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Wumione@AOL.com New York, NY, USA

IBB:
THE TRANSITION FROM THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF TO THE MANIPULATOR-IN-CHIEF

told you not to count on it that I will use the title "From Rankadede to Barawo Mutum Banza" suggested to me last week for this article by my good friend from Gwagwalada. I still don’t have the nerves to use such an offensive language in describing a former Head of State of my enemies’ country talk less of my own. I am grateful to two Nigerians commentators who have since written to me on the controversial book. Dozie Ikem my good friend is one of them. One Kemi Odujinrin writing in support of my article on the "Tale of June 12" was actually kind enough to offer me another title I could possibly have used. She had described IBB’s tenure as the perfect "Machiavellian moment" in our country and she was dead right to characterize IBB’s regime in that light.. But I just happen to think that IBB was even worse than the character Nicolo Machiavelli was describing in his world-famous book titled "The Prince", because IBB shared all the attributes of the prince, and a lot more because he was both ruthless and amazingly manipulative, dangerous, but generous to a fault, at the same time as I would show in his article.

I had to be careful, though, about the genuiness of IBB’s generosity to people, because IBB had spent much of his adult life, ever since he joined the Military, spending Government money the way he liked, as a very privileged Nigerian, and a sacred cow from a part of Nigeria where citizens are born to rule, and are therefore never held accountable for their kleptomania or squander mania, for as long as anyone can remember. It is very easy and cool to be generous with money you have neither earned nor worked for with your own sweat. For how else can one justify IBB spending billions of Government money on a self-serving transition program he had deliberately designed for failure, just to permanently keep himself in office while pretending or rationalizing that he was only forced against his own judgment to remain in office as the only savior of Nigeria, which was the same line our learned professor had been pushing in his Tale of June 12. IBB is clearly an enigma. That is why those who love him, do so passionately, and those who hate him do so with vengeance. He was uniquely lucky to do so much damage to a country, and not to have to account for anything, not even appear before the toothless Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up by Obasanjo to just try and mimic the greatest African statesman of all times, the one and only Madiba Nelson Mandela. In some other country in a civilized world, IBB would be languishing in jail for the rest of his life. Nigeria is a different ball game altogether. If you steal or kill as a leader, it was because God had permitted it, no questions asked.

There is a part of me that has a soft spot for IBB because he was very charismatic and easy to get along with as rumored by those who know him the best. He was a fine hybrid of Beauty and the Beast. You are bound to like and appreciate him, if all you are looking for, is the "beauty" component of him. It is a different ball game, however, if you are looking at the negative or the "beast" side of him. If you put him side by side with our current President in a Beauty pageant, nine out of ten people including me will be rooting for IBB, any day, because of his charming persona, his toothy smile, and good looks which are all self evident. I believe Professor Omoruyi in his apologia on him in that book was only seeing the beauty and not the beast or the terrible flaws in IBB’s character. Of course you cannot totally blame the Professor for going out of his way to cleverly defend his friend and benefactor thereby diminishing the credibility of his blow by blow account of his own version of the tale of June 12. Nobody, I repeat nobody who has had such a close association with IBB like the type Professor Omoruyi has enjoyed, has ever gone home empty-handed. IBB is like Jesus in a way in the mindset of his friends. Nobody puts his faith in Jesus, and goes home empty-handed. Never. If you are in any doubt, ask Arthur Nzeribe. Or Okogwu or Odogwu his brother-in-law in Asaba. Not even the late Tai Solarin or our great Nobel Peace laureate Wole Soyinka was spared of the great magnet to want to get close the great Santa Claus of Nigeria whose reputation to give out Government patronage knows no limits. You have got it made, if you are with IBB. For all you know, Professor Omoruyi. may also have been given the license to go dig for crude oil or trade off that license to another contractor, and smile all the way to the Bank with the returns on the trade by barter. I am able to say that because I do know that Professor Sam Aluko the great Economic Adviser to most Federal Governments of Nigeria was once issued a license to export crude oil. If they can extend such a favor to uncle Aluko why would IBB not do it for Omoruyi?. IBB was that generous a lion king, believe me.

