By Eteteonline
The making of a general
Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida was born in Minna capital of Niger State August 17, 1941. His father was late Mallam Mohammed Badamosi Babangida, a renowned Islamic Scholar. His mother was Aisha Babangida. However, he spent a good part of his early life with his uncle because he lost his parents. In an exclusive interview with Radio Niger, Babangida explained that his boyhood days were normal like those of other children of his time. He grew up normally, lived normally, and could remember vividly his colleagues from that time.
The picture painted by his childhood days shows that he was born into a simple but disciplined home. He was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but by dint of hard work, patience, and determination to turn adverse conditions into positive, favorable, and fruitful ones. He was able to break through natural and man-made barriers and has today emerged as a symbol of peace, unity, and stability of a great Nation.
A young Gwari, Babangida, enrolled in a primary school in Minna, where he received Islamic education between 1950 and 1956. Thereafter, he proceeded to Government College, Bida, for his secondary education from 1957 to 1962. enrolled in the Nigerian Army in December 1962, following the successful completion of his secondary education. He was trained at the Nigerian Military Training College, Zaria, Kaduna, and graduated in 1963. This marked the beginning of a military career spanning over three decades, which produced a great soldier and dynamic statesman.
He traveled to India, where he attended the Indian Military Academy and graduated in 1964. As a young officer, he received training at the Royal Armoured Centre in England, the United Kingdom, from 1966 to 1967. Babangida also participated in a training programme at the Army Armour School in the United States in 1972. He attended courses at the Command and Staff College (1977) and the Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (1979-1980). Babangida acquired a wide range of lessons and experience in various aspects of military training and rose through the ranks to become a full general in the Nigerian Army. In the course of his career, he served in different capacities, from Commanding Officer to Chief of Army Staff.
General Babangida is reputed to be a very efficient and dynamic soldier. A soldier with great courage and bravery, who has made an excellent career and an indelible name for himself in the Nigerian Army. Babangida’s performance during the Nigerian Civil War, 1967-1970, has been widely acclaimed. This has underscored his strong belief in the unity of Nigeria, a firm belief he holds till today. During the war, Babangida had served with General T.Y. Danjuma and was always relied upon during times of crisis.
He was instrumental in the foiling of the abortive coup of February 13, 1976. The coup was effectively crushed when Babangida, then Colonel and commanding the Recce Squadron, marched on the plotters. Recalling the events of the coup attempt, Lindsay Barret, in the book “Danjuma: The making of a General,” has this to say of Babangida.
“As soon as he (General Danjuma) heard the announcement, he sent for then Col. Ibrahim Babangida. Ibrahim Babangida and Brigadier Bali were two particularly efficient officers who had both served with General Danjuma during the war.
“On that morning, they were suddenly thrust back into a war situation and took their order from him and carried them out once more with the precision and flair that had marked their wartime victories.”
Colonel Babangida left and thereafter returned fully equipped. Of course, what happened to the coup plotters is now obvious. Such were the attributes and dynamism of a fine general. The history of this great nation will never be complete without the stories and contributions of General Babangida. He is said to have participated in most coups in Nigeria, either in support of the coup or in suppressing the attempt.
In 1984, following the successful coup that ousted the Second Republic, Major-General Babangida became the Chief of Army Staff. When he was in office, the Army received substantial support, culminating in great improvement in its services and quality of work. In the words of the President Babangida, when he granted an interview to Giant strides in 1987:
“The major challenge during my tenure as Chief of Staff was to make the Army highly proficient professionally; to improve its professional outlook and develop it into a highly mobile force while also making it more relevant and responsive to the needs and aspirations of the society; There was the need to reorganize the army, retrain it; indeed, make it what everybody wants.”
On August 27, 1985, consequent upon the coup that ousted the Muhammadu Buhari regime, Major-General Ibrahim Babangida, as he was then, proclaimed himself President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In 1987, President Babangida was promoted to the rank of General.
