By Eteteonline
Babangida’s valedictory address
In his Valedictory address on August 26, 1993, General Babangida reiterated the factors that brought him to power:
“When some of us in the military took over the reins of power from our predecessors, we were inspired by patriotic zeal, the belief in the greatness of our country given her enormous and abundant natural resources, her hard-working, enterprising, and highly motivated populace, and the past sacrifices of those who had laboured so hard that we may remain united.”
The past eight years have witnessed great development and set Nigeria on the path to genuine economic self-reliance. As General Babangida put it:
“No one can deny the tremendous rural developmental efforts and the rapid transformation of our rural communities through the provision of basic infrastructures like water, light, roads, and primary health care, as well as manifest empowerment of our women in general and the rural ones in particular.”
The outgone president acknowledged that the economic objectives might not have been fully achieved: “But we started; we tried and we took off. It is now left to our successors to build on our foundation.”
On the political front, General Babangida debunked speculations that his administration was unwilling to hand over power;
“As critical transformers of our society motivated by messianic vision of our responsibilities, we may have given cause to our critics to confuse our commitment to seeing our programmes succeed and endure with unwillingness to hand over the reins of power. Even in the face of recent difficulties, our faith in the democratic process has not been shaken”.
He defended the gradual approach to the transition programme: “We wanted to create a grassroots democratic process to cut out absentee landlord politicians who live in the cities and visit the villages only during electoral periods.”
He stated that democracy meant more than just casting votes:
“Democracy involves the creation and establishment of appropriate institutions and culture to moderate and absorb the shocks of the democratic experiment, especially in the formative and fragile phases.
“Democracy also means the establishment of values of conflict resolution; our ability to resolve past and present conflicts by ourselves demonstrates clearly that our skills in democratic maturity are on the ascendant.”
On the June 12 election and the divisive tendencies that were surfacing, General Babangida stated that:
“Nigerians everywhere, individually and severally, have chosen to remain one people under GOD. We are determined not to let temporary setbacks upset the building blocks of unity set by our past heroes.”
He then called for support for the Interim National Government because the arrangement “represents a delicate balance between contending forces of ‘extremist persuasions’”.
Finally, General Babangida made an emotional and very heartfelt part of his address, which had touched the souls of many Nigerians:
“Fellow Nigerians, administrations come and administrations go; our Nigeria remains. For eight years, I have had the onerous responsibility of steering the ship of state of this great country through perilous waters of conflict, vicious criticisms, propaganda, and unbelief in our great mission. The challenges have been enormous, sometimes daunting, but through it all, we have kept faith with the Nigerian people. We have considered no sacrifice too great, no injury too grievous, and no personal comfort too important to subordinate to the needs of our great nation. We have not shied away from any controversy because we firmly believe that out of the debates, discussions, and consensus arrived at such moments, we can better determine that path of greatness for our country. In all our actions, we have placed national unity, social integration, stability, economic self-reliance, and, above all, democratization of our nation over and above any personal conveniences.”
“In all these, we have been inspired by the notion that what we do for our country is vastly more important than what we get from it. Our achievements may not measure up to our dreams, but no one can fault our resolve and determination to achieve the goals we set for our nation. Through the twists and turns of fortune, we now find ourselves on the threshold of a new era for our country. You can rest assured that, whether as your President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, or as a private citizen, I will consider no contribution too great for the progress and survival of Nigeria as a united, strong, and prosperous country.”
“May the Almighty Allah bless you all. May we continue to be inspired by the sacrifice of our fathers towards building a nation blessed with democratic traditions and institutions, and based on the demands of our society.
“May Allah continue to bless you and to bless Nigeria.”
The address marked the exit of General Ibrahim Babangida after 31 years of meritorious service in the Nigerian Army and eight years of dynamic statesmanship as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He returned to Minna, Niger State, on August 27, 1993, to a memorable welcome.
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