We were only lucky that Wole Soyinka whose credibility would have been destroyed for ever, had found someway to extricate himself after IBB had thrown him the red meat like he used to do to other Nigerians, so others could be like him and suffer the same fate, if there was ever a day of judgment for those who have stolen so much from Nigeria, all in the name of Government. IBB’s policy is live and let live. He believes like most Hausa people that you live for today, and leave tomorrow to take care of itself. "Sadaka sabo da Allah" is not only for the almajiris of this world alone. To the average Northerner, there is a big virtue in giving away "sadaka" to all around you, if you have your eyes on "Alujanah" Forgive my poor Arabic spelling. I pick up the few Hausa and Arabic words I know from the University of the Street as one E-mail tiger thought I might have picked up my Ph.D. from Jankara or Oyingbo. That guy made me laugh so hard. I almost cracked a rib. No modern country can be governed with the "sadaka" philosophy, and not crash, sooner than later, believe me. IBB believes that even Lucifer can be "settled", if you box him into a corner and if the price is right. IBB by nature always makes sure his loyalists like Omoruyi would be very well catered for and pampered behind closed doors. You can quote me on that.

The Professor has therefore been very silent on that aspect of his relationship with IBB which is understandable because telling such asordid story is likely to be very dirty and "infra dignitate" for a man of letters like the Professor. But you can tell so much water must have passed under the bridge for the Professor to develop such a high tolerance level for the Emperor even when he knew the Emperor was not only naked but even psychotic when his cobweb of intrigues and manipulation of everybody around him had finally caught up with him, making him look more like a villain rather than a folk hero he had craved when he started out in 1985 The foundation of a transition from a "Rankadede to Barawo" was laid at that time. It has only crystallized when the former C-in-C was openly booed in Zaria at a wedding ceremony not too long ago.

The point I want to stress here is that .the word "resignation" never at any time became an option for the learned Professor.. The closest he ever got to throwing in the towel, was when he once suggested to IBB to consider redeploying him probably from the Center for Democratic Studies, as the pioneer Director, to Aso Rock where he could continue to perform his role as the power behind the throne, and so many things rolled into one for IBB.. He was a confidant. He was a speech writer. He was an image-maker He was a body guard or possibly a bouncer to deflect all the criticism from IBB. He was an ambassador at large for IBB, going to Japan and the Embassies to stand in for the President. He was even a doctor, without borders, and a psychiatrist to the President at one point. He was arguably the very first Southerner ever to come that close to the center of gravity in Nigeria for that long. If you believe that IBB had brought the Prof that close to himself, without a very fundamental reason and without a quid pro quo of sorts, you have got to be living in another planet It was even instructive to me that the Professor had had the nerves to stay on, even after IBB was finally forced to step aside and to retire to Minna. The Professor still had not seen a reason to immediately resign or leave the ING or the Sani Abacha regime that followed, until much later as narrated in the book. I guess the perquisites of office or the fact that he was busy gathering information that he had hoped to capitalize upon in writing books, later on, were some of the attractions that had kept the Professor glued to the regime for that long till an attempt was actually made on his life before he finally got the message, and took off for the Land of Freedom to start telling his story, and to start making more money in the new Canaan. As long as we Nigerians do not learn to resign when we know things are terribly wrong, for so long, shall we continue to produce terrible leaders like IBB, and run our dear country aground. I was disappointed in the "Omo Bini" Professor that he was able to tolerate that nonsense for that long. He probably had his reasons for doing that. I just don’t buy them.

