The Babangida confession

General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida’s confession, as contained in his recently released autobiography, ‘A Journey in Service,’ has elicited controversy in the polity.

This is expectedly so given the weight of the issues involved.

A confession coming 32 years after a decision that led to the death of the man at the centre of the matter, Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola, his wife, Kudirat, and many other innocent Nigerians and the loss of unquantified property, on the face value, can only be termed “medicine after death.”

For us, there are four takeaways from the now-controversial book, viz.: his economic policies, the annulment of the June 12 election, the presumption of the 1966 military coup, commonly termed the Igbo coup, and the ‘futility of war’.

Read also: Babangida’s a journey in service: A memoir of deflections

There are lessons to learn from the economic policies of the Babangida days—what worked and what did not work. How are our reforms today different from what he pursued after? Is the country better today with the economic policies that we embrace than it was in the Babangida era? If not, why not?

In Chapter 7 of the book, IBB talks about reforming the economy—the reasons behind the open, free market, liberalisation, and privatisation directions of his administration, the controversial International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans, the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), and other reforms embarked upon to retool the nation’s economy.

What have we learnt as a nation in the reforms we are implementing today? He tells us that SAP was a necessary reform that encouraged local industry and stabilised Nigeria’s economy. But experience showed that SAP led to inflation, widespread job losses, and economic hardship. Is Nigeria away from such well-thought-out but wrongly directed policies?

It is our view that 35 years after those IBB’s reforms that did not help the economy much, which only led to rising unemployment, currency devaluation, and worsening poverty, Nigeria must not continue in that trajectory by still struggling with reforms that are not well-heeled.

 “We think that the drivers of today’s reforms in Nigeria should consider the IBB book a useful tool to guide them, if not for anything else, but to avoid the pitfalls.”

We think that the drivers of today’s reforms in Nigeria should consider the IBB book a useful tool to guide them, if not for anything else, but to avoid the pitfalls.

If Nigeria must return to its path of prosperity of yesteryear, policies with a human face must be fashioned out and implemented to the letter. Nigeria, we believe, has marched for so long on the same spot without movement. It needs to move, and it has to move in the right direction.

Another revelation from the book is the “laying to rest” of the ingrained perception that January 15, 1966, was masterminded by the Igbo of the South East geopolitical zone.

He explains that the coup plotters of January 1966 were driven by ideology rather than ethnic sentiments.

He notes that Major Kaduna Nzeogwu, who led the coup, “was only Igbo in name.”. He was born and raised in Kaduna and was “as Hausa as any!” (pg. 59).

IBB explains that the emergence of an Igbo man, General Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi, as head of state after the coup led to the suspicion in the North that Igbos were planning to dominate Nigeria after killing prominent Northern leaders.

So, to many who have frowned at the marginalisation of the South East geopolitical zone in the scheme of things in Nigeria on the basis of the wrong notion about the Nzeogwu-led coup and the subsequent civil war waged by the Igbo race against the country, the book is a welcome development.

Read also: Why Nigeria joined Organisation of Islamic Countries during my regime Babangida

It is also our considered view that the confession that MKO Abiola won the June 12, 1993, presidential election, after all the destruction that happened trying to cover the truth, is too late. It is, however, painful to state that 32 years later, the nation’s electoral process has not made any progress. Elections since 1999, we dare say, have remained manipulated, and the voices of the people have not been heard. If an election is a factor in determining a democratic nation, Nigeria cannot be said to be one. The nation’s electoral system needs urgent reforms.

We call on the National Assembly and other relevant bodies to, without further delay, embark on a holistic electoral reform before the next round of general elections billed for 2027.

The IBB book talks about the ‘futility of war’ in relation to the civil war. We cannot agree less. But we note that the prevailing feeling of marginalisation and winner-takes-all style of governance are fuelling animosities and expanding the fault lines across the country, breeding all manner of agitations for self-determination.

Nigeria cannot afford to tread the path of civil war again, and leaders must do everything to ensure that the country becomes a nation indeed.