Special to USAfrica magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, the first Africa-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet.
Dr. Chidi Amuta is Executive Editor of USAfrica, since 1993
When in February 2025 Babangida released his long-awaited memoir, A Journey in Service, the book launch at the Congress Hall, Abuja Hilton Hotel, was filled beyond capacity. A combined team of the military and secret police had a hard time for several hours managing access and controlling the crowd of people who were intent on crowding the venue most of them just to catch a glimpse of Babangida who has remained something of a rock star icon but mostly out of public view since after he exited office as military president in August 1993.
Back in his Minna retirement home, Nigeria’s former military president receives a daily throng of visitors. His personal staff have, in the last 33 years since he left office, prepared a daily schedule of visitors, meetings and appointments similar to that of a serving head of state. Hardly any day passes without these engagements which Babangida religiously honours except he travels out of the country.
This daily stream of visitors range from traditional rulers, politicians, political aspirants to community leaders and youth activist leaders. They come from across Nigeria to pay homage to the man most Nigerians fondly call IBB (Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida). The callers come to Babangida to derive inspiration, ask for counsel, seek endorsement or get media validation for their sundry projects, mostly in the areas of politics and leadership.
Somehow, these group and individual visits to Babangida in Minna have become somewhat like pilgrimages for many. Thus, a man who soon after leaving office in controversial circumstances in 1993 described himself as the “Evil Genius” has since transformed into an “oracle” on leadership and political matters. His numerous visitors are more of political pilgrims paying homage to a political divinity. Yet the man remains his simple unassuming and self-effacing self. He neither seeks to impress nor impose. He neither hands down political injunctions nor gives out manuals on “how to do do it” in leadership. He instead disarms his guests with his characteristic equanimity, easy carriage and unmistakable generosity of spirit which tends to make the pilgrims want to return ever so often. His openness of approach and choice of dialogue fits an essentially democratic temper for a man who was a military ruler and prefers to humorously call himself a “dictator”.
Yet Babangida’s persisting and growing attraction remains a paradox. When in 1993 he annulled a good presidential election won by M.K.O Abiola , he became famed as an enemy of the people and of democracy. But the passage of time and his recent admission of responsibility for the June 12, 1993 annulment have shifted attention to Babangida’s developmental legacies. People now look around and point at his numerous infrastructure, institutional and policy legacies. He is credited with undertaking Nigeria’s most far-reaching political and economic reform agenda. Yet he bears the burden of sabotaging its most credible presidential election which his administration conducted.
Babangida’s persisting popularity among ordinary Nigerians remains somewhat ironic and puzzling. A man vilified by the older political clan for the June 12, 1993 presidential annulment. A former leader most investigated for allegations of corruption but never indicted or found culpable for a single act of corruption. Yet a leader credited with by far the highest volume of infrastructure, policy and institutional reforms in Nigerian history so far. With an increasing pantheon of former leaders (both military and civilian), Babangida’s reputation and legacy have remained solidly in place. The reason for this fondness lies in a mixture of the man’s personal electricity and the sheer courage of the landmark things that happened under his watch as a leader. This suave smiling combat general assumed office, choosing to be referred to as “President” instead of the familiar Head of State. With friends and associates across the length and breadth of Nigeria, Babangida touoched most Nigerians in places that evoked both pain and pride in nearly equal measure. Never before nor since after him has any other leader struck this equilibrium. That, to my mind, is the secret code of the IBB mystique and enduring myth.
Between 1985 and 1993, Babangida presided over a far-reaching economic, political, and social reform agenda. He ascended power at a troubled time in Nigeria’s history. The economy had tanked under stifling state control. Scarcities of basic goods prevailed. Rationing and endless queues were everywhere.
Babangida’s immediate response to the regime of scarcity, rationing and a controlled exchange rate was to liberalize the economy. He opened locked warehouses, freed the exchange rate from a fixed government control and replaced it with a market-determined regime.
He followed up with a barrage of other economic reforms . Privatization and commercialization of unprofitable government-owned enterprises followed in rapid succession. From an economy that was dominated and controlled by government, Babangida moved decisively towards private sector dominance of the economy. The migration of Nigeria from a state-controlled and over-regulated economy towards a free market and more open economy dominated by the private sector is Babangida’s enduring economic legacy. No subsequent administration has dared reverse this decisive move.
Critics of Babangida’s economic reform agenda, however, insist that his adoption of an IMF-inspired Structural Adjustment Programme without the cushioning effect of an IMF loan unleashed unnecessary hardship of Nigerians. The poorer segments of the population were marginalized. Others argue that the military regime did not have a democratic mandate to undertake such far-reaching measures. Key politicians and citizens accused the government of not having a compassionate human face.