If Professor Omoruyi’s loyalty was to the country as he had claimed, he probably would have done what Mr Dean the Attorney General and few aides to Richard Nixon had done once it became clear to them, like it should have become clear to Professor Omoruyi, that they were dealing with an outlaw of a President in Richard Nixon. IBB, unlike Richard Nixon, in his worst moment, during the crisis, had had cause to even doubt his emotional stability as a leader. IBB according to Professor Omoruyi had told him (Omoruyi) that he was depressed, delusional and even psychotic, and he gave expression to that, when he told Omoruyi in black and white:

"I cannot kill myself for the sake of what the country wants, I am sorry"

I thought that was a serious statement for any Head of State to make about his country. All the professor could say, in return, was that it was astonishing to hear a General state he would not lay down his life for his country. But the professor had surprisingly added another caveat that he understood what IBB had meant If he did, he cannot assume that the other 120 million Nigerians actually understand what their Head of State had meant in that point in time. There was a point in paragraph 3 of page 162 of that book where the Professor had said that IBB was sitting on the sharp point of a dilemma. It was either his life or his honor, but that IBB was inclined to settle for his life, and to let go his honor, Omoruyi‘s words not mine. Can you imagine any American President making that kind of choice in public or in private? I sure cannot. I don’t know about you my friend. .Such a President would never again have been considered a serious contender for any public office in America, trust me. But anything is possible in Nigeria.

If the truth must be told IBB was clearly a disaster for Nigeria in the way and manner he had governed that country for 8 years. Just imagine the way and manner he had commandeered the functional title of President which was clearly a departure from how the other Nigerian leaders before him had comported themselves in office. All the military leaders before him starting from Aguiyi Ironsi, to Yakubu Gowon and then to Murtala Mohammed , Obasanjo and then Mohammadu Buhari were all contented with the functional title of Head of State because they had thought that the words "President" and "Prime Minister" were more apposite and appropriate for elected politicians and not successful coup plotters. But IBB who had spent all his years in the Military preparing himself to be President thru the barrel of the gun, by taking part in all the coups in the country, had refused to follow the beaten path because he was a survivor extraordinary. He had therefore charted a new course for all who would rule the country after him including Sani Abacha and Abdulsalam Abubakar. The only stop gap person, Ernest "Soroye" Sonekan, who could not dare to use the title was the only southerner who was illegally handpicked to head an interim make-believe contraption imposed on the nation by the same IBB in a move that had no legal backing whatsoever, all because he was hoping such a move would have served not as a replacement to his regime, but as a continuation of it as acknowledged by Professor Omoruyi in the same book. The Professor had explained his use of the word "set aside" in that context. IBB was hoping he would be recalled to take over from where he had left off. What he did not reckon with was the resourcefulness and suavity of the eaglet monster he had created in Sani Abacha, the Khaliffa waiting in the wings looking for the right moment to defrock bloody southerner in Sonekan who had been chosen to appease the British in particular and not the Yorubas at all or Nigeria as a whole.

I am putting my searchlight on IBB in this article, because I do not believe, from just reading the Tale of June 12 that Professor Omoruyi has made it any easier for Nigerians to be able to form any credible opinion on the suitability of IBB for any public office again in Nigeria, considering his track record in 8 years of hell. Only God can tell how much in Naira and Kobo, the transition program of IBB had cost our Nation. Not even the Professor was able to give us a rough estimate of the total cash that was wasted on implementing a program that IBB himself had not believed in, from the get go. It was clear from the sentimental commitment of the Professor to the success of the transition program, that the Professor would appear to have had a lot more faith in the transition tinderbox than Mr. President whose faith in it was very shaky and totally superficial to say the least. He IBB had done as much to sandbag the transition than he did to save it. He (IBB) had just wanted to keep Nigeria busy talking while prolonging his tenure in office, and looking for ways to succeed himself without appearing so to do.. That he is already scheming to come back one more time after ten years interval, only tells me that IBB had come to love that office so much, and he wants to come back again to complete the job he had started so treacherouly. I can understand Nelson Mandela wanting to come back to rule South Africa. I can understand Lee Kuan Yu coming back to rule Singapore. I can understand Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia coming back to rule the old Bendel or Awolowo coming back to want to rule the old West, if that were at all possible. What I cannot, for the life of me, understand is IBB coming back to rule Nigeria again. Why? Because his track record was despicable all things considered.

