IBB raises eyebrow over insecurity, unity
•He asks Buhari not to vie for second term - Aide
Former Military President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida yesterday said he is worried by political events and civil unrest in many part of the country that are threatening governance and unity in the country.
Babangida, in a statement he personally issued in Minna, Niger State, distanced himself from an earlier one issued on his behalf by his spokesman, Kassim Afegbua, which claimed that the ex- military ruler had advised Nigerians to vote out President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.
“Let me categorically state that as former President and Statesman, I have unfettered channel of communication with the highest authorities without sensational public correspondence, therefore those views expressed over there are personal views of the writer,” he said.
Babangida in the second message recalled that he had in his message to this year’s Armed Forces Remembrance Day called for proactive measures to stem farmers/ herders clashes in the Middle Belt, cattle rustling, armed robbery, Kidnapping, gangsterism and cultism.
He described his statement as ‘My Counsel to the Nation,’ a caption seen many as a move by the ex- president ‘to tactically depart from how ex- President Olusegun Obasanjo passed his message to Buhari two weeks ago.”
According to him, “Recent happenings and utterances by political gladiators is alarming and not in the interest of common man that is already overstretched and apparently living from hand to mouth due to precarious economic conditions.
“I am a realist that believes in all issues in a democratic atmosphere are sincerely discussed and resolved in the spirit of give and take,” he said.
Babangida, however, said there was nothing wrong in the clamour for re-alignments by politicians but called for the trimming of political parties instead of the over 60 that have been registered by INEC.
“The clamour for re-alignment of governance in the country as we are approaching 2019 election year is a welcome development only if the agitations are genuinely channeled through legislation and total supremacy of the constitution .
“Our present political parties and their structures need parameter pillars that will make them more strong with unique ideologies. However, our present political parties need surgical operation that will fusion them in to a reasonable numbers. I have been an advocate of two party systems but in our present reality in Nigeria, our political parties can fusion into strong political association/ party that can form a formidable opposition to a ruling party,” he said.
But in a phone interview last night, Afegbua said he stood by the earlier statement he issued on behalf of IBB, saying the former military president has not denied the statement.
“The statement is in order. IBB did not hold any press conference in Minna. It was overzealous people that issued that statement of his denial. I wouldn’t issue any statement without his approval. Go ahead with the statement. I have spoken with him and he said he has not recanted the statement,” he said.
And despite the denial by IBB that he did not asked Buhari not to vie for second term, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) last night described the initial statement as “another confirmation that Nigerians have agreed that the President and the All Progressives Congress, APC, have failed the test of leadership.”
National Publicity Secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement said the fact that Babangida’s statement on President Buhari was coming on the heels of a similar one by former President Obasanjo, had further vindicated PDP’s position on the “Misrule of the Buhari administration and the APC.”