In my later years at King’s College I developed
a fascination for Ikoyi and Lagos Island and I spent a few of my holidays at
the home of my uncle Dr. Adigun on Saka Jojo Street, Victoria Island. It is from there I would link up with ’Bayo
Oyesanya and other school mates. It was
here that we heard about a senior ranking officer in the Army, Ibrahim Badamasi
Babangida. We had heard of the myth
built around his foiling of the Dimka coup, his identification with the left
and his radical tendencies. However,
this never seemed to marry with the array of cars that littered his compound at
the time. He seemed to be very wealthy
and I could not square this up with the image I cultivated of a clean living
army officer.
Once while at Ikoyi, visiting a Falomo barbing
saloon with my friend and school mate Ogenof, Babangida, a newly promoted Major
General walked in and began exchanging greetings in Yoruba with all those in
sight. He was very much at ease,
accessible and confounded me with his easy style. As suddenly as he emerged he disappeared into
the shadows as we sought him out. This
intensified my love affair with the myth surrounding his image. It was this man that became the Army Chief
after the military truncated the civilian administration of President Sheu
Shagari. I secretly harboured the desire
that Babangida now a Major General would one day take over the reins of power. My wish was granted when in August 1985 he
overthrew his colleague Muhammadu Buhari and became the ‘President’, the title
an omen to his ambitions to transform into a civilian ruler. Later on when he was Nigerian President
during my Law School year I caught a glimpse of him as he casually drove around
Lady Oyinkan Abayomi Road in a Santana Volkswagen car.
I now believe that Nigeria made an error of
monumental proportions by allowing the man called ‘IBB’ to take over the reins
of power. I believe the beginning of his
administration began the irretrievable spiral downwards. A regime that was meant to be corrective
became destructive of all of the basic Nigerian values. Corruption became a byword and a fundamental
objective of state policy. The blur
became public funds and personal funds assumed a new dimension.
According to
’Tolu Ogunlesi by 1985, Nigeria’s foreign debt had ballooned to $18 billion, up
from $3.4 billion in 1980 (it would rise beyond $30 billion by the end of the
80s), and external reserves had dwindled to less than $2 billion[1]. Oil prices had been in free fall for three
years running, and in January 1986, they finally fell to less than $20 per
barrel, a record low since the start of the decade. It is suggested that to his credit Babangida
made all the right noises about revamping the economy. In his Independence Day 1985 speech, barely
two months old in office, he declared a state of economic emergency for the
next 15 months. That speech went on to lay down a comprehensive plan for
economic reconstruction. The plan included a moratorium on new foreign debt,
promotion of agriculture and industrial development, restriction of importation
to essential commodities, financial sector reform and privatisation.
IBB appeared to
be a master of the populist move and led an activist government, dancing from
left to right and never sitting still - ambitious government programs targeted
at tackling poverty, and empowering rural dwellers. His government churned out program after
program, in a bid to actualize his promises to run an inclusive, people-facing
government. In 1986, Babangida launched the Mass Mobilization for Self
Reliance, Social Justice, and Economic Recovery (MAMSER).
In 1987, the
Directorate of Food and Rural Infrastructure (DFFRI) was launched to promote
agriculture and transform Nigeria’s rural landscape by providing modern
infrastructure. Other Babangida creations include the National Directorate of
Employment (NDE), National Economic Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND), Peoples Bank
of Nigeria (PBN), National Board for Community Banks (NBCB), Nigerian Deposit
Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Nigeria Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), National
Planning Commission (NPC), and the Urban Development Bank.
No other
Nigerian government presided over such substantial expansion of government
bureaucracy as the Babangida administration. In time, the fiscal prudence that Babangida
espoused vanished: billions of naira were sunk into an endless transition
programme, and in the early 90s, 12 billion dollars worth of windfall crude oil
revenue (courtesy of the rise in the oil prices due to the Gulf War) could not
be accounted for. General Babangida also
came to perfect the art of dispensing patronage through political appointments
(mostly targeted at leading members of the opposition) and a
far-from-transparent allocation of lucrative oil blocks.
He devised a
maddeningly convoluted transition programme, whose terminal date soon became a
mirage, with no ending in sight - first 1990, then 1992, and then 1993 - is one
of the most significant things Babangida will be remembered for. Early on in his administration, Mr. Babangida
inaugurated a Political Bureau to kick off, as it were, the national debate on
a viable future political ethos and structure for our dear country. The political bureau was soon followed by a
Constituent Assembly, which in 1989 fashioned a new constitution for the
country.
Also, in 1989,
he created, by presidential fiat, two political parties, the Social Democratic
Party and the National Republican Convention. Then in 1991, he released a
controversial list of prominent politicians whom he said were banned from participating
in the transition programme.
In October
1992, he cancelled the results of the parties’ presidential primaries, causing
new primaries to be held in March 1993. And then in June 1993-he annulled the
results of the presidential elections, which was presumed to have been won by
the billionaire businessman MKO Abiola.
By this time, Nigerians had finally had enough of his shenanigans, and
violent protests forced him to step aside on August 27, 1993:
“My colleagues and I are determined to change the
course of history.”
General
Babangida told Nigerians in his maiden speech as Head of State, on August 27,
1985. By the time he reluctantly
relinquished power exactly eight years later, he had achieved that goal, far
more successfully than he, or anyone else, could ever have imagined.
By the time the general left office
unceremoniously, he had
bequeathed the collapse of the Nigerian economy and the mass exodus of Nigerian
professionals: It is suggested that the confounding corruption, failed policies
and the eventual collapse of
Nigeria's economy profoundly diminished people's
living standards. He inherited a fairly
strong economy that was on the path of recovery. The Naira was basically at par with the United
States dollar but by the time he left, the Naira had plunged to an all-time
low,
exchanging for 44 Naira to the dollar. This nearly 50-fold (or nearly
5000%) drop eroded the purchasing power of Nigerians. A Nigerian worker who made 50 Naira per day
before Babangida's era could purchase a 250-dollar refrigerator with a week's
wage. If the same worker made 4 times that amount (i.e. 200 Naira per day)
during Babangida's era, his daily wage would be 4.5 dollars per day, or 22.7
dollars per week. This worker required 12 weeks wage to purchase the same
refrigerator. That was a 1200% fall in living standards of living. By the time Babangida left office, the
economy had completely collapsed like a pack of cards.
Here is a man to whom much hope was given and invested and proceeded
to squander it playing games, indulging in trickery and unleashing corrupt
machinations. It is suggested that by the time he left office is name had
become synonymous with corruption. The
irony is that IBB might have become a synonym, the present crop of rulers have become
corruption itself, supprassing him in all facets and confounding all. How else do you situate the decision of a
sitting President to grant pardon to a well-established kleptomaniac who is
still being pursued the world all over?
What message does that send?
However, our story does not and cannot end here, I am confident, that the General, Muhammadu Buhari presents another opportunity to turn a page and maybe a chapter...
[1] Ogunlesi, Tolu (2010) The Babangida
Years, 17th April 2010. Accessed from [http://www.nairaland.com/522441/babangida-years-facts-may-want]
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