The windfall from the Gulf War which had heavily benefited our country was squandered by IBB on pursuing a useless transition program that was done to create more bad blood in our country and to knock the heads of the political and the military class all for the benefit of the Maradona. That money, if spent on providing free education, free medical care, and the basic infrastructure for a country crying for help would have gone a long way to solving our problems. Have you ever heard of Government sponsored parties any where in a Democracy? IBB and Professor Omoruyi were the architects of that in Nigeria. I see the money spent on preparing the political class, 400,000 individuals graduating from the Center for Democratic Studies, had later proved to be nothing but share waste of funds. If you believe, like I do, that the political class would appear to have learnt nothing from the whole wasteful exercise. Let anybody tell me in what way the mass education and mobilization of the Political class have benefited our country, if you take account of how the political class in the last dispensation after Abacha and Abubakar has ruined our Nation. It would have been nice to know how much was expended on that program, and what was the total budget of the CDS under Omoruyi’s leadership and how the money was spent. Until we are given that information, it is counter productive to do a realistic cost benefit analysis of the Program or to engage in any euphoria that the CDS has in deed done anything worthy of praise. The only person who may have seriously benefited is IBB himself and the learned Professor who as the pleni potentiary Director General of the CDS, was a close confidant of a President who is known to spend Nigerian money like a drunken sailor, and who has a reputation for letting his loyalists take as much of Government largesse placed in their charge without any let or hindrance. I knew that because I was the pioneer Director of DIFFRI in Ondo State. Now tell me about it. It was an opportunity for State Governors to taste their own piece of the pie just like the Federal Government had decided to dole out a Mercedenz Benz to all Judges and saloon cars to all traditional rulers across the country. Professor must have been given a free hand to do what he wanted with the vote earmarked for the all powerful Center for Democratic Studies which is the major platform the Professor had used to launch himself worldwide. The tale of June 12th has not mentioned a word on that aspect of the tale for obvious reasons. I challenge Professor Omoruyi to do Nigeria and himself a favor by walking us thru how much the transition program had cost our nation, and how much of that budget was spent on the CDS alone.

The other iniquities of IBB are too well known and documented to be repeated in this article. The assassination of Dele Giwa, the substitution of another prisoner for Gloria Okon who was later shipped to Europe or some where there, the elimination of Mamman Vatsa on trumped up charges. So many other misdeeds of IBB in Government are legion. I am not going to bother myself talking about those. I am only going to focus on issues pertinent to the Tale of June 12 as documented by Professor Omoruyi. You will recall I had, earlier on, compared IBB with Richard Nixon and had wondered aloud if Richard Nixon, if he had lived, could ever be considered a serious candidate for public office in America, given his track record in office.

Nigeria had faced the same kind of choice in IBB like America had faced in Richard Nixon. Whether we fail or succeed as a country all boil down to the choices we make in picking our leaders. As a psychologist and a social worker by training and license, I do know, for a fact, that human beings as a rule, hardly ever change once they have passed a certain stage in life. One of the greatest psychologists of all time and my favorite, the great John Bowlby had once said and I quote:

"The first three years of our Life establishes the blueprint for all of our future relationships" and arguably our behavior".

Some of our behaviors in adulthood can be traced back to our first three years of life. My hypothesis here is that it is damn too late to ever expect anything to change, if tomorrow ever comes for IBB to rule Nigeria one more time I submit that his second coming cannot be significantly different from his first just like we have seen today that Obasanjo’s first and second coming, and even the third coming may not be significantly different ,from all we know, because the more things appear different, the more they stay the same. As a matter of fact, if you ask me I think Obasanjo’s second coming was possibly worse than his first, and if morning shows the day as boyhood shows manhood, his third coming may well be worse than his second coming. You can take it from me that IBB is ever going to remain the Maradona that he has always been from now to eternity. I cannot resist the temptation to now quote one of the greatest preachers and televangelist of African/American descent that the United States had produced. I am talking of the one and only Bishop Emeritus T. D. Jakes who had once forcefully argued in a sermon;

"If you always do what you’ve always done, you will always be where you’ve already been" .

Is Nigeria ready to do something different in picking our leaders. That is the one million dollar question I put to all Nigerians on why IBB must never be allowed to come back to rule the nation again for a leopard hardly ever changes his skin. Once beaten twice shy.

