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The IBB Anti-Climax By Mohammed Haruna In what appears to be an anti-climax, former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, wrote to President Olusegun Obasanjo last month to inform the president of his withdrawal from the presidential primary of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party. 'I wish', Babangida said in his letter, 'to convey to you my decision to withdraw from the PDP nomination process. The reason grows out of a moral dilemma I faced as soon as Alhaji Umaru Yar'adua and General Aliyu Mohammed Gusau entered into the race. I have been wrestling with this for quite some time and now come the decision.' Thus ended a long and tortuous journey which seemed to have begun the very day the man 'stepped aside' as military president in August 1993; even as he bid Nigerians goodbye that bright and warm day at the symbolic Abuja Unity Gate, any acute political observer would have noticed that he was doing so following a mission unaccomplished. At that time it seemed pretty obvious that the man was leaving not because he wanted to but because he had lost the confidence of his immediate constituency, i.e.. the army. The reader may recall how a group of retired senior military officers like Generals Obasanjo, TOY. Danjuma and Muhammadu Buhari mounted intense pressure on him to go. So as the man headed for his native Minna, Niger State, in apparent retirement on that fateful day in August 1993, many Nigerians may have had a sneaky suspicion that the man was only running away to live and return to fight another day. I certainly had the feeling. That suspicion seemed to have been confirmed in October 2000 when a group of his supporters organized a well attended symposium in Jos, Plateau State, to document and assess the impact of his political and socio-economic policies on Nigeria. At the end of the symposium Babangida served Nigerians the notice of his intention to return to politics. Referring obviously to his August 1993 departure from office and to the intervening years of General Sani Abacha's rule, he told his audience, among other things, that 'Our vision for a democracy that endures was only delayed not destroyed. Our initiative did not die... The setting and the time was not as we had envisioned yet we defied the odds and arrived at the goal. By the grace of Allah, we shall continue to be part of the democratic process.' Babangida's notice of his return to politics in the Fourth Republic received mostly hostile reactions from the Lagos/Ibadan dominated Nigerian media which had never found it in their hearts to forgive the man for annulling the presidential elections of June 1992 which would have brought a Southerner, Chief M.K.O. Abiola, to power through the ballot box for the first time in Nigeria's history. Gbolabo Ogunsanwo, a leading political pundit, probably spoke the minds of the rump of the Nigerian media and of many Nigerians, Southerners especially, when he condemned Babangida's Jos speech in his column in The Comet of December 31, 2000. It was, he said, 'sheer insult upon indignity' for Babangida, who he described as 'this son of Pinochet', to even think of returning to rule Nigeria. Pinochet, in case you do not know, was the murderous long serving Chilean tyrant who died last month in unhappy retirement. Whether or not the anger that Babangida's notice provoked was justified or not, the fact was that his position was widely misunderstood and misinterpreted, inadvertently by some but deliberately by even more. Babangida, it must be pointed out, has never categorically said he was joining politics only to rule Nigeria once again. Indeed on several occasions he was at pains to point out that one need not hold an elective office to influence politics positively. However it seems most Nigerians simply found it hard to believe someone of Babangida's stature would want to join politics merely to remain in the background. Such skepticism was understandable given his image as a grand master of political dribbling, something which earned him the rather unflattering sobriquet of the Maradona of Nigeria's politics. For many of these skeptics the irrefutable evidence that they have been right all along came when Babangida finally picked up the nomination form of PDP's presidential ticket last month after many months of equivocation. This singular act appeared to have put some life back in to politics after it seemed to have been killed by Obasanjo's late but unlamented attempt to perpetuate himself in office. Babangida may have been an anathema in certain influential circles. Again he may have been bad news for much of the Nigerian media. However few Nigerians can dispute the fact that he was the one Nigerian with the political clout and network to give Obasanjo a run for his money any time any day. Sadly for many, if not for most, of his followers and admirers, Babangida has badly let them down by throwing in the towel even before the race had begun. His letter to Obasanjo suggested that he was merely withdrawing from the PDP nomination process for its presidential ticket and not from the presidential race itself. 'Mr. President', he said in the concluding paragraph of the letter, 'I wish to inform you that I shall be exploring other options in due course to advance my commitment to democracy and the Nigerian nation.' Obasanjo, however, tried to pre-empt the great Maradona himself first, by leaking Babangida's letter and his own reply to the public through the leadership of the PDP and second, by the somewhat patronizing flattery of Babangida as an elder statesman. 'Together with other elder statesmen' Obasanjo said in an obvious attempt to steer the former military president away from politics, 'you can join hands to continue to build as a non-partisan contributor.' However, even without Obasanjo's pre-emption it was difficult to see how Babangida could have remained in the race after his letter since it was apparent, weeks before the PDP presidential primary that it was either Yar'adua, Obasanjo's anointed successor, or Gusau that was likely to pick the party's ticket. If Babangida was unwilling to face either in the primary, it was even more untenable for him to do so in the presidential election itself. Most Nigerians probably agree with me that Babangida's withdrawal from the race is an anti-climax. Some would see it as a sad anti-climax. I see it as a happy one. Since the man left office in 1993, I have always believed he should not seek to return to it and I have said so occasionally. As the longest serving peacetime military ruler of Nigeria who had survived several coup attempts, including arguably the most bloody one in 1990, I had always thought he would be pushing his luck to want to return to power even through the ballot box. Not only had he created many formidable obstacles against his return in the course of his eight-year rule but because he seems by nature incapable of saying no to almost any request, I found it difficult to see how he could meet the challenge of sorting out the even more terrible mess Obasanjo had made of the mess he had inherited in 1999. For me I believe Babangida took the right decision to withdraw from partisan politics. Those who know how involved I was with the media team raised to sell him to Nigerians may see a contradiction between my involvement and my stand on his withdrawal. My explanation is that I got involved more out of a feeling of obligation to someone who played a critical role in making me what I am today professionally than out of a conviction that his return to power is good for Nigeria. Obasanjo's flattery of Babangida as an elder statesman may have been made tongue in cheek but it is something I have personally always believed he should aspire to from that day in August nearly thirteen years ago when he had to step aside from power.
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