“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but
there must never be a time when we fail to protest” – Elie Wiesel
Common Sense should have told Ibrahim Babangida, head of the illegal
Military junta that ruled Nigeria 1985-1993, that his current
image-laundering exercise in the guise of Presidential Contest is no
solution to his problem with Nigerians. By declaring candidacy and then
withdrawing later from contest like he did in 2007, his goodwill account
with the good people of Nigeria goes deeper into deficit. The man
shamelessly lacks integrity.
Irrespective of the reason concocted, it is obvious that withdrawal is
to avert imminent disgrace of electoral loss. In a similar situation in
2007, he claimed his love for YarAdua family was reason for withdrawal.
His withdrawal this time around will not inure to the benefit of anybody
nor can his millions help win for any candidate. Withdrawal can only
confirm that at 70, Ibrahim Babangida is still into childish games. Like
the proverbial old dog he has failed to change from his traditional
pathways of lies, deception, duplicity and fraud. Going ahead to contest
will result in even greater disgrace and public ridicule. But Nigerians
know that Ibrahim Babangida does not mind any disgrace provided
Muhammadu Buhari is in the same league. His remaining goal in life is to
prevent the emergence of a Buhari presidency, if need be by force.
Babangida hates Buhari with venom.
The stains on his character remains so indelible in the hearts of
patriotic Nigerians that even if today he assures solution to the
numerous problems of the Country, he still stands rejected. The stance
of the majority (including fellow soldiers retired and serving) is that
Ibrahim Babangida must pay one way or other for atrocities committed
during his eight – year fascist rule (1985-1993) loot must be recovered
and justice must take its course.
His short sighted answer is the commencement of massive investment of
stolen funds in alteration of historical facts and laundering of image.
Website entries concerning him and his rule have been doctored,
journalists and editors bribed, ghost-writers commissioned, politicians
sponsored for elections as Governors, House and Senate Members. His
crusade for a Northern Presidency is not for the love of North or
support for zoning but for his personal ambition to rule again. His
hatchet jobbers have tried to portray Sanni Abacha and Olusegun Obasanjo
as the only wicked Dictators Nigeria had. The blemish nevertheless
remains. Babangida owes Nigerians an apology, he owes Nigeria loot and
he owes Nigerians justice. Arrogance prevents apologies. (Apology is too
late anyway) Loot will be recovered (or what remains of it) and justice
must be done.
Babangida makes his case worse by claiming that the Military compelled
him to annul the 1993 Presidential Election or that the Nigerian
Military betrayed him. Babangida twists and launders facts!
All that is pre-mature. It is public knowledge that Sanni Abacha helped
Nigeria kick Babangida out of office when he refused to quit in 1993
after successfully conducting Presidential Election.
It is unpatriotic to tinker with the destiny of Millions of suffering
Nigerians by pretending to contest when in reality you are only engaging
in image laundering. His uncanniness in using loot to fraustrate
Buhari’s Presidential ambition is sickening. Babangida is a sadist. But
not all Nigerian Military generals are like that. Stopping Buhari from
getting adopted as the sole Northern Candidate will not make the crimes
of Babangida’s cruel dictatorship vanish. There are too many Buharis in
the Polity. Many were eliminated, many are dead but most are alive! They
are witnesses (and victims) of the waste, desolation and pain Babangida
inflicted on Nigerians which he now pretends to have forgotten.
Contesting Election (win or loose) is a different matter from
accountability for past misdeeds. It pays Babangida to rub insult upon
injury by demanding Presidency again in FULL KNOWLEDGE that it will not
be given; to assert fundamental right you have denied others; to
blackmail and hold the entire democratic transition to ransom just to
extort amnesty; or to just have a kick from creating a “rumble in the
jungle” but when all is said and done, the debt to Nigeria remains
unpaid. The Presidency is not Nigeria. When the time comes, neither the
Presidency nor the Courts will stand in the way of retributive justice.
Babangida is holed up in an endless but fruitless effort at historical
revisionism. Time may blur recollections and facts may be twisted here
and there with massive paid propaganda but the current impoverished
state and suffering of Nigerians is everlasting evidence against Ibrahim
Babangida in the Court of Retributive justice. Public opinion may also
waver but the Creditor knows his Debtor and as long as both are alive,
the massive looting, rape and desolation of the Nigerian Masses must be
avenged one way or other. Nemesis is traveling jet speed. Sooner than
later Babangida the Candidate or Babangida the fugitive will receive a
visitation.
