What Does IBB Really Want?
Depending on who you ask, the name Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida evokes different memories. For a General, who enjoys being called Maradona (remember Argentine football legend Diego Maradona?), no one should be surprised that even after his retirement, Babangida has largely remained a dribbler.
Lately, he was in the news after his spokesperson, Kazeem Afegbua issued a statement on his behalf. Babangida, who thrives in controversies, once again reminded Nigerians that he remains essentially IBB when a counter statement emerged claiming that the former military ruler did not authorise Afegbua to issue the statement.
Another version of the denial said Afegbua tampered with the original statement. There were other versions as well and it became such a mess that even security operatives suspected that a crime might have been committed and declared Afegbua wanted.
Today, no one, except Babangida himself knows the truth about that statement. That is typical IBB. It is IBB being IBB. After all, a couple of months earlier, former President Olusegun Obasanjo had issued a similar statement and no one doubted he issued it.
After maintaining a dignifying silence for a while, Babangida has chosen to step into the spotlight. Many are wondering what messages he is trying to put across.
In a recent interview with Channels Television, Babangida, who should be grateful to Nigeria for how the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election ended, has continued to defend the indefensible.
He said: “Nobody has ever sat down to say the two persons are friends. What went wrong? We tried to rationalise why we had to do what we did but nobody is prepared to listen to us.
“I have never seen anybody write anything on this to try to give people a different version altogether. He (Abiola) knew my feeling; I knew his feeling about the country generally because I do talk about Nigeria with the presumed winner of the truly democratically freest election. We even talked about it during the crisis itself.”
The former military ruler, perhaps, is not aware of the fact that most of the people who voted for Abiola did not know he was IBB’s friend. So, it was not an issue in the election or after the election. People voted according to their conscience.
May be IBB needs to learn better, because nobody is too old to learn.