It was IBB according to Professor Omoruyi that had encouraged M.K.O. and Alhaji Bashir Tofa to run for office even when it was crystal close to him he wasn’t going anywhere. The same IBB who had secretly promised Sani Abacha he was going to hand-over to him, had secretly gone behind Abacha’s back to start encouraging the duo of Dongoyaro and David Mark they were going to be his first choice for succession. Can you believe that? Professor Omoruyi on page 155, paragraph 4 had made a ridiculous statement and I quote"

"The stalematists knew that the annulment was not a coup in the traditional sense because there was no visible person or clique in charge of the annulment, hence the annulment Statement was unsigned, undated and carried no government letterhead or seal"

Come on Professor, give me a break.. The visible person in charge of the annulment was nobody else but your IBB. He was the central figure. He was the person holding the rope to the moppet, and the moppets were the political class, the military class, the traditional rulers or AGIP meaning agents of the Government in Power as defined by you. I regret to tell you that you are also one of the moppets as well, if you don’t know. I put the death of M.K.O squarely on the shoulders of IBB. He had personally driven M.K.O. to his death b y deceiving him and making him believe there was indeed a vacancy at Aso Rock when he knew there was going to be none. M.K.O. too was one of the moppets

Professor Omoruyi without knowing it, had given Nigeria so many reasons why it could be suicidal to give his benefactor one more time to come back to office. On page 162 paragraph 2, Professor Omoruyi had said that:

"General Babangida knew he could purchase the political class but he knew the International Community was not purchasable."

Come on, Prof, give me a break. Of course the international community was equally purchasable, and IBB knew that perhaps better than all his peers combined because buying people was his stock in trade for all his years in office. IBB was buying the international community when he grants them concessions that cannot be quantified in Naira and Kobo. Didn’t you admit IBB did not pick Sonekan to head the interim Government to placate the West, but that he chose Sonekan to appease the British. When you appease the British, you appease their traditional ally, the United States of America. Now a leader who will impose an illegality on his Nation just to appease a foreign power does not deserve a second chance in my book. I don’t know about you.

Professor omoruyi had said again in paragraph 3 of page 162 that IBB had lacked the moral courage to call his boys in the Military to order having lied to them about Chief Abiola at the onset. IBB was now a victim of his web of intrigue. He had assured them he would be able to stop Abiola before the process had reached the crucial stage of election. He had become the manipulator-in-Chief. The term "settlement" was introduced into the Nigerian political lexicon by IBB. It was the big foundation of Bribery and Corruption which had clearly become a cancer under IBB.

Professor had continued to say in paragraph 4 of page 26 of his book that IBB had not acted alone. My own submission, based on empirical facts gathered else where in the same book is that IBB had indeed acted alone because annulment had always been his ultimate goal. It is begging the question to argue otherwise like Professor had persistently tried to do in his book. On page 104 paragraph 2, Professor Omoruyi had argued that IBB had never spoken to anyone to annul or derail the election, even though his name was freely and openly used by his aides. How could IBB ever argue he was not privy to Bassey Ikpeme holding her candlelight session in an Abuja Court between 9 and 10 pm at night, decidedly to make a ruling that was designed to stop the election on June 12, or make it a nullity in Law if it went head, based on a Freudian slip that IBB could easily have denied, given his duplicity, if he was pushed to the wall. IBB had known he would easily be overruled by the Court, but Professor Omoruyi in a desperate attempt to justify the several billions spent on his pet project hadjust wanted the project to go ahead wily Nelly, even it means defying a Court order. In that unique sense, Professor Omoruyi had believed his big boss was clearly above the Law. That was clearly his mindset at that point in time as revealed in that book. At a point, I strongly believe IBB and Omoruyi were both fooling themselves and toying with the destiny of a Nation in a quagmire of poor leadership.

