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Ponder:
If Babangida had no involvement in Dele Giwa's murder, don't you think he would have testified publicly?

Flashback 1993
IBB Nullifies Elections
Nigerians Protest Sonekan
Shamed by Babangida
IBB's Annulment Speech

The Man, Ibrahim Babangida

Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, a.k.a, IBB, is popularly called Maradona by Nigerians for his special skill to dupe, cheat and divert, in the fashion of Argentina's soccer genius, Diego Maradona, who infamously cheated to earn victory over England in the 1986 World Cup. A self-described 'evil genius,' Babangida led Nigerians through a tortuous and deceptive political and economic transition that ended in a cul-de-sac. Perhaps because of his craftiness, it wasn't until the end of his military career that the dictator's ruthlessness and lust for power became obvious.

A Gwari muslim from the middle belt, he is believed to have been born August 17, 1941, at Minna, Niger State and attended Government College, Bida, from 1957 to 1962. There is no evidence he passed his School Certificate examination, as he did not receive his undisclosed results until three decades later in a publicized ceremony as the military head of state.

Babangida received his early military training at the Nigerian Military College, Kaduna and was commissioned into the Nigerian Army as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1963, just like many of his colleagues, some of whom could not demonstrate the measure of literacy expected of an officer.

He was given further military training at Nigeria's expense, which he paid back by way of incessant coup plots. Judging by his records, Babangida seemed more interested in politics than a professional military career, as he had been the face behind every military coup in Nigeria over a 30-year period. It is not a secret, and the BBC remarks, that Babangida had taken part in all coups in Nigeria. With his cohorts, he unleashed many years of needless bloodshed and power rotation that left Africa's highest grossing nation one of its poorest.

When the military returned to power December 30, 1983, IBB became the chief of army staff and member of the highest ruling military body, the Supreme Military Council, SMC. He served in that council too, in the Murtala Muhammed/Obasanjo administration. On August 27, 1985, the Muhammadu Buhari administration was toppled in a palace coup by Babangida, who understandably made himself Nigeria's first military President, an indication of his lust for political power. Babangida was Nigeria's sixth military ruler and inarguably the most powerful.

IBB has received numerous national and military decorations, most of which he awarded himself or received from his subordinates and beneficiaries. To his supporters, he is a god - because he showered them with material acquisitions, stolen from the national treasury. However, to most Nigerians, he remains a brutal dictator, very disliked, well shielded from justice and still powerful enought to have his way. Babangida knows it could be a fatal mistake for him to venture to the streets like every other citizen. He was almost linched in public before. Now he just hides in his vast mansion, and is hardly ever seen outside of it.

Married with four children, Babangida said his hobbies are reading (he has not written a book nor a newspaper article to date), listening to people and their problems (he has created more political and economic problems for Nigeria than any other military ruler), and sports.

As with most dictators, the evil genius was methodical, shrewd in power, flamboyant in style, and ruthless in response. His predecessor, Mohammadu Buhari was resolute, but Babangida would kill with any means available and weep at his enemy's funeral.

Deft and tactical, Babangida announced himself to power as a champion of human rights, but unleashed a spate of human rights abuses that was only matched by his savage successor, Sani Abacha. As he strategically spread his political tentacles, Maradona's first call was to release most of those jailed by Buhari, including the late music star, Fela Kuti. Nonetheless, Babangida brutally muffled opposition, frequently detaining labor leaders, students and human rights advocates.

Ibrahim Babangida has been indicted by the Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission led by the respected Justice Chukwudifu Oputa for the killing of Nigeria's top journalist, Mr. Dele Giwa, by a parcel bomb in 1986. Up till now, the killers of Dele Giwa have not been found, and efforts to probe Babangida's associates have been consistently blocked by him. The report noted: "On General Ibrahim Babangida, we are of the view that there is evidence to suggest that he and the two security chiefs, Brigadier General Halilu Akilu and Col. A. K. Togun are accountable for the death of Dele Giwa by letter bomb. We recommend that this case be re-open for further investigation in the public interest." Babangida has blocked that report from being released through the judicial system he helped to corrupt.

