MAX GBANITE ON IBB: HERO WORSHIPPING OR CHEAP NAME-DROPPING?

By

Mike Ikhariale

For those who may not know who Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (rtd) is, he was a soldier in the Nigerian Army and was involved in a series of military coups culminating in the one in which he treacherously overthrew his erstwhile boss, Gen. Mohamadu Buhari, in a palace coup in August 1985. And from 1985 till 1993 when he was forced to quit power, he remained the head of a military junta that dictatorially ruled the Federation of Nigeria. He is alive and resides in Minna, a town not too far away from Abuja. I should also add that he is reputed to be very rich and politically influential.

Apart from Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd), no other Nigerian leader has lasted so long in office continuously as IBB. It follows therefore that no other person in the country has enjoyed the singular opportunity to make as much impact on the country as Babangida had. He is generally known by the sobriquet of Maradona, adopted after the Argentina soccer juggler, Diego. The difference however is that while the Argentine original was a maestro on the soccer pitch, the Nigerian namesake was a maestro in the manipulation of men and policies – a military tactician in a civil arena. No doubt, he is a great man, indeed and fortuitously. But he also has a huge insoluble problem of credibility and trust, even amongst his ‘friends’.

Just as Gen. Domkat Bali once said of him, he deceived his fellow coup plotters into dressing himself up in a borrowed robe by mislabeling himself "president". Any kid knows that the title of "president" in the context of Nigerian constitutionalism has meaning only within the context of an elected constitutional democracy. But IBB still named himself president all the same. If, out of the total life span of Nigeria’s forty odd years that one leader out of the many that the nation has had, was able to survive nearly a decade in office, it should be assumed that for good or for ill, the name of such a leader would continue to reverberate, at least, in the very near future. There was everything in the circumstances of IBB emergence as a leader in Nigeria that gave him the chance to be great. Unlike the situation today, he came unto the scene when it was the hope that the military, as a social force, still has the redeeming capacity in Nigeria and elsewhere. Professionally, he was a soldier’s soldier, charmy and very popular. In many respects, he could also be described as a man with a nationalistic outlook.

And to be fair to him, he came into office with a great deal of goodwill; he was levelheaded and indeed, creative. Personally, I admired him for his ability to tap from the knowledge of others. Even though he was not himself too educated, he did not exhibit any serious contempt for scholarship, as many of them are wont to do. Instead, he went out of his way to enlist so many willing intellectuals into his administration and that is was why he never seemed to lack ideas in his days. But a man cannot rise beyond the limits of his destiny and, IBB in particular, could not seize on the great historical opportunity presented to him to write his name in Gold. His upbringing and social orientation must have played a great role in this. He was unnecessarily slippery and devoid of honor as he broke many solemn promises that he did not need to break. He was in love with money as if he never saw it in his youth. As at today, he is reputed to be one of the richest despots that ever lived, even more than Mobutu. That the money came to him through his office in clearly corrupt and immoral ways was never in doubt, as we all know what his legitimate income, as a general in the Nigerian Army ought to be. So, Nigerians cannot talk of corruption and its effects on the nation’s under-development and the attendant suffering of the people today without blaming him.

In fact, many people still go to him for money and he is reputed to be very generous and anyone that seeks his favor gets it without too many hassles. That sets him apart from the rest of the pack. And in a society that is as poor as ours, it is obvious that many people would continue to sing his praises even if, deep in their minds, they actually hold him in utter contempt.

It is therefore not necessary for Max Gbanite to continue to flex literary muscles in defense of a man who already has millions of materially obligated defenders and, for good course too, by his side. IBB can never be lonely again as long as money continues to be the medium of exchange and that fact makes the task of a self-appointed IBB defender virtually redundant.

The fact however is that he is certainly not the best that has ever walked this part of the earth as sycophants would like us to believe. Like most dictators, the man made mistakes, some of which were very serious and capable of obliterating his good works. And since he was a public figure he does not enjoy any immunity from public scrutiny especially in a country where so many people still feel unjustly cheated by their leaders. Just one example would suffice; he met the national currency at par with the US dollar in 1985. But by the time he left office, the Naira, was already on a free fall against the dollar, what with SAP and IMF in action. He wiped out the middle class from the nation’s economy, national infrastructure went into decline and his misunderstood market forces ravaged the nation while he personally waxed stronger and richer. More sadly, he irretrievably devalued the moral fiber of the nation’s social order as corruption and 419 became the national pastime under him. Hard work, industry and honesty were put to shame by IBB. Crooks, cronies and other misfits of society became the novae riches and yuppies of the new economy, as it were. It was an era of decadence par excellence.

