The Sanctification of Babangida
By Ugoji Egbujo
A man cancels a free and fair election. When crisis ensues, he panics and steps aside, foisting a one-legged contraption on the country. Soon, his co-conspirators are fed up with the pretence. They sweep away the props and seize power. And a plague feasts on the nation
A man cancels the freest and fairest election his county has seen. He knows the consequences will be calamitous. He cancels it and allows his country to slide into the most brutal dictatorship it has ever known. The brute is his best friend. All who stand stubbornly in the way are mowed down and buried. Kudirat. Rewane. Onagoruwa Jr. Etc. Some escape the bullets and live with fractured minds. Ibru, Adesanya etc. Those who are fearful of dying or of the opposition being decapitated run into exile to live like refugees. The country is treated as a leper for seven whole years.
A man anulls a credible election and puts his country on the precipice. Riots break out. Poor folks run back to their villages. The land convulses. A strike squad is formed. Mustapha and Omenka settle on the country. Press freedom flees. Journalists become pet dogs; otherwise, they become bushmeat. People are thrown into dungeons for wincing. Death squads roam while torture squads sit in the basements, bending minds.
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A man cancels free and fair elections. His friends seize the government and throw the winner of the election into a dungeon. His sin is that he refused to forsake his mandate. They keep him there. The world cries for his freedom. Mandela curses the oppressors. Traditional rulers go to bow and lick the feet of the junta. They keep the winner of the election in the dungeon till he dies. Till he dies.
Before Judas sold Jesus he was the treasurer of the ministry. He was part of the good works of that cohort. He was stealing from the purse but perhaps not enough to cripple the group. On the outside, he was chief amongst the miracle workers whom Jesus led. After Judas sold Jesus, no one said Judas bought food for me when I was hungry. Or Judas helped my wife to slaughter a goat. Or Judas introduced innovations into treasury management. Judas had committed a destiny-defining crime. His only reward would be infinite opprobrium. No caveats. Demons understood the conclusive enormity of his greed and treachery and besieged him. Judas didn’t seek a gathering to tender vacuous apologies or build a library.
Despite fates like Judas’ every man deserves a second chance. Man is fallible. Nobody is a saint. And time wipes away the pain of transgressions. We are enjoined to forgive. But as a country, we must keep records. Grant amnesties but keep records. Grant amnesties but don’t become amnesic. We can understand Authrur Eze. But Tinubu now says he owes it all to the man who annulled June 12. Dangote says the man who annulled June 12 and destroyed the Abioola mandate is the father of the private sector. Some state governors might say without him, they would have had no states to govern. The gods must be amused.
We have become incurable worshipers of our leaders. At every major gathering, one former Nigerian leader will be eulogised. He will be called a great man
Because these gatherings aren’t infrequent, all former leaders have been extolled to high heavens
So Balewa, Zik and Awo were all great. Gowon and Murtala were great. Obasanjo was wonderful
Shagari was fabulous. He died poor. IBB is now outstanding. Abacha, they also say was great and humane. Obasanjo, during his second coming, was a messiah. Yar’adua was marvellous. Jonathan was fantastic. Buhari, the incorruptible, was impeccable. Now Tinubu is loved more than hot Agege bread by many.
So why exactly is Nigeria poor? Why have our contemporaries like Indonesia and Singapore left us being? We have given our past leaders the highest honours. But our best youths fleeing the country. The names of our leaders hang on national monuments and we bow before them. But we have become bankrupt in China. We have abundant natural resources. We have overflowing human capital. So why are we the poverty capital of the world? We live by the river, but we wash our hands with spittle.
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Babangida and his friend Abacha ruled for a combined 13 years. Gowon ruled for 9 years. Obasanjo did 11 years. Buhari did about 10. We celebrate these people every day. We call them heroes. We can excuse Obasanjo who transitioned to civil democratic rule and returned to pay off our debts. But how can this country gather to celebrate Babangida, who cancelled a credible election and triggered a chain reaction that led to the death of many people and the looting of the national treasury? We agree we have been decimated by chronic bad leadership yet we venerate all our leaders.
If the aim of a presidential library is partly to Immortalize a president and document history, then a library for Babangida will only serve to immortalize the perfidy he committed. Babangida should have let sleeping dogs lie. He is a Maradona. He ought to know not to stir the hornet’s nest. Sitting and watching some of victims , one after the other, to shower him with encomium, in that dubious sanctification ritual called a book launch, might be his ultimate step over, but hasn’t he roused some sleeping dogs?
I love books. I think memoirs by our past leaders, especially if confessional, will help the country. So Babangida could have quietly documented his memoir and released it without fanfare. In absolute penitence. Without the nauseating speeches. Without the donations. Without the grandiose dream of a presidential library. Without bruising sensibilities.
The question Nigerians must answer is this. Is it forgetfulness or folly? Who did this to us? Sorry, Mama Kudirat. Sorry.
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