General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida will be 80 on Tuesday August 17. He is the second longest Military ruler in Nigeria, the first being General Yakubu Gowon, who ruled Nigeria from 1 August 1966 to 29 July 1975.
Babangida ruled Nigeria from 27 August 1985-26 August 1993. His classmates at Government College Bida were General Abdusalam Abubakar, General Mohammed Mamman Magoro, Major General Mamman Jiya Vatsa, Major General Muhammed Gado Nasko, Major General Garba Duba, Mr. Paul Babale, Aliyu Makama, Ibrahim Sanda, Abdulmaliki Ndayako, Mohammed Bello Ndayako, Abdulrahim Dangana and Alhaji Alhassan Bisallat.
Till today, historians still debate his role in the project called Nigeria. One cannot be neutral when discussing General Babangida; you either like him passionately or dislike him passionately. At the time the General took over power, one fifth, if not one-third of Nigerians of today, were not born. Maybe a chronology of what he did may help define the man to the present generation of Nigerians.
He made major decisions that will remain indelible landmarks; for good or for ill, depending on who is rating him. In July 1986, he introduced the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) and on September 29, 1986, the second-tier foreign exchange market took off. He moved the seat of government from Lagos to Abuja on December 12, 1991. He completed and commissioned the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos on August 17, 1991; it was by then the longest bridge in Africa.
On March 15, 1988, he launched the new population policy of one woman, four children, to check the problem of over population in the country. On September 9, 1987, he created Akwa-Ibom and Katsina states.
On August 27, 1991, he created Abia, Anambra, Delta, Jigawa, Kebbi, Kogi, Osun, Yobe and Taraba states. He then created forty-seven new local governments on that day. On September 23 1991, he created additional eighty-nine local governments.
Another land mark took place on December 14, 1991 when he held governorship elections with the National Republican Convention winning 16 while SDP won 14 seats. On January 2, 1992, the democratically elected governors were sworn in and with their deputies.
They were Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu and Clement Nwankwo(Abia), Alhaji Sale Michika and Mr. Lynn Nathan(Adamawa), Obong Akpan Isemin and Etim Okpoyo (Akwa Ibom), Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife and Dr. Chidi Mwike (Anambra), Alhaji Dahiru Mohammed and Alhaji Umaru Ahmed (Bauchi), Reverend Father Moses Adasu and Yakubu Agada (Benue), Alhaji Maji Lawan and Alhaji Hassan (Borno), Clement Ebri and Cecilia Ekpeyong (Cross River), Felix Ibru and Samson Ebonka (Delta), John Odigie Oyegun and Reverend Peter Obada (Edo), Okwesilieze Nwodo and Dr. Icha Ituma (Enugu).
Others were Evans Enwerem and Dr. Douglas Acholonu (Imo), Alhaji A.S. Birnin kudu and Alhaji Shehu Kwafalo (Jigawa), Alhaji Muhammed Lere and James Mugaji (Kaduna), Alhaji Kabiru Gaya and Alhaji Ahmed Usman (Kano), Alhaji Saidu Barde and Alhaji Abdullahi Amidu (Katsina), Alhaji Shaaba Lafiaji and Prince Ojo Fadumila (Kwara), Alhaji Abubakar Musa and Alhaji Aliyu Mohammed(Kebbi), Alhaji Abubakar Audu and S. Ola Akande(Kogi), Chief Michael Otedola and Alhaji Sinatu Ojikutu (Lagos).
The rest were Dr. Musa Inuwa and Alhaji Jibo Garba (Niger), Chief Olusegun Osoba the Aremo and Alhaji Rafiu Ogunleye (Ogun), Chief Bamidele Olumilua and Dr Olusegun Agagu (Ondo), Alhaji Isiaka Adeleke and Clement Adesuyi Haastrup (Osun), Kolapo Ishola and Alhaji Ahmed Gbadamosi (Oyo), Fidelis Tapgun and Alhaji Bala Usman (Plateau), Rufus Ada-George and Dr. Peter Odili (Rivers), Alhaji Yahaya Abdulkarim and Alhaji Ahmed Gusau (Sokoto), Reverend Jolly Nyame and Alhaji S.D. Gani (Taraba) and Alhaji Abba Ibrahim and Alhaji Goni Bura (Yobe).
Similarly, on July 4, 1992, elections were held into the two houses of the National Assembly; NRC won thirty-seven Senate seats and two hundred and seventy five seats in the House of Representatives while SDP won 52 Senate seats and 314 seats in the House of Representatives.
Surprisingly, the transition to full blown democracy was punctuated on June 23, 1993 when General Babangida annulled the Presidential election held on June 12 of that year. It was the last act that turned out to be tragic both for General Babangida and the country. That annulment, notwithstanding his modest contribution to democracy and good governance, remains his albatross till date. His first price for that act was his “stepping aside” on 26 August 1993 following a deluge of pressures from Nigerians.