Mark Anthony got it right centuries ago when he said that the evil that men do lives after them but that their good are often interred with their bones. IBB cannot be different. While individual beneficiaries of IBB’s legendary largesse would continue to praise him to high heavens, it is also to be expected that the society that he so recklessly over-experimented with, mismanaged, looted and debilitated beyond repairs would remain angry with him and that is to be expected too. It is therefore not correct to blame those who have genuine grudges against the man, as stupid as Max Gbanite would want us believe. Even IBB himself seems to have realized that he made serious mistakes just as he also made great strides, especially in the areas of social engineering as his last speech at Kuru tended to suggest. He is certainly not a saint and he personally, and rightly too, does not claim to be so but Gbanite is however very sure about that in his support of the man and continues to infer that he is the best to have come out of Nigeria. I think we ought to have left that to history.

Apparently surprised that so many unpleasant tales have been woven around the man who calls himself the "evil genius", my good friend, Max Gbanite, characteristically unleashed his verbal assault on those that have cases against the retired General.

Let us run through his curious attempt to hoist IBB flag in a society that already knows the man as their former maximum leader in his recent posting in the Gamji.com entitled: Cashing in on Babangida Bashing.

Here we go:

Max Gbanite: If you believe any of these stories, including the moving of Zuma Rock, please read something else and seek primary psychiatric assistance for suffering ‘Journalistic Asinine Induced Syndrome.

Our response: Clearly IBB, by his own making, appears to be thoroughly misunderstood. If people see him in differing lights, can’t we extend the same logic to all that he has to say about the "Prince of the Niger" whose real life story is still the butt of local and popular gossips, so much so, that there is still a great deal of peppersoup seminars about his actual ancestry: Minna or Ogbomosho? Only someone that can throw some light on these lingering doubts that can speaks so authoritatively about IBB, as Gbanite wants the world to believe he can. There is a lot about the man that needs additional clarification but this otherwise brilliant piece did not attempt anything of the sort.

MG: In essence what I have noticed is that many people who seek relevance in our society as writers, and who wish to have their articles read by others, must invariably invoke the name of General Babangida.

Our response: If that is true, what then does Gbanite, whose only self-professed specialized subject of discourse is IBB, really want? Is this not the case of the kettle calling the pot black? If he could so spiritedly support a man who presided over the wasting of such enormous political capital and goodwill, why does he think that others should not give their opinion about the same person? Is the Babandiga business so lucrative that Gbanite is seeking a copyright for himself over it? Just as so many people have good reasons to praise the man for the good he did for them so are millions others entitled to remember him as the one who inflicted the greatest economic and social hardship on them and, in fact, they are entitled to be angry because any dollar that IBB has over and above his legitimate entitlement is logically a fraud on them and it is only human that victims should complain.

MG: It is then no secret that every known and unknown writer has entered into this newfound love in yellow journalism called ‘Babangida Bashing.’

Our response: For every "Babangida Bashing", there is a ‘Babangida Whitewashing’ and a good example is the piece Gbanite is ramming through the throat of his readers. The real question is how come that it is only Gbanite that does not see anything wrong in the IBB regime in the several years that he forcibly ruled Nigeria? If the IBB regime is his golden era for Nigeria, then, the nation should simply close shop. But that could not have been true, as there was no way IBB could have performed beyond his capabilities and nine uninterrupted years are more than enough for any serious leader to prove his mettle.

MG: It was very appalling reading articles on the Internet that castigate or disparage the person of General Babangida. Some of the more antagonistic character assassins clearly amuse themselves and their readers by relishing in bashing our former leader by accusing him of all sorts of things with reckless abandon. On numerous occasions, I have engaged in sensible and heated discussions on the Nigerian State and the roles played by the General himself.

Our response: Does Gbanite think that his is the best write-ups that have ever donned the Internet? IBB does not deserve less than he is getting in the press. While others wrote "with reckless abandon" he alone wrote in "sensible and heated..." In his view, others are simply talking trash. He is the only wise commentator! It is only natural that as IBB remains a major force in the affairs of Nigeria, that reality therefore makes him a fixed target for popular criticism as he actually messed up things while he lasted in office and it is a part of the mess that we are all suffering today. Strangely, the man himself remains very cool, calm and comfortable. Talking about the Internet and the bad publicity that IBB seem to be getting, I was surprised to discover recently that the late Captain Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso who ruled for less that four years and was assassinated in 1988 is still far more popular and adored globally than our IBB, whose only supporters are those expecting favors from him, by a neutral Internet pollster. IBB had more than a million times than Sankara to make a good name for himself but he frittered them away like a cursed person. Just think of what would have happened if he had carried through the great ideas offered him by the Political Bureau; the Center for Democratic Studies, MAMSER, the various commissions reports that addressed several key areas of the nation’s life; more importantly, if he had allowed the will of the people to prevail in the various elections that he supervised? He would have been a colossal hero who would not need the likes of Gbanite to be hawking his name in the village market.