By the year Babangida was one year in power, he had begun to demonstrate his deceptive abilities. He had started a national debate on whether to accept an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan or embark on austerity measures. Thinking their leader was faithful, Nigerians favored the measures but soon found out that the structural adjustment program (SAP) was not being faithfully executed. While they were sacrificing, billions of dollars of Nigeria's money was being pocketed by Babangida and his followers, such that under SAP, unemployment numbers, food prices, and cost of living soared. While Ghana and Uganda werr making gains under SAP, Nigeria was going under, until Nigerians responded in a riot 1989 to which the dictator responded by first killing hundreds of protesters, then issuing palliative measures. A World Bank report issued in 1995 fully documented how grand theft under Babangida's regime nullified the gains of SAP.

His government implemented a myriad of failed programs, which only helped to divert attention and fritter scarce national resources. Such programs include the People's Bank, Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI), National Directorate of Employment (NDE), and Better Life for Rural Women. All these programs are dead today.

Among his other deceptive ways, Babangida replaced his deputy, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe with Rear Admiral Augustus Aikhomu. The former was headstrong and confident, while the later was largely a yes-man. He executed dramatic changes in public administration, ensuring that strategic military and ministerial positions were held by Muslims from his region. The ministries of external affairs, petroleum resources, internal affairs and agriculture, considered the most powerful cabinet posts, were held by northern Muslims while he reserved the position of the minister of defense for himself.

Babangida introduced measures considered to favor Muslims and threaten the secularity of Nigeria. Under his watch, Nigeria became a member of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), an action so controversial that it was linked to the ouster of Ebitu Ukiwe.

As things got worse, a band of top officers, including Babangida's colleague and best man at his wedding, General Mamman Vatsa, allegedly planned to remove him. They were all captured and killed. Nigeria continued in spiral fall until April 22, 1990, when a brave junior officer, Major Gideon Orkar, almost toppled the Babangida regime. The official residence of the head of state, the Dodan Barracks, was razed. Babangida escaped by a slim stroke of luck. Significantly, Nigerian civilians were, for the first time, involved in a coup attempt, a development the dictator responded to by quickly moving the seat of power from the heavily populated southern port city of Lagos to previously abandoned national capital city of Abuja, just a about an hour's drive from his hometown.

Babangida held on to power with a single promise: to lead Nigeria back to democracy. Trusting and hopeful, Nigerians were carried along until 1992, when his abrupt cancellation of a political process led to mass suspicion about his true intentions. At this point, the term "Hidden Agenda" was coined by the late lawyer, Alao Aka Bashorun, who declared that Babangida was attempting to succeed himself. Bashorun seemed to have provided light in a dark tunnel as Nigerians, who began to place the evil genius' programs under the microscope.

The outcry that followed the cancellation of presidential primaries about to be won by the late General Shehu Yar'Adua led Babangida to hurriedly, without much of his usual planning, move the political transition process at such a pace that caused a generally accepted candidate, billionaire philanthropist, M.K.O Abiola, to be elected as president in Nigeria's most peaceful and acceptable election. Confused and dazed, IBB annulled that election and unleashed a national outrage that led to his downfall. Hundreds of Nigerians were killed by soldiers acting under the directives of Babangida and his beneficiaries, as the citizens fought for the mandate given to Abiola.

Eventually, it dawned on Maradona, his game was up. He was forced to vacate his beloved presidential seat, but not before he planted his equally ruthless but mentally deprived lieutenant, Sani Abacha to guide a lame civilian caretaker administration of Ernest Shonekan. It surprised no one that Abacha sent Shonekan packing in less than three months, and continued the legacy of his former boss.

The hand of God played Abacha out, as he died mysteriously in power. Strangely, other leaders, including Abiola and General Tunde Idiagbon died in the same manner, all in Abuja, within months. Babangida's crony and kinsman, Abubakar Abdulsalam, became the Head of State overnight. The stage was set for for Babangida's return to the limelight, as he quickly arranged for former military ruler Olusegun Obasanjo to assume power as civilian president. Obasanjo was the guinea pig for Babangida's experimentation to see if Nigerians would accept a former military ruler as civilian president.

Nigerians said responded favorably to Babangida experiment. Having accepted Obasanjo, also a former soldier, the evil genius decided it was time to return to power. He sent his beneficiaries to the field to buy back his lost political power with his vast wealth, stolen from Nigerians to make Nigerians serve him.