President Babangida blamed the previous government for the failure of the promises made to Nigerians by the Second Republic civilian administration. The overwhelming reception that Nigerians accorded the Buhari administration had been betrayed. In his maiden address to the nation on August 27, 1985, he said:
“Since January 1984, however, we have witnessed systematic denigration of that hope.
“It was stated then that mismanagement of the economy, lack of public accountability, insensitivity of the political class, and deterioration in the standard of living, which had subjected the common man to intolerable suffering, were reasons for intervention.
“Nigerians have since then been under a regime that continued with those trends.
“Events of today indicated that most of the reasons that justified the takeover of government from the civilians persist.”
He stated further events and circumstances that brought about the change of leadership at that time.
“Let me, at this point, attempt to make you understand the premise upon which it became necessary to change the leadership.
“The principles of discussions, consultations, and cooperation, which should have guided the decision-making process of the Supreme Military Council and the Federal Executive Council, were disregarded soon after the government settled down in 1984.
“When some of us thought it appropriate to give a little more time and anticipated that a conducive atmosphere would develop in which affairs of state could be attended to with a great sense of responsibility, it became increasingly clear that such expectations could not be fulfilled.
“Regrettably. It turned out that Major-General Muhammadu Buhari was too rigid and uncompromising in his attitudes to issues of national significance.
“Efforts to make him understand that a diverse polity like Nigeria requires recognition and appreciation of differences in both cultural and individual perception only served to aggravate these attitudes.”
One major characteristic of the Babangida Administration upon coming to power was its desire to break with the previous arrangements and structure of government. For the first time, the office of the president was introduced as distinguished from past military rulers, who were referred to as the Head of State. The traditional ruling council, from 1966, namely the Supreme Military Council (SMC), was scrapped under the Babangida Administration. It was replaced by the Armed Forces Ruling Council (APRC). The Office of the Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, which was next in command and authority to that of the head of state under the old structure, was replaced by the Chief of General Staff (CGS). A completely new addition or innovation was the creation of the office of the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff. This office was later abandoned for another office known as the Chief of Defence Staff, which was also held by the Minister or Secretary of Defence.
Report card of the Second Republic
The Second Republic democratic government was seen as the last hope of the people to find good leadership. The administration, however, failed in areas of good, qualitative, and dynamic leadership. As a matter of grave disappointment, the Second Republic politicians did not live up to the expectations, hopes, and aspirations of the people. There was massive corruption. Bribery and embezzlement were commonplace phenomena. Nobody was accountable to anybody. Some politicians who, before taking office, could not even afford bicycles, were going about on fleets of expensive and luxurious cars. The powerful and influential ones among them traveled on private jets and acquired property all over Europe and America.
A Minister of government imported sand into Nigeria in bags designated to contain rice and stacked away the hard currency meant for the rice somewhere in Europe. The politicians of the Second Republic threw big, lavish, and extravagant parties both at home and abroad, and those who cared went for more wives and mistresses. The politicians of the time lived a flamboyant life and impressed the whole world with their wealth. Hard currency was recklessly spent to import all sorts of things, including beer, champagne, and even water.
The average politician had lost touch with the ordinary Nigerian and lost sight of the plights and misery in which he was living. He had forgotten completely about the common man who voted him into power and surrounded himself with sycophants, friends, relations, and acquaintances who became the beneficiaries of jobs, contracts, and other corrupt practices in government. Nepotism, ethnic allegiance, and sentiments replaced national consciousness and patriotic tendencies.
Huge public borrowing and debt accumulation were the other characteristics of the Second Republic government. It was believed that the civilian government inherited a reserve of about eight billion dollars from the Obasanjo regime. The treasury was soon looted and emptied, and the nation went begging and borrowing. Inflated contracts were awarded, and the excess sums were shared between the contractors and the politicians. Companies that made donations to the political parties during their campaigns benefited from inflated contracts. In most cases, the work was never commenced or was abandoned after the collection of mobilization fees.
All these happened in the midst of abject poverty and penury among the citizens Government at the federal and state levels became bankrupt and could no longer meet their basic obligations to the populace in the area of amenities and social services. Salaries and wages of Civil servants were not paid for about six months.