MG: It is wrong to bash individuals just to score cheap political points. No one should be subjugated to half-truths and innuendoes, especially those who have put their lives on the line for the good of the country we still call home. General Babangida is a good friend, and I will always defend his good name and his good deeds.

Our response: Individuals make history and if we are scared off bashing them for their follies by their cronies, then who should we be blaming? Our stars or ourselves? Someone most take the blame for the mess we are in, even if it is common knowledge that so many people, including ourselves, shared in the blame. That is the way of civilized societies. This is quite preposterous an assertion to make. As the man who presided over the nation for so long and at a time that there were such amount of goodwill and quality resources and ended up wasting them, he should be criticized. That is the only way we can learn and avoid such pitfalls down the line. Canonizing a man who is weighed down by his own failing? Nothing could be more ridiculous than that. IBB himself accepted that the Buck stopped at his desk and that was while he was the boss. If Gbanite’s mission is to defend him, it is important that he should try to sound a little credible. By plotting to overthrow his boss as he indeed do with Buhari, was a risk which every coup plotter takes and IBB and his colleagues-in-crime put their lives on the line for their own sake. Otherwise, why did he swiftly execute hundreds of other soldiers who also "put their lives on the line"? This is about the most ludicrous case I have ever heard made in support of IBB. No good friend of the man would go this ridiculous just to be heard to be supporting him. IBB deserves a better defense than this even though we have already noted it is very profitable to be seen to doing so, anyhow.

MG: Very soon, even those who want to be emir and eze and oba will start seeking his blessing too! The man understands his environment the way a capable and competent general should. He is definitely one of those who make things happen, whereas others watch it happen, and many ask what happened.

Our response: Fine. But where will he go to for his own salvation? Is this not the case of a healer who cannot heal himself? Why anoint others when you are yourself a candidate for Aso Rock? Of course, he once fiendishly boasted that "I know Nigerians" but does he think that Nigerians also don’t know him? If he thinks that becoming a real president is that easy, he should come out himself and contest, instead of investing in proxies that would only jilt him soon as is the vogue in Nigeria. The truth is that IBB has himself done a tactical ‘recce’ of the situation and has concluded it is not worth the risk. It is just that his cronies do not have his military-type power of appreciation and they still continue to beckon on a man who could see the terrain more analytically.

MG: On the death of Dele Giwa, many who follow Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN, would like us to believe that General Babangida had a hand in the killing. Well, you are wrong a thousand times. The case has been disposed of all the way to the Supreme Court.

Our response: This is a big lie - and that is if lies do have sizes. Gbanite can say anything he likes about IBB’s innocence on the lingering allegation that he has a hand in Dele Giwa’s gruesome murder but to say that the Supreme Court of Nigeria has acquitted him is not only a legal heresy but also a great disservice to the course of IBB. What got to the Supreme Court was not the fact about the trial but the shenanigan to block the trial. It would indeed have been better if the man had had the courage to face the trial and clear his name once and for all. But using negative legal tactics like he is wont to do only cast unnecessary doubts where there should be none. For the avoidance of doubt, the blood of Dele Giwa is still crying for justice and if Gbanite knows how to resolve the riddle, let him please tell Nigerians. But to say that the Supreme Court of Nigeria has resolved the matter is a big lie and it does not help the case of IBB at all! I sincerely pity IBB if it is the likes of Gbanite are what he has for admirers.

MG: The issue of Oputa Panel is what I call "Unjudicial Operatic Semantics." The evidence submitted at the Panel was inconclusive.

Our response: The fact that evidence submitted at the Panel are inconclusive does not absolve the man, just the same way that the fact that the trial of Dele Giwa’s murder was stalled through technical legal processes. Gloating over the inconclusivity of disputes is just another way of admitting guilt. IBB is far more intelligent to want to base his alibi on the obnoxious theory of inconclusivity and Gbanite here again proves that he is a very poor advocate for his ‘friend’ and the man should note this for his own good as a bad counsel may turn his otherwise innocent client into a criminal and that is what is clear in the defense being mounted by Gbanite on IBB’s behalf.

MG: If you care to find out more about the death of Dele Giwa, contact Rev. Dr. Chris Omebem, former Deputy Inspector General of Nigerian Police Force and currently a church minister or, for a start, read my article ‘Dele Giwa: The silent fact’ of November 2001, published in African Newsreel, and on all Nigerian Internet-based news sites.

