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Babangida
And The Burden Of History
By
Sunny Awhefeada
culled from GUARDIAN, October 3,
2006
I can not now remember when my
love for history was born. But I remember vividly how I was an avid reader
of Social Studies and History books even as a primary school pupil. As I
grew up, climbing the ladder of formal education my love for History
blossomed. And now as an adult, old enough to interrogate life and its
manifold oddities History holds a great fascination for me. As a student and
teacher of literature I have come to appreciate history not as a mere
assemblage of past events but as a humanising enterprise.
My bond with History became
sacrosanct after reading Chinua Achebe's political novel Anthills of the
Savannah where the famed novelist proclaims "recalling is greatest" and
goes on to reify History thus: "It is the story ... that saves our
progeny from blundering like blind beggars into the spikes of the cactus
fence. The story is our escort; without it we are blind. Does the blind
man own his escort? No, neither do we the story; rather it is the story
that owns us and directs us. It is the thing that makes us different
from cattle; ..." I think that Achebe's thesis on History holds a
universal veracity. History is the torch that illuminates humanity's
path in its everforward sojourn. This sounds paradoxical but it is an
affirmation that our past begets our future.
Nigeria is once more at a
critical crossroads and only a critical sense of her history, our
chequered and beleaguered past can show us the right way we should
go. The nation is less than 10 months away from the general
elections that will mark the nation's first transition from one
democratic government to another, but there are ominous signs in the
air. There is tension, socio-economic turmoil, hostage taking in the
Niger Delta, politically motivated assassinations and above all what
can be considered as the Babangida problem. Nigeria's electoral
history has always been unenviable. The consequences of the
elections of 1964, 1983 and 1993 led Nigeria into tragic instances
of anomie. The other elections that were not as bad gave rise to so
much hullabaloo as a result of the deviousness that characterised
them.
The foregoing
shortcomings, frightening as they are, are not insurmountable.
They are temporary setbacks which political education would
redress in the course of time. But the Babangida problem which
is defined by his unbridled desire to rule Nigeria again is what
appears to be the greatest threat to Nigeria's future. Babangida
at the moment looms threateningly over whatever promise the
future holds for Nigeria. In a tone that smacks of unmitigated
arrogance Babangida told Nigerians recently: "I would define the
challenge of our immediate next national leadership as this: to
make whole again. To that I am committed". With those words,
Babangida announced his desire to return to Aso Rock. There has
never been a greater insult to Nigerians than this opprobrious
declaration by Babangida to run for the nation's presidency.
Babangida it was who squandered Nigeria's goodwill for eight
years as an absolute dictator. Of all those who ruled and ruined
Nigeria, he it was who betrayed Nigerians most.
Babangida came to
power via a military coup 21 years ago, precisely on August
27, 1985. He promised Nigerians the moon in his maiden
broadcast. There was nothing he did not promise. The people
took his words as a soldier's and a gentleman's. But at the
end of Babangida's eight years of political brigandage, the
people's lot was the killing cry. Babangida met a Nigeria
that was learning to walk, but by the time he fled Aso Rock
he had incapacitated and crippled the nation. I was a
secondary school boy when Babangida stole power and I
remember that before his take-over we bought BIC biro for 10
kobo, exercise books for 20 kobo, Geisha and Sardines (which
boarding students relished with garri soaked in water) for
90 kobo, while the transport fare from Ughelli to Ibadan was
a mere 11 naira! When Babaginda left the saddle in 1993 he
took all of the above from the reach of the masses.
Babaginda simply stole our tomorrow for his today!
Babangida has
so far remained the most brutal ruler Nigeria has had.
Some would award this prize to Sani Abacha, Babangida's
successor. But the point should be made that Abacha was
a product of Babangida. Babangida's rise to power and
subsequent notoriety was not fortuitous. He is reputed
to have had a hand in all the coups that balkanised
Nigeria up to 1985. In the course of his soldiering he
covertly studied and imbibed the tenets of political
infamy for which Chile's Augusto Pinochet, Zaire's
Mobutu Sese Seko, CAR's Jean Bedel Bokassa, Uganda's Idi
Amin Dada and other buccaneering rulers were known.
A
ruthless dictator who at the peak of his giddiness
told Nigerians that he was an expert in the
"management and execution of violence', Babangida
cut the image of a wastrel in power. He fiddled
while Nigeria burnt. He once admitted that he had no
solution to Nigeria's economic problems! Yet he
squandered over N40 billion on the ECOMOG
misadventure in Liberia and an estimated N45 billion
on his endless transition programmes. He has also
not been able to account for the $12 billion which
the nation earned from the oil windfall during the
1990-1991 Gulf War. The climax of Babangida's
rampage was his criminal annulment of the June 12,
1993 presidential election, considered to be
Nigeria's freest and fairest.
Babangida's buffeting of Nigeria cannot be
recalled at one go! His affliction of Nigerians
was more than what the most ingenious of minds
could have pictured. Babangida devalued the
naira, he devalued Nigerians, he devalued
education and promoted deceit and corruption as
hallmarks of statecraft. He also destroyed the
Nigerian Army and one of his army chiefs,
General Salihu Ibrahim described the army under
Babangida as "an army of anything goes".
Babangida also hunted and hounded the civil
society. His record of human rights abuse
was unparalleled. He sank his fangs into the
jugular of the press, but it is a tribute to
the courage and resilience of the Nigerian
press that it did not cringe or bow to the
bestiality that marked that era. When in the
year 2000 Babangida was summoned to the
Oputa Panel to defend his atrocious
stewardship, he brazenly disregarded the
summons and even went to court in order to
scuttle the panel's work. The panel
recommended that never again should
Babangida come near the portals of political
power.
Babangida's ascendancy was made possible
by sneaky, conniving and tutti-frutti
eating intellectuals and a clique in the
political class. Among these are
University professors and expired
politicians who are ever-ready to serve
anyone in power. This group as much as
Babangida should be held responsible for
the Babangida debacle. These job seekers
are at work again. They are urging
Babangida to go on and contest.
The group is making efforts to
rewrite our history in order to
reposition Babangida and sell him to
the electorate. They are also
throwing money at people so that
they can adore Babangida. They are
engaging in a hokum. Nigerians are
wiser now. Nigeria is almost 50 and
it can now look back and interrogate
history and know what was done and
undone that has brought us to this
dismal point. Again, as Achebe once
asked: "Does it ever worry us that
history which neither personal
wealth nor power can pre-empt will
pass terrible judgment on us,
pronounce anathema on our names when
we have accomplished our betrayal?"
This aptly adumbrates the Babangida
conundrum as neither his wealth nor
power nor influence nor connections
can obliterate our collective
memory, our history. In this lies
the burden of history for Babangida.
History is now his albatross. What a
burden!
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Awhefeada is with Delta
State University, Abraka,
Delta State |
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