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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
Insight
How Babangida Fooled Nigerians for eight years
Babangida's Brutal Crushing of SAP Riots
By WhirledBank.org
Not dated
Structural Adjustment Policies are economic policies which countries must follow in order to qualify for new World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans and help them make debt repayments on the older debts owed to commercial banks, governments and the World Bank.
SAPs generally require countries to devalue their currencies against the dollar; lift import and export restrictions; balance their budgets and not overspend; and remove price controls and state subsidies. Devaluation makes their goods cheaper for foreigners to buy and theoretically makes foreign imports more expensive. In principle it should make the country wary of buying expensive foreign equipment. In practice, however, the IMF actually disrupts this by rewarding the country with a large foreign currency loan that encourages it to purchase imports.
Many governments reacted differently to public disapproval of the policy. In Nigeria, Ibrahim Babangida brutal crushed the demonstrations which resulted from SAP at various times. Here is his report card:
May 1986 About twenty students and bystanders at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in Zaria massacred by security forces after staging peaceful protests over impending introduction of SAP. More students killed in protests against SAP and the ABU massacre during the following days at Kaduna Polytechnic, the University of Benin and the University of Lagos.
April 1988 Students demonstrate at 33 universities against fuel price increase demanded by IMF-inspired SAP.
May-June 1989 Dozens of people killed and hundreds arrested in riots and strikes against SAP in Lagos, Benin City and Port Harcourt. Government forced to offer a welfare program called a "SAP Relief Package," the establishment of a mass transit scheme and a “People's Bank,” and a review of the minimum wage.
March-May 1990 Students and faculty on campuses nationwide protest government's decision to accept a $150 million university restructuring loan from the World Bank, especially conditions requiring closure of many departments and programs. Military government stages armed assaults and hundreds of arrests, with hundreds more expelled from university system.
May 1992 Students at Universities of Ibadan and Lagos protest against implementation of Structural Adjustment Program, which they accused of being responsible for the deterioration of campus facilities and education programs as well as doubling of transport prices. Police respond by shooting at the demonstrators, wounding at least five students. Battles between young anti-government demonstrators and riot police in Lagos leave at least three dead and hundreds injured. The IMF and World Bank made the removal of subsidies and probable increase of the price of gasoline the main imperative in its negotiations with the Nigerian government.
Read more about the report at: WhirledBank.org