Regret, execution and follicle: four takeaways from former Nigerian military ruler book

Former Nigeria military ruler Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, known as IBB, released a new autobiography, which includes several revelations about turbulent times, while he was in charge of the country from 1985 to 1993.

A journey in service has talked to the Nigerians and consider what can happen if things are different – especially the controversial decision to cancel the 1993 elections, and a childhood friend Execution of.

Babangida has a mixed record. While some people admire infrastructure development for Nigeria, others say there was a large -scale corruption during their time.

Here are four takeaets from the book:

This is the biggest talking point because it touches a subject, which many believed that the history of Nigeria has been changed. Some people say that the country has still not really recovered in the name of the 1993 presidential elections.

In the book, Babangida, now 83, regretted the first time to cancel that election.

The poll was about to end military rule after 10 years and the country was thrown into the upheaval by canceling the result.

Vote date – June 12 – Now is remembered as Democracy Day in Nigeria.

General Babangida was forced to resign.

Mosood Abiola, widely believed to win the election, was later imprisoned and his wife was killed.

The current president of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu said in the book launch that General Babangida had accepted courage to show courage.

“That accident in history is most regrettable. The nation deserves expectation of my regret,” he writes Babangida.

General Babangida, popularly known as IBB, admitted that Abiola won the election in 1998.

However, the results were being collided in 1993, the military government suddenly stopped the process – an action that triggered a widespread protest and a political crisis.

At that time, he cited the issue of vote-kharid, as well as as the need to protect the country’s judiciary.

Abiola’s son Jamu said that it was accepted by General Babangida that his father had won the election, came as a welcome surprise for him and some members of his family.

“Probably General Babangida was looking for peace,” he told the BBC focus on Africa podcast.

In 1999, civil rule was eventually restored in 1999, 11 months after the death of another military ruler Sani Abcha.

General Maman Vatsa and Babangida grew up together, were in the same class in school and the army had roses with each other. In 1986, after he was convicted for the coup of the coup, his execution is another major talk of Babangida’s presidential post.

“We were very close friends,” Babangida recalls.

“We grew up together in Minna and there were classmates in Bida. We did many things as colleagues. My wife remembered that we used to share a room as a virgin. Get out! “

However, he says that now it is revealed that Vats was burning since he was a teenager.

“Now with the benefits of the obstruction, I remember that a constant part of our relationship as teenagers and youths was a constant and recurrent colleague jealous towards me. He always envated my achievements, especially when he thinks that thinking I was progressing.

Vats and nine others were killed in March 1986. It was said that he had planned a coup, according to which Babangida had immersed the country in the dark.

“I had to choose between a friend’s life and the future of the country,” he writes.

Another controversial issue has been the 1966 coup that overthrew the first Nigeria government after independence from the UK. Prime Minister Abubakar Tafwa Baleva was killed along with other high-ranked national and regional leaders.

The fact that most of the coup was from South -East Nigeria, meant that the coup is known as a “Igbo coup” – a label rejects Babangida.

He highlighted the role of Major John Obianu, an ethnic Igbo officer, who played an important role in reducing the coup, which revealed that several senior Igbo officials were also killed in Mutiny.

The book also highlights the participation of members of other ethnic groups, especially Yoruba, many of which he said that he had participated in military acquisition.

The former leader confirmed that the original intention of the coupers was to release politician Obaemi Avolo with detention and to establish him as President.

Babangida writes: “This was a terrible time for the Nigerian Army. As I have said somewhere else, as a young officer, who saw all this from a distance, perhaps, ethnic feelings did not run the basic purpose of the coup.

For example, Major Kaduna Nazogavu, the head of the plotters, was only ‘Igbo’ in the name. Birth and grew up in Kaduna, their immigrant parents were from Okpanam in today’s delta kingdom, which was in the old middle in 1966-the western region. In the country.

The association of IGBOS with the coup, attacked members of the community across the country and eventually carried out an attack in the civil war, in which some Igbo leaders tried to separate from Nigeria in 1967. Biafran War.

Many Nigerians see Babangida’s wife Maryam as the country’s most prestigious and influential woman. From 1985, when he left the office in 1993, his love story took many people captive. He died in 2009 and the former state never remarried.

“She was stunning. The beauty of her ebony disturbed the eyes, and her glossy smile showed a cute set of teeth; when she smiled – and she often smiled – her face burnt, and her eyes dance,” she She writes

“We both saw our marriage as our freedom and if we quarrel then we agreed to resolve ourselves. We were very compatible; in fact, I can remember only two opportunities, on which we They quarrel, and any of us were afraid to apologize to another. In all years of our marriage, it was not necessary for anyone to mediate on the misunderstanding due to that original meeting of the mind. “

“I never thought that Mary would pass before I do, but the gift of life is in Allah’s hands, not in humanity. I am grateful for life and I shared and I shared and I for the fruit of my union. Babangida Says, “It’s easy, but it is demanding much less than the memories of our life and the length of its shadow.

He describes Maryam as an emotional lawyer for a dedicated wife, mother, housewife and rural women. Above all, he saw her as a true companion.