As would be expected, many scholars, writers and commentators have implied that many of Nigeria’s problems worsened by that annulment. The old hostile exaggeration still persists till today. Hostile exaggeration can make true perspective much difficult for the living.
However, there are those who plead that as a developing nation, Nigerians should see the ugly development as part of the learning process and forge ahead irrespective of the scar it might have created twenty eight years after and let the bygone be bygone. Those who think along this line insist that to judge a man by one sensitive act in his eight-year tenure is harsh, unfair, inapt, discordant, hypocritical and sanctimonious. Some even argue that the annulment, as hard to believe as it has been, is not worse than the current insecurity and splits in our social, tribal and religious fabrics of today where inadequacies and inequalities have become paramount in our nation life.
Besides, a look at the number of those the General affected across the country attests to Babangida’s handshake across the Niger. Fifty three ministers served under his regime. They include; Alhaji Ibrahim Zakaw, Professor Tam David-West, Major-General Jiya Vatsa, Brigadier Jeremiah Timbut Useni, Alhaji Abubakar Umar, Lt-Colonel Anthony Ukpo, Senas Ukpanah, Air Vice- Marshal Ishaya Aboi Shekari, Professor Sam Oyovbaire and Dr. Tunji Olagunju.
Others were Air Vice-Marshal Anthony Okpere, Dr. Chu Okongwu, Major-General Ike Omar Sanda Nwachukwu, Major-General Muhammadu Gado Nasko, Dr. Shetima Mustapha, Alhaji Bunu Sheriff Musa, Prince Tony Momoh, Alhaji Ismaila Mamman, Major-General Abdullahi Bagudu Mamman, Alhaji Lawal Mala, Brigadier David Bonavontoure Mark, Alhaji Rilwanu Lukman, Air Commodore Adebayo Hammed Lawal, and Professor Olikoye Ransome-Kuti among others.
The rest include Major-General Yohanna Yerima Kure, Rear Admiral Koshoni, Major-General Mamman Tsofo Kontagora, Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu, Air Vice-Marshal Nuradeen Mohammed Imam, Air Commodore Anthony Ikhazobor, Olawale Ige, Zakari Ibrahim, Alhaji Abubakar Hashidu, Air Commodore Lamba Deng Gwom, T.O. Graham Douglas, Olu Falae, Professor Babatunde Fafunwa, Eyoma Ita Eyoma, Professor Emmanuel Emovon and Professor Gordian Ezekwe among others.
These and many more beneficiaries of his large heart are part of horde of loyalists who till today would fight and possibly die for General Babaginda.
A look at some of the Decrees he promulgated during his tenure indicate that most of the agencies and parastatals in Nigeria of today are a handiwork of the ‘Evil Genius’. They include the Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure Decree 4 (1988); Medical and Dental Practitioners Decree 23; Securities and Exchange Commission Decree 29; National Primary Education Commission Decree 31; Federal Road Safety Corps Decree 45; the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council Decree 53; National Economic Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND) Decree 2; Counterfeit and Fake Drugs (Miscellaneous Provisions) Decree 17.
He also promulgated the National Population Commission Decree 23; National Directorate of Employment Decree 24; National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Decree 48; Agriculture and Agro-Allied-Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructures Decree 4 1987; National Centre for Agricultural Mechanisation Decree 35 1992; Federal Universities of Agriculture Decree 48 1992; National Agricultural Seeds Decree 72 1992
The others are the Fertiliser Control, Decree 90 1992; National Agricultural Land Development Authority Decree 92 1992; National Primary Education Commission etc. Decree 31 1988; Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council Decree 53 1988; Advertising Practitioners (Registration etc.) Decree 55 1988; National Commission for Nomadic Education, Decree 1989; National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-formal Education Decree 17 1990; Federal School of Surveying Decree 19 1990; Nigerian Civil Aviation Training Centre (Change of Name) Decree 42 1990; and School Year (Variation) Decree 27 1991.
The rest are the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructures, Decree 33, 1992, Federal Universities of Agriculture, Decree 48, 1992, Medical and Dental Practitioners Decree 23, 1988, Counterfeit and Fake Drugs (Miscellaneous Provisions Decree 17, 1989, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Decree 48, 1989, Children Trust Fund Decree 30, 1990 Marketing (Breast Milk Substitutes) Decree 41, 1990 and the Tobacco Smoking (Control) Decree 20, 1990, National Economic Emergency Powers Decree 1985, Second-Tier Foreign Exchange Market, SFEM, Decree,1986, Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) Decree 39 1987.
For his vivacity and predilection to surprises during his military regime, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, indeed may have lived up to his name: Maradona. The ‘Evil’ in the ‘Genius’ was however attached to his nomenclature by the media for yielding to pressure in the annulment of a popular mandate given to the late Chief MKO Abiola by Nigerians. And that is the IBB albatross.