Ibrahim Babangida’s name is synonymous with coup plotting in Nigeria. While in the Army, there was no coup, except the one staged against him, that he did not participate in. Outside of the Army, he has been unable to rid himself of the love for coups, as evidenced by his endorsement of the 2008 military coup in Guinea. Babangida, who went to Guinea as an envoy of President Umaru Yar’adua, described the coup as timely and patriotic.
“For God’s sake, they were patriotic to make sure that the country remains intact. From what we could see upon arrival at the country the people are on the side of the coupists, and it would be unfair to say they have come to power to stay,” he said.
Yar’Adua and other West African leaders eventually condemned the coup and demanded a return to civil rule within one year.
2.Devaluation/SAP
A year after coming to power, the Babangida regime declared a national economic emergency. The options open to the country, Babangida said, were either to accept an International Monetary Fund loan and the conditions attached or to embark on more austere economic measures that would require great sacrifices. The regime called for a public debate, which turned in a verdict of rejection for the IMF option. But Nigerians soon discovered the hardships eventually imposed differed little from the IMF’s conditions. The economic recovery programme recommended by the World Bank was instituted as a self-imposed structural adjustment programme, SAP, which involved a drastic restructuring of the country’s economy. Under SAP, unemployment rates soared, food prices increased significantly, and numerous user fees for education and health services were imposed. These hardships did not dissuade the government from SAP, which it believed to be the only approach to the country’s social and economic problems. Naira, the national currency, was also grossly devalued.
3. Brain Drain
Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, once described Babangida as a hater of humanity and humanities. Soyinka’s tirade was provoked by the decision of the organisers of the NLNG Award for Literature to invite Babangida to deliver a keynote address at the 2007 edition of the awards.
Soyinka said he was not opposed to the organisers inviting Babangida to any of its functions, but certainly not to a gathering of writers, who he said, stand for life, democracy and human rights.
Babangida, Soyinka charged, was opposed to such noble ideas and even killed Mamman Vatsa, a soldier and a writer, over a trumped-up charge of coup plotting. Under Babangida, universities were frequently closed. Lecturers, who demanded better remunerations and a more virile university system, were hounded out of the system. Many left the country in frustration, denying the country the services of its best hands. The Babangida regime also clamped down on student activisim, smashing students’ unions with a directive that membership of such unions would no longer be mandatory.
4. Gulf Oil Windfall
At least 10 civil society groups have jointly petitioned the Attorney-General, Mr. Bello Adoke, requesting an urgent and full implementation of the the late Dr. Pius Okigbo Panel Report. The report indicted Babangida of corruption and mismanagement of $12.4 billion 1991 Gulf War oil windfall.
The Okigbo Report was submitted to the Sani Abacha administration in 1994. Successive governments have failed to act on it. At a point, former President Olusegun Obasanjo claimed that the report could not be found. The report was later published by this magazine. The report found that the Babangida administration operated “a second but undisclosed budget” with the then Central Bank of Nigeria governor, the late Alhaji Abdulkadir Ahmed. It also stated that the operations of these accounts were fraught with irregularities. “The proceeds of the sale of the crude were not shown in the revenue side nor were the expenditures reflected in the expenditure side of the budget,” it said.
5. Sneaky Attempts To Islamise Nigeria
Certain actions of the Babangida regime aggravated religious tensions. Though the country has always been a secular state, religious differences had become increasingly politicised, beginning at the 1977 constitutional debates when Muslims began pressing for the extension of sharia law from state courts in the North to the federal courts. After coming to power in 1985, Babangida adopted several measures that favoured Muslims and threatened the secularity nature of the Nigerian state. In 1986 Nigeria became a member of the Organisation of Islamic Conference, OIC, an international association of Islamic states in which Nigeria had long held observer status. Babangida, it transpired, had not even briefed the Armed Forces Ruling Council. When his deputy, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, was asked if Nigeria had joined the OIC, he responded that he was not aware of Nigeria’s membership of the body. He was sacked.
6. Dele Giwa
The founding Editor-in-Chief of Newswatch was killed through a parcel bomb on 19 October 1986. It was the first time the murder method was used in Nigeria and many believed that the government was behind it. In its report, the Human Rights Violations and Reconciliation Commission established by the Obasanjo administration and headed by Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, said Babangida and two of his security chiefs, Major-General Haliru Akilu and Colonel A K Togun had questions to answer on Giwa’s death.
7. June 12
Babangida threw the country into a huge crisis, from which the country has not fully recovered, by cancelling the 1993 presidential election won by a the late Bashorun MKO Abiola. The election, till date, is regarded as the freest and fairest in Nigeria’s history. When he was forced out of power, he left behind the illegal Interim National Government.
Abacha
In less than three months, the Interim National Government was overthrown by Sani Abacha, Babangida’s lieutenant, who launched a murderous and spectacularly corrupt five-year administration. The period is regarded as the darkest in the nation’s history.
8. Obasanjo
Babangida was the major promoter of Obasanjo in 1999. And like Babangida, Obasanjo’s performance record after eight years was squalid.
9. Jos Crisis
The Justice Bola Ajibola Commission that probed the Jos riots identified Babangida as major reason for the crisis in the area. According to the commission, Babangida’s creation of municipalities was not done with the people in mind. The panel said that the Jos North local council, which was created through the States Creation and Transition Provision Decree No 2 of 1991, was not done in consultation with the people.
It observed that when the indigenous people rejected the creation of the local government, the Babangida administration did not do anything about it till it left office.
10. Poor Human Rights Record
Babangida came to power as a champion of human rights. He released most of the politicians incarcerated by the Muhammadu Buhari regime. But his record in this area deteriorated over time. He ceaselessly hounded opposition interest groups, especially those of labour and students, and detained radical and anti-establishment figures for various offences. The infamous Decree 2 remained in force in 1990 to facilitate acts of oppression.