May 22, 2010
Sources close to former military dictator, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, say he was jolted by what one of them described as “a total failure” of his book launch in Abuja yesterday. “He’s close to reconsidering his planned presidential run after the woeful failure of his book launch,” said one of the sources, an old ally of the retired general who expressed skepticism about Mr. Babangida’s electoral prospects. Babangida, who has hired a retinue of hack writers to produce books aimed at revising the history of his despicable role in ruining Nigeria, was shocked that most of the invited guests at the book launch were nowhere to be found. “The general has invested a lot of money to create a small industry of writers to help in shining up his image, so he was absolutely disappointed that his former dependable friends abandoned the book launching,” according to one of the sources.
Saharareporters learnt that, on arriving at the venue of yesterday’s book launch and finding out that his most important guests were absent, a distraught Babangida ordered his aides to place telephone calls to some of the expected guests in Abuja. The aides told each person they contacted that the “general would love to say hello to them at the venue of the book launch,” said an inside source in the general’s campaign. “Yet, the calls did not save the day as many of the people we contacted – including people the general helped a lot in the past – made various excuses for not coming.”
Despite the calls, the book launch was marred by poor attendance.
Mr. Babangida was so depressed that he met with some of his closest associates after the book launch and asked whether he should quit the presidential race. One of our sources said, however, that the aides who spoke up encouraged the ex-general to stay the course. “I was not surprised by their advice,” added the source, “after all, their livelihood depends on his running for office.” The source said several aides told Babangida that it was “President” Goodluck Jonathan and former President Olusegun Obasanjo who asked many would-be guests to stay away. They promised Babangida that they would counter the strategy of those working against his campaign and ensure that his next outing would be better planned and attended.
Yesterday’s event was the second time within a month that Babangida would be shunned at a public event. A few weeks ago, a team led by Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka boycotted a scam rally for Babangida organized in Benin City, the Edo State capital, by Governor Adams Oshiomhole. Oshiomhole had deceptively tagged the event “One Man, One Vote,” but secretly invited Babangida to the event without telling other invited guests. On learning that the widely despised general was going to make an appearance, Soyinka and his team hurriedly left Benin, leaving Oshiomhole to deal with other activists who publicly disgraced Babangida at the event.
Rattled by the depth of outrage at his appearance, Babangida passed over the opportunity to speak, claiming that he had leg pains. But a source close to the disgraced Oshiomhole said that the governor and Babangida had made the decision that the latter should not speak “in order to spare him boos and jeers.”
Babangida’s widely unpopularity campaign faces serious reversals as well as mounting public derision.
A source at the US embassy in Abuja told Saharareporters that the Barack Obama administration “was troubled by insinuations that Washington supports General Babangida’s candidacy, or had anything to do with his decision to run.” The source said the US was aware of perceptions in certain quarters – some of it orchestrated by Babangida – that the former general has Obama’s blessing as the candidate that would hold a fractious Nigeria together. “I can tell you that the US government is not interested in any one candidate, only in the credibility of the electoral process,” said the source.
Babangida’s political woes have arisen as well from his legacy as one of Nigeria’s most corrupt public officials as well as numerous verbal gaffes in recent times. He drew widespread public ire after telling a BBC interviewer that the Nigerian youth lacked the ability to lead the country. He also exposed himself to ridicule when he stated recently that he annulled the June 12, 1993 presidential election, won by Mr. MKO Abiola, because some of his subordinates in the army had threatened to kill him if he handed over to the winner.
Nigerians, both young and old, blame Babangida for setting the foundation for many of the country’s current political and economic crises. Whilst his political and economic policies deepened poverty in Nigeria, he raked in an ill-acquired fortune estimated at billions of dollars. He lives in a 50-room mansion built for him by German construction giant, Julius Berger, atop the hills of Minna. He owns private jets as well as several Rolls Royces. Babangida, whose wife, Miriam, died last December, is believed to have stolen or mismanaged over $12 billion from Nigeria’s public treasury between 1985 and 1993.
Our sources also said Babangida has been losing sleep over a statement by the Jonathan government that it was studying the Pius Okigbo report on the questionable disbursement of Nigeria’s oil windfall revenues as a result of the First Gulf war in 1990. The Okigbo report concluded that the former general spent a bulk of the revenue outside of established budgetary protocols. The Jonathan administration has stated that it would consider formal prosecution of the former dictator over the Gulf War windfall that he squandered and stashed abroad, particularly in France, Lebanon, Germany and parts of Eastern Europe.
Meanwhile, Babangida’s campaign is decidedly losing the cyber world battle with those opposed to his political ambition. A “facebook” page devoted to opposition to Babangida's candidacy has attracted more than 21,000 members. By contrast, a pro-IBB “facebook” page has only 7,000 members.
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