Acts of indiscipline and moral decadence were the order of the day. Young men took to crime as the only way out, while young women resorted to immoral and indecent ways of making money. Unemployment was never an issue for government officials and politicians who were busy fighting over posts and contracts.
In his maiden address to the nation on January I 1984, General Muhammadu said of the Second Republic leadership:
“It is true that there is a worldwide economic recession.
“However, in the case of Nigeria, its impact was aggravated by mismanagement. We believe that appropriate government agencies gave good advice, but their advice was disregarded by the leadership. “The situation would have been saved if the legislators were alive to their constitutional responsibilities.
“Instead, the legislators were preoccupied with determining their salary scales, fringe benefits, and unnecessary foreign travels, etc., which took no account of the state of the economy and the welfare of the people they represented.
“As a result of our inability to cultivate financial discipline and prudent management of the economy, we have come to depend largely on internal and external borrowing to execute government projects with attendant domestic pressures and soaring external debts, thus aggravating the propriety of the outgoing civilian administration to mismanage our financial resources. Nigeria was already condemned to live perpetually with the twin problems of heavy budget deficits and weak balance of payments position, with the prospect of building a virile and viable economy.”
Despite the bad performance and inherent corruption of the Second Republic government during its first term in office, it rigged elections to stay for a second term. Nigerians completely lost confidence in the ballot box; security personnel and electoral officers aided fraud during the elections. Money changed hands freely, and ballot boxes were replaced on their way from polling stations to collation centers with boxes containing already thumb-printed ballot papers.
The election results and figures were openly altered with impunity. In favour of some candidates. The consequences were factionalism, random killings, arson, and wanton destruction of property, among other vices. The military takeover of December 31, 1983, was therefore seen as timely and inevitable and most heartily welcomed. That had been Nigeria’s experience in the practice of democracy since the return to civil rule in 1979. A bitter one indeed!
General Buhari also referred to the conduct of the 1983 elections in his address:
“The last general elections were anything but free and fair.
“The only political parties that could complain of election rigging are those parties that lacked the resources to rig. There is ample evidence that rigging and thuggery were related to the resources available to the parties!
“This conclusively proved to us that the parties have not developed confidence in the presidential system of government, on which the nation invested so many material resources.”
In an address to the elected members of the National Assembly in 1992, President Babangida said, “The profligacy of the Second Republic is now common knowledge. Funds were borrowed heavily from outside and expended, not substantially on profitable ventures, but more on conspicuous consumption and prestige projects or sometimes just siphoned out of the country.”
In an article in the Guardian Newspaper of June 5, 1993:13, the writer had this to say of the Second Republic:
“We had problems with our balance of payments, and our industries were folding up. The change of fortune had, in fact, forced the country to enter into a barter arrangement with such a notorious debtor nation as Brazil, reputed to be the greatest debtor nation in the world.
“This was a situation that touched on the soul of General Babangida. Bumming with zeal, therefore, he had proclaimed himself a Military President and armed himself with the papers necessary to save the economy from bad government, corruption, and absence of public accountability.”
These were the antecedents that ushered in the regime of General Ibrahim Babangida. According to him, his government was determined to create “a new social and economic order based on peace, stability, harmony, and equitable distribution of our nation’s resources and opportunities.”
As President Babangida told Giant strides in 1987, “My colleagues and I are determined to change the course of history. It is our determination to break the vicious cycle of hope and despair, faith and doubt, affluence and poverty, stability and chaos which characterized past administrations.”
Since that declaration, he had been relentless, tireless, and sleepless in bringing about the realization of this promise. His Administration had been working very hard silently and had refused to blow any trumpet about its achievements. According to Mr. President, “Let Nigerians and posterity be the judge.” That was what some Nigerians called ‘a silent revolution’. It cuts across domestic and foreign policies. In going about this great task, the president has been bold and tactful yet open and simple.
The process of change started with the openness of the administration, repeal, amendment, or review of obnoxious legislation, lifting of the ban on some associations, initiation of the democratization process, and the participation of the general public in deciding important national questions.
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