The former Nigerian military ruler reveals everything

The former military ruler of Nigeria, Ibrahim Badamasi Babanida, known as IBB, has launched a new autobiography that includes several revelations on turbulent times while in the country’s country from 1985 to 1993.

A trip in the service has made the Nigerians talk and reflect on what could have been if things had come out differently, especially the controversial decision to cancel the 1993 elections and the execution of a childhood friend.

Babanida has a mixed record. While some praise him for the development of infrastructure that Nigeria supervised, others say there was massive corruption during his time.

Here are four conclusions of the book:

This is the biggest point of conversation, since it touches a topic that many believed altered the story of Nigeria. Some say that the country has not yet recovered from the cancellation of the 1993 presidential elections.

In the book, Babanida, now 83, for the first time expressed his deep regret for canceling that choice.

The survey would be supposed to put an end to the military rule after 10 years and the cancellation of the result threw the country into agitation.

The vote date, June 12, is now remembered in Nigeria as the Day of Democracy.

General Babanida was forced to resign.

Moshers Abiola, widely that it is believed that he won the elections, was then imprisoned and his murdered wife.

The current president of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, said at the launch of the book that General Babanida had shown courage by admitting what happened.

“That accident in history is very unfortunate. The nation has the right to expect my expression of repentance,” he writes Babanida.

General Babanida, popularly known as IBB, acknowledged that Abiola, who died in 1998, won the elections.

However, in 1993 as the results were collected, the military government abruptly arrested the process, an action that triggered generalized protests and a political crisis.

At that time, he cited the issue of the purchase of votes, as well as the need to protect the judicial power of the country as reasons of the cancellation.

Abiola’s son, Jamiu, said that the recognition of General Babanido that his father had won the elections was a surprise welcome to him and for some of his family members.

“Maybe General Babanida was looking for peace,” he told BBC Focus on Africa.

The Civil Government was finally restored in 1999, 11 months after the death of another Sani Rebacha military ruler.

General Mamman Vatsa and Babanida grew together, they were in the same class of the school and raised each other in the army. Its execution in 1986 after it was sentenced by a plot of blow is another important point of conversation of the presidency of Babanida.

“We were very close friends,” says Babanida.

“We had grown up together in Minna and we had been classmates in Bida. We did several things together as colleagues. My wife remembered that we used to share a room as single. We would hit any shirt available, regardless of who was, and just using it and we left !

However, he says that he now realizes that Vatsa had been jealous since they were teenagers.

“With the benefit of the retrospective now, I remember that a constant part of our relationship as teenagers and young men was a continuous and recurring partner on his part to me. I always had envious of my achievements, especially when I thought I was progressing better than him , either at school or in our military career. “

Vatsa and another nine were executed in March 1986. They said they planned a coup d’etat, which according to Babanida would have plunged the country in the dark.

“I had to choose between saving the life of a friend and the future of the nation,” he writes.

Another contentious issue has been the coup d’etat of 1966 that overthrew the first government of Nigeria after the independence of the United Kingdom. Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was killed, along with other high -ranking national and regional leaders.

The fact that the majority of state tracers were southeast of Nigeria meant that the coup was known as a “Igbo blow”, a label that Babanida rejects.

He highlighted the role of Major John Obienu, an Ethnic Officer of IGBO, who played a key role in the calm of the blow, revealing that many high -level IGBO officers were also killed in the mutiny.

The book also sheds light on the participation of members of other ethnic groups, in particular Yorubas, many of which, according to him, had participated in the military acquisition.

The former leader confirmed that the original intention of the blow conspirators was to free the politician Obafemi Awolowo from the arrest and install him as president.

Babanida writes: “It was a terrible moment for the Nigerian army. As I said elsewhere, as a young officer who saw all this from distance, probably, ethnic feelings did not promote the original objective of the blow conspirators.

“For example, the chief of the conspirators, Major Kaduna Nzeogwu, was only ‘IGBO’ on behalf. Born and raised in Kaduna, his immigrant parents were from Okpanam in the state of today’s delta, which, in 1966, was in The old Western mid region.

The IGBOS association with the coup d’etat led to attacks on members of that community throughout the country and, ultimately, to the civil war in which some IGBO leaders tried to separate from Nigeria in 1967. At least one million people were killed in what was known as the Biafran War.

Many Nigerians see Babanida’s wife, Maryam, as the country’s first most emblematic lady. From 1985 until when they left office in 1993, their love story captivated many people. She died in 2009 and the former head of state never married.

“It was impressive. His ebony beauty triggered lovely eyes, and his dazzling smile showed a beautiful set of teeth; when he smiled, he often smiled, his face lit up and his eyes danced,” he writes.

“We both saw our marriage as our freedom and agreed to solve things if we fight. They were very compatible; in fact, I can only remember two occasions when we fight, and none of us were afraid to apologize to the other. In all of us Years of marriage, it was never necessary for anyone to mediate among us for a misunderstanding due to that original meeting of the mind. “

“I never imagined that Maryam would die before me, but the gift of life is in the hands of Allah, not in that of humanity. I am grateful for Maryam’s life and I shared and for the fruit of our union. Cafiar without She has not been easy, but has become much less demanding for the memories of our life together and the duration of her shadow, “says Babanida.

He describes Maryam as a devout wife, mother, housewife and passionate defender of rural women. Above all, he saw her as a true couple.