, after a particular religious book that he consulted regularly! The tasks are: in which language is the book written? Who is the author? Is it still available?

Readers’ discretion is highly recommended as they lay their hands on a copy of the memoir.

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