IBB was clearly an outlaw. Just imagine what he had done after removing Ebitu Ukiwe as the number two man. He had gone for a retired Naval officer in Admiral Aikhomu just to be sure the issue of a southerner taking over from him in the event of a sudden death did not arise, like it did, when Obasanjo could not be rationally bypassed after Murtala Mohammed was assassinated by Dimkar in broad daylight at Ikoyi. The North symbolized by IBB and his cohorts had decided never again to make the same mistake of allowing a southerner to ever have the opportunity to ever step into the leadership of Nigeria by default. The northerners were ever so determined never again to let that happen. That was why David Mark had actually offered that he would personally shoot M.K.O if he was ever made President of Nigeria and IBB had argued at some point in the book that the word "Kabiyesi" or "Ogbuefi" would never, in his life time, replace "Rankadede" in the corridors of power at Aso Rock. If we both own the country together in a democracy, I cannot, for the life of me, understand how any leader with that kind of mindset should ever be allowed to rule Nigeria again. IBB and his kind had no business coming back to power in Nigeria if we still remain one country under God. Period.

IBB had remained a jigsaw puzzle all his life that must be analyzed and studied very carefully. I start with the names he is now identified with today in our country. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida is quite a name if you reflect on it as I do. It is often said that Ijebu people as a group hardly ever give the name "Ojo" to any male child in their culture, and never would you ever find a Yoruba girl or woman named "Kumolu" It is just not done. By the same token, it is very rare to find too many Alhajis among Ndigbo people unless they are out for some mischief or looking for something in the North or pursuing a contract they wanted so bad. I have seen a few Yoruba people change their names to a Hausa sounding names like Haruna, Adamu, Dongoyaro, Yisa, Ahmed,, Aminu, and some even going to Mecca to add "alhaji" to their title, if they are hell bent on going to the Defense Academy in Kaduna because they know the right name or prefix is a passport to many opportunities in Nigeria. But never have I seen a northerner wanting to change his name to a southern sounding name however appealing those names could be like Arisekola, Adedibu, Ladejola Oginni,, Olateru Olagbegi, Okondo, Gbangba Dekun, Ajanlekoko, Kobiowu, Agbe and Aluko or Olokose or better still Chukwumerije, Okokon Ndem, Akaolisa, Ukpabi Azika, Orji Uzor Kalu, Mbakwe, Ekwueme, Kedebi Jeko, or Urobo names like Akpovofene, Ovie kpor, Dafinone, Ogheneselwemu, Oghenekeve, Brume and so many other names in the delta region like Jasper Adaka Boro or Diette Spiff and Wenike Briggs or Kenule Saro Wiwa and Ibitamuno, Tamunotonye, Igonikotaria to mention just a few.

It is therefore of special interest to me when I saw "Badamasi" as the middle name of IBB. As a tapa man, he probably had some historical linkage with the Yorubas of Ogbomosho origin because "Badamasi" is not a common name among the Hausas or the Fulanis, and certainly not with the Kanuris as well. The only other Nigerian that I know who bears a name that cuts across two ethnic tribes in Nigeria like that, is General I.O.S Nwachukwu meaning "Ike Omar Sanda Nwachukwu whom I have been knowing when he once served as Deputy Military Secretary to the late General Agbazikah Innih in the Ministry of Defense at the Republic Building way back in 1968 when I was Assistant Secretary (Army) under S A Ogunleye as Senior Assistant Secretary, one Mr. B. G. Popo as Deputy Permanent Secretary and Alhaji Yusuf Gobir as Permanent Secretary. I could understand why Nwachukwu bears some Hausa sounding names because his mother was born in in the royal household of the Emir of Katsina. But I could never quite explain the origin of "Badamasi" as the middle name of IBB. It remains a jigsaw puzzle till tomorrow.

My point here is that IBB has always been a very controversial and complex figure, and like the pony he is always full of tricks, and would pull a fast one on you as a public figure, if you let him. I don’t care how Professor Omoruyi might wish to project him as a leader. I strongly believe he has some fundamental flaws in his character that would make him a terrible candidate from the North for the Nigerian presidency of the future. Why? Because human beings don’t change that easily, if at all as I said before in this write-up. IBB has definitely had his chance and he has blown it. He must give the Nation a chance to try some other characters we have never tried before for a change..

I rest my case