Perhaps no single Nigerian has ever wielded as much power and influence as did General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida during the eight years he held sway as military president. There was a period when he dissolved the Armed Forces Ruling Council. He held fort alone. For another few weeks, he was away to France for medical treatment without a whimper from any quarters. Those were heady days for the General.
Historically, it is somewhat tricky to place the legacy of IBB. Until the return in 1999 of the warped process we call democracy in Nigeria, General Babangida’s regime was the most corrupt in the minds of many. He was accused of reducing governance to the distribution and redistribution of public offices to settle acolytes, and was master of the game of placation by ‘settlement’. Solarin and Soyinka should suffice.
However, events from 1999 till date have shown IBB and even Abacha to be saints in the cesspit of corruption that is Nigeria. The last 10 years produced state governors that are wealthier than IBB can ever hope to be. So on the corruption index, there is nothing outstanding about the man. Indeed, some relatively minor operatives can match the General dollar for dollar, maybe even leave him broke. (You did not hear me say Nnamdi).
During his tenure, he introduced policies that very nearly crippled the Nigerian economy. But to be fair to him, he had a retinue of experts around, including Kalu Idika Kalu, Chu Okongwu, Jibril Aminu, Babs Fafunwa, Olikoye Ransome Kuti, Rilwan Lukman, Tunji Olagunju, among many others. Though responsibility for his government’s failed policies lie with him, it must be shared with these ‘experts’. On the other hand, given the catastrophic failures and policy inconsistencies (say, power sector) we have witnessed in the last decade, IBB is beginning to appear like a messiah.
In the judgment of history, all of the above sins of IBB might have been forgiven had he not annulled the June 12, 1993 elections. After the longest and most tortuous transition to democracy on record, to then annul the results of June 12 was his greatest undoing, and the longest dagger in the heart of Nigeria. My kinsmen defeated Tofa in Kano State for Abiola; Nigerians overwhelmingly elected a Moslem-Moslem ticket. To then dump that defining moment in the dustbin of history and return Nigeria to religious and ethnic politics was a blow from which we are yet to recover.
But again, the disaster of the 2003 and the catastrophe of the 2007 elections threaten to pale June 12 into insignificance. June 12 was an election without a president. 2007 brought a president without an election. IBB has been bested on the corruption index. His record on democracy has been shattered by his sparring partner Aremu. He has been overtaken in the area of poor policy and implementation by Umaru. What is the one outstanding thing that IBB would be remembered for?
For many years after leaving office, his Minna hilltop mansion was a beehive of ceaseless activity and a political Mecca of sorts. But IBB’s systematic deconstruction began with his fatal decision to ‘drag’ old soldier Aremu to the presidency. In one of the greatest political ironies of our time, the courage of then Colonel IBB helped abort the Dimka coup attempt and brought Obasanjo to office in 1976. In 1998-99, now retired General IBB helped bring Obasanjo to office as president. The irony here is that Aremu, twice helped into office by IBB, twice prevented IBB from taking over the same office in 2003 and 2007.
That IBB wanted to return to office in 2003 after a 10 year hiatus was never in doubt. That he saw 2007 as another opportunity was never in question. And also that Aremu destroyed both possibilities is well established. Thus, the hilltop mansion suddenly ghostly. The political opportunists who saw IBB as a veritable ticket to office suddenly disappeared. The route to power no more had a detour at Minna. And so the General surrendered.
But the deconstruction of IBB is only just beginning. Having been run out of the presidential race by Aremu, he could not even influence who became governor of his state. It would have been difficult to imagine a state governor, much less a lowly aid joining issues with IBB in public. But that is exactly what is happening today. Similarly, not many people remember that IBB stopped then candidate Umaru Musa Yar’adua from becoming governor of Katsina in 1991, or that IBB in fact created Katsina State in 1987. That same Umaru was is now President. A lesson in life. (But then, given the latter’s performance in two years, perhaps the wily General saw what many did not).
So what happens when a General surrenders? Today IBB is a glorified presence in weddings, funerals and other social events. The adoring crowds are gone, the political acolytes on the run and his influence largely worn. In a classic twist of fortune, the same fate that befell IBB has befallen his greatest traducer, Aremu. Both retired Generals have become glorified invitees at minor social events. Both are licking largely self inflicted wounds from battles they had no reason to fight. That is what happens when Generals try to play God.
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