Our response: If it is possible to find out the truth about Dele Giwa’s murder from the then IG, it ought to be easier to do so from the Commander-in-Chief himself who, in this case, was IBB. It is sad that a fellow Nigerian could be so insensitive in the way he tries to trivialize the death of Dele Giwa. We don’t know who killed Dele Giwa but we know that diversionary legal processes were deployed against the search for the killer. Only God can tell who did what in the absence of a full trial of the case.

MG: The annulment of June 12, 1993 elections, is no longer an issue.

Our response: If the June 12 annulment is no longer an issue, then, we don’t know what is. Writing glibly about such a serious national issue is not what Nigeria needs now. IBB himself knows that but for that event he would not have left office the ignominious way that he did; he would not have become a persona non grata in many parts of Nigeria today. Only someone from the moon would say that June 12 is not an issue in Nigeria. Wherever the nation is today, good or bad is partially related to that event or, better still phenomenon. For those who have forgotten, but for June 12 there would have been no Shonekan; but for June 12 there would have been no Abacha; but for June 12 there would have been no Abdusalam and but for June 12 there would have been no Obasanjo. That someone could say that such a national event is "not an issue" ought to have settled the matter for us about the seriousness of the author.

MG: Former President Shehu Shagari, whose government was also overthrown by the military, has since moved on with his life, understanding that God’s will is greater than what man wills.

Our response: This is the reductio ad absurdum of the thesis that Gbanite is hawking. Shagari is still alive but Abiola who was the victim of the June 12 evil is dead. He cannot be said to have moved on willingly. It is the height of arrogance and undue insult to want to rationalize such brazen criminality with the name of God. IBB, we repeat, killed so many people who should have equally "moved on" for plotting coups and imagined coups. No society in which people deliberately assault the sensibilities of others as the piece under analysis does can ever have peace. If actually IBB has an eye in the future for the restoration of his good name, it would have been counter-productive for him to wave away an event as august as that. With reckless and intemperate defenders like Gbanite on his toll, it is obvious that he may have to stay a little longer in his moral limbo. For a man who claims to be IBB’s friend to be making such impolite commentaries purportedly on his behalf is not only unwarranted but also quite unfair to the man himself. IBB would not talk like that because he is a tactician and a gentleman. The rule of the games is that those who come to equity must come with clean hands. Shagari was robbed of his presidency by force of arms and it is too simplistic to wave off the harm thus done him just like that. I am happy, though, that those who really took part in those unfortunate events are themselves making amends, contrary to the dismissive position taken by their ‘friend’ here.

MG: Must General Babangida be blamed for a consensus decision made by the ruling AFRC? The answer is NO.

Our response: First, a "consensus decision" is one that takes care of many sides to the debates and the decision to annul the June 12 election was unilateral and selfish. IBB himself has acknowledged that much. Why re-open old wounds with such insensitivity and lies? If the writer has ever witnessed a meeting of military men, he would have been slow to use the word "consensus". He wanted us to praise IBB for the good he did but refuses to accept that the man on whose head the blames for June 12 annulment lies must be the leader of that junta. That is the ABC of responsibility. What a contradiction in terms? The nation has moved beyond the level of scoring cheap points on this matter. We have all lost something. This is the time for objective appraisal of our checkered history. But everyone is free to write or say whatever they like but they should not go into the presumption that others are bound to accept their claims, no matter how ridiculous. Was he really serious to have suggested that IBB should not be blamed for the mistakes of his own regime? Whom do we praise for the numerous achievements of the same regime? That is a new one o, even by Nigerian standard.

MG: Adoption of only two parties: Any sensible person would agree that for a change that the decision to adopt only two political parties proved that Nigerians can work as a unit without the normal rancor of religious and ethnic affinity usually associated with selecting their leaders

Our response: Well, we should just ask: to where did that experiment led the nation? If it was that good why did IBB himself dismantle the edifice he built by annulling the elections that came with the system? Gbanite wants to eat his cake and still have it. Ehn? The two party systems surely had its merits, especially if they were ideologically animated. We may still go back to it someday but the fact that IBB who initiated it also botched it tells a lot about how far his destiny could carry him. The problems with that system were that the government itself did not believe in it and the people were treated as if they were robots. Otherwise Nigerians wanted to see it work but the Maradona had his own agenda. Ethnicity and other social vices are the outcome of a bankrupt national leadership. While we cannot accuse IBB of tribalism, his actions and inaction actually contributed in no small measures to the balkanization of Nigeria along less than national lines.