The more contentious reform area of the Babangida years was however in the political realm. He imposed a two-party political system with manifestos, emblems and constitutions handed down by military fiat. In a rash of political idealism, Babangida insisted on replacing Nigeria’s ageing political class with a “new breed” of younger less corrupt politicians. This entailed placing a ban on old-breed politicians with the attendant resistance and political opposition.
Babangida’s political reform was easily the most contentious area. The political class insisted that political reform cannot be be imposed from above by an unelected government. Parties are meant to arise from the civil populace who form them voluntarily in response to political needs. In addition, a situation in which the leadership of the two parties was hand-picked and imposed by government was both strange and arbitrary. Worse still, a military ban on individual politicians was condemned at home and abroad as authoritarian and undemocratic.
It was part of the vision of Babangida’s reform agenda to strengthen the Nigerian state through the creation of strong institutions. So, he proceeded to create institutions to guide strategic areas of national life. Some of these include : A National Electoral Commission, Narcotics Enforcement Agency, Food and Drugs Administration Control Agency, National Broadcasting Commission and Deposit Insurance Commission. Most of these institutions remain active today.
Many have equally acknowledged the courage of the Babangida administration in the movement of Nigeria’s capital from the overcrowded rustic chaos of old Lagos to the more breathable centrally located new city of Abuja. On the symbolic date of 12th December(12/12) 1991, Babangida physically moved the federal capital to the new city of Abuja, still under massive construction. He moved the presidency into the just completed Aso Rock Villa, its permanent home.
Beyond economic and political reform, Babangida undertook numerous strategic infrastructure and industrial projects. These ranged from major highways to airports, refineries, petrochemical plants and military barracks. These included the road network in central Abuja, Lagos Third Mainland Bridge, the Abuja -Kaduna Highway, and the Petrochemical and Refinery complex in Port Harcourt.
Here again, a number of Nigerian critics have asserted, without concrete evidence, that Babangida’s massive infrastructure development may have oiled the engine of official corruption. Yet none can deny that the projects were successfully implemented and moved Nigeria’s development stride forward. It has been admitted that Babangida carried out most of these projects at a time when international oil prices hovered between $9 and $12 a barrel.
Beyond domestic policy, under Babangida’s leadership, Nigeria’s foreign policy assumed a more activist and Afrocentric complexion. For the first time, Nigeria projected its regional power to stabilize the West African subregion with military interventions to end bloody civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Nigeria’s leadership under the famous ECOMOG initiative was globally credited with restoring peace, stability and democracy to both countries.
Key sectors of the populace were obviously marginalized. Women were sidelined. Therefore, the administration adopted a conscious gender sensitive posture. The administration was gender sensitive, recognizing the past neglect of women and the need to empower them. The plight of women received robust attention through the Office of the First Lady. Mrs. Maryam Babangida actively pursued a policy of Better Life for Rural Women which sought to empower rural and underprivileged women in general through economic and agro-based empowerment programmes.
As a conscious policy, the government introduced several poverty alleviation programmes and institutionalized them. These included the creation of a Peoples Bank and a Community Bank both designed to give access to the poor to credit facilities. Babangida constantly tasked his team to seek ways of mitigating the inequality that was increasing in the society. In spite of embracing a free market system, Babangida believed that it was the responsibility of a compassionate government to give capitalism a “human face” by mitigating the alienating effects of market competition.
The introduction of a market economy alienated many. Vested interests in the old government-dominated economy activated opposition of vested interests to the military government. Also, the imposition of a two –party political system meant the opposition of a political class long used to a multi -party culture. Social unrest and mass discontent fueled political opposition. Occasional riots, demonstrations, labour unrest sent a clear message on the need for the state to don a more compassionate face.
An atmosphere of unrest and turmoil gave Babangida’s reform agenda a bad public image. Student protests, endless labour strikes and general unrest were convenient hiding grounds for a largely political revolt against military rule in general.
These were joined by multipronged schemes by the officer corps of a politicized military who were intent on toppling Babangida to have their turn in power. Harassed and tormented by soldiers and political leaders alike, Babangida balked under pressure to nullify the transition presidential election of June 12, 1993. This was the tragic end of an illustrious reform agenda in the history of Nigeria.
This troublesome ending has left Babangida in Nigeria’s leadership history as perhaps a leader more sinned against than sinning. Over three decades after he left office, Babangida has turned into Nigeria’s most popular former leader from social media reactions to his events, recollections and birthdays.
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