By Akintokunbo A Adejumo, London, UK.

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It was General Buhari another past dictator that first blew the whistle on IBB when the imitable governor of Abia,gov.Orji Kalu  was trying to reconcile the warring ‘friends’. He accused the evil genius of keeping mute about the vexed 3rd term and challenged him to tell the world where he stands on the issue. The answer was predictable; IBB kept more quite on the issue at least to the keen watchers of events in Nigeria. Obviously he was saying that he has avenues to get to the presidency on matters he wanted to discuss privately. He has however forgotten that most notable Nigerians that have either voiced their anger against or support for the 3rd term equally had their avenues to get to OBJ privately. Infact most them would have done that before going to the public when they realised that OBJ is hell bent on ruining Nigeria.

There is a popular saying that those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad. This saying holds true for General (rtd) Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (IBB), Nigeria’s military president from 1985 to 1993. Babangida’s latest ranting is that of a deeply troubled man. I agree with Okey Ndibe ("Census, IBB, Taylor and other failures", The Guardian 30/3/06) that the journalists who interviewed Babangida recently did a "disservice to their professional mettle" by asking "soft" questions. That interview was contrived at best. But even at that, there was nothing coherent in what IBB had to say. He evaded questions and blamed everybody but himself for the problems in Nigeria.

That General Ibrahim Babangida is a tactical politician who knows how to draw maximum advantage from a situation is never in doubt. And so last weekend when THISDAY and a few other newspapers published the interview in which the Minna-based General spoke a little more candidly about his presidential ambition, the 3rd term campaign, and a few other national issues, I knew he had only acted true to character.

AT the time of Nigeria's independence in the early 1960s, Nigeria was at par with Indonesia, Malaysia and South Korea in terms of level of development/underdevelopment. Malaysia bought one million palm oil seedlings from Nigeria and today Nigeria imports palm oil from Malaysia and heavy equipment from South Korea and Malaysia. How come? The reason is not far-fetched. While these three countries were carrying out far-reaching socio-economic cum political restructuring and combating corruption, Nigeria, which has had 30 years of military rule and 15 years of civilian rule, was rapidly sliding into the abyss of corruption and indiscipline.