MG: If you believe that Nigeria made $12 billion during the Gulf War, then you are as gullible as they come. Dr. Pius Okigbo’s Report was inconclusive.

Our response: The alibi of inconclusivity again! It sounds rather childish to be making assertions such as above. So, the mere fact that an investigation is not concluded is now a verdict of "not guilty" for the accused? That must be so only in the Devil’s kingdom. Why was the investigation not concluded? IBB should have honestly seen to its conclusion because justice, as they say, must not only be done, it must also be seen to have been done. Not to have concluded it, quite deliberately, does not help his case. The nation is still waiting for some answer, more so as poverty bites harder by the day.

MG: Lest we forget, when President Olusegun Obasanjo was the head of state and General Buhari was his petroleum minister, "creative writers" led us to believe that $2.8 billion was missing from the petroleum account in London. Later, we learnt that it was pure accounting error. Nobody today accuses President Obasanjo of pocketing that money.

Our response: At least we know as Gbanite himself has disclosed that there was an "accounting error" in Obasanjo’s case. What is the ‘error’ that vitiates the allegation against IBB? The mere fact that A has stolen does not exonerate B if and when he is caught. It would seem that Nigerians have their own version of morality. If a man has nothing intelligent to say, the most honorable thing to do is to keep quiet but making claims that do not pass the muster of logic and common sense only exposes the author as acting under something less than decorous.

MG: If after 10 years out of office, the man IBB is still regarded by many as the king and kingmakers of Nigeria, and the media continues to make money with his name without paying him any royalty, then there’s a divine attribute to his enigma and a commercial goldmine in the use of his name.

Our response: For a man who ruled more than 100 million by force of arms and with iron-cast autocracy for nearly a decade to be so soon forgotten, whether for good or for ill is humanly impossible. So there is no way anyone can seriously expect that IBB would be forgotten so soon. Between Adolf Hitler and Chancellor Schroder, there have been many Germany leaders, but none is as spoken of as today as Hitler who died more than fifty years ago! Is that popularity? IBB, unlike Hitler, has a lot going for him. The real tragedy, however, is that he has, by his own actions, diminished on the good name he had accumulated while in office. The truth about life is that real opportunities come very scarcely and IBB had his own quite right, but he chose to blow it at the very tail end. I have no doubt in my mind that there must be a lot of entries on the credit side of IBB’s personal Balance Sheet. Of course, there are a lot of entries on the debit side too. And from the look of things, the few he had on this negative side are very grievous and continue to affect so many people and for a long time to come. The man has a rendezvous with history and no reasonable purpose is served trying to drop his name just to make a social or political statement. An opinionated biographical essay on him is far more tenable than the present image laundering pamphleteering we are being fed with by those who are merely periscoping the man from a distance. I can reasonably estimate that if IBB is asked to list his friends today that the name "Gbanite" may not likely make the list. But it is always the case that it is the outsiders that tend to dance themselves lame even before the real dance commences and that they also tend to weep more that the bereaved. I could be wrong about that. But it is not necessary that friendship between two adults should be an ego-boosting tonic.

There is a valid point that could be extracted from the argument of later-day IBB worshipers and that is that we should begin to appreciate the good in our leaders even when we condemn them simply because they are humans and they might not have initially set out to defraud the nation. But the way Gbanite himself has tried to vandalize all those other leaders before and after IBB shows that he is shooting from a totally different range.

I personally acknowledge a lot of good in IBB. I think he has the right personal disposition needed in a complex society like ours. But I also think that he had his chance and blew it. By now we ought to be talking about his legacies in unison. Nigerians are not so dumb that they cannot identify a good leader if and when they found one. A good example is the case of Muritala Mohammed. He does not need a defender or praise singer to announce his name and reputation to Nigerians. Gbanite and those who reason like him may chose to erect a shrine for IBB and begin to worship him. What they cannot hope to achieve is to convince other Nigerians to join them in their idolatrous exercise. No purposed is served trying to tell us about a man who ruled us for so long and is still alive. Those falsely rooting for IBB have one reason and one reason only for doing so: his money no matter their sophistry and pretenses. IBB must have known that by now, especially since May 1999.

I am personally disappointed that a man who showed so much creativity while he was in power has left the issue of his legacy to be the subject matter of self-seeking essayists. Rather than allow those who can never succeed on their own merit in the murky waters of Nigerian politics to be using his name as a stepping stone, he should without delay start a serious foundation or something of the sort for the intellectual review of his very eventful administration both for his own sake and that of the nation and that would, in my humble opinion, ultimately render jobless, those who are currently peddling whatever is left in his name for their selfish ends.

Dec 2002