Posted by KOLA AYOOLA on
SLOWLY but surely the campaign by former president, General Ibrahim Babangida, to return to power has begun. Babangida, at a function to commemorate his 65th birthday, last month, signalled the opening of the campaign when he told friends and associates, that he would seek to be given a role in the efforts to make Nigeria whole again.
SLOWLY but surely the campaign by former president, General Ibrahim Babangida, to return to power has begun. Babangida, at a function to commemorate his 65th birthday, last month, signalled the opening of the campaign when he told friends and associates, that he would seek to be given a role in the efforts to make Nigeria whole again. Taking the cue, a select group of his friends, penultimate Thursday, assembled in the Inner Crockpot room of the Lagos Sheraton Hotel and Towers to reminisce, share good food and woo the princes of the media. It was not difficult to see why Lagos was chosen for the opening glee. It is the city in which Babangida had the best days of his fairy tale career culminating in his becoming president in August 1985. Some of the most defining moments of his life happened in this seaming city of 15 million people. More importantly, Lagos is home to a large majority of the nation's most influential and critical media. Expectedly, it is the seat of the most virulent critics of the Babangida brand.
Babangida's official biographer and publicist, Chidi Amuta, called the house to order at 8. 05 pm, an hour behind schedule. Most guests had turned up late anyway, no thanks to the grinding traffic the city experienced that day. Those familiar with Lagos understand why it is difficult to be prompt at an event on a day it rained from dawn to dusk. Traffic on most roads in the city was in a gridlock for most of the day.
Amuta, after the usual apologies, said the gathering was about a man of the world. In deference to the media, he said the group which was embarking on consultations with various interests groups chose to meet first with media owners and chief executives. He said that had been made easier by the fact that their principal was a long standing friend of the media. Looking round the room, Amuta declared that severally and collectively those assembled there were friends of Babangida. He said it was to IBB's credit that he reached out to all, regardless of creed or class.
As a friend of the media, he said Babangida had on several occasions demonstrated his commitment to that friendship. According to him, Babangida was ready once again to avail the nation of his experience and abiding commitment to Nigeria's progress and prosperity. Babangida, he explained was offering his service to Nigeria in whatever capacity it may be required.
From the media, he said, what the general expected was a reciprocation of friendship, not with blind support but with understanding. 'Blind support is unprofessional. What he expects is your understanding," he said.
Amuta said it was painful to read and listen to some of the falsehood being peddled in the media about the former military president. Particularly, he said it was bad that a majority of today's voters who were under six years old when Babangida quit office in 1993 were now being fed with deliberate lies about the former Nigerian leader. He explained that one of Babangida's military governors was removed from office and subsequently retired for spending N300, 000 without permission and wondered how people felt about the mind-boggling figures being quoted in relationship to some governors today who have been mentioned on corruption allegations. Nigerians, he said, were not fooled by the on-going smear campaign in a section of the media, adding that some of the negative propaganda against Babangida have their good side.
To Amuta, it was remarkable that almost 14 years after Babangida left the saddle, he still remained at the heart of national discourse. 'Something is wrong with a leader who attracts only one type of reaction from the people. The great leader is the one who cannot be ignored. At the right time, we will confront falsehood with truth," he said
With that, Amuta invited Babangida's chief of staff and former military administrator of Kano and Niger States, Col Habibu Shuaibu, to present his goodwill address. Shuaibu assured the gathering that Babangida would soon meet them 'to discuss the well being of Nigerians". Describing his principal as a friend of the media, Shuaibu recalled that Babangida during his tenure as president donated land to the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Abuja for siting its national secretariat and backed it with a cash donation of N30 million.
That, to him, was ample demonstration of Babangida's friendship with the media. Remarking that the former president had continued to dominate media discourse more than 13 years after leaving office, Shuaibu said the interaction was aimed at renewing the co-operation and understanding between Babangida and his media friends. He said the smear campaign in the media against Babangida was part of the sacrifice he had to make for the nation's young democracy to blossom. His only plea was that those who make allegations against his boss should be ready to back them with concrete evidence and give the general the right of reply.
'Gen Babangida has asked me to tell you all that he appreciates the friendship of the media and assures you all of his commitment to that friendship," he concluded.
First to pick up the microphone on the side of the media was Sam Omatseye, chairman, Editorial Board, The Nation newspapers. He said he had little to say and that little came by way of three short questions: If Babangida is truly a friend of the media, why did he ban newspapers and magazines? If Babangida is a democrat, why did he annul an election widely acknowledged to be free and fair? And if he ran Nigeria so well as president, why did his Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) impoverish so many?
Answers to these questions came in torrents. Amuta opened the floor. He promised that full answers to those and many other such questions agitating the minds of the people would be provided when the campaign goes into full gear adding, however, that no reform in history had gone without pain. He said that even the on-going reforms of the Obasanjo administration had produced its own pains and victims.
He was quickly joined by one Blessing Mgbemena who sat in the audience. As a doctoral student in the United Kingdom, Mgbemena said he had undertaken an extensive research of Babangida's SAP and that his finding was that as at the time the programme came on stream, Nigeria really had no choice. 'If we had not taken that way, we would have been down in the gutter," Mgbemena said.
Omatseye's questions were the right cue required by Babangida's former chief press secretary, Duro Onabule to make his interventions in the discussion. Since he arrived at the venue, Onabule had chosen to share the anonymity of an innocuous corner table he shared with beauty goddess, Angela Onyeador. Reacting to Omatseye's question on the ban of newspapers, Onabule expressed delight that Yakubu Mohammed, one of the owners of Newswatch magazine which was banned by the Babangida administration for six months, was in the gathering. He explained that when intelligence report got to the government that the magazine had obtained the report of the Political Bureau, representation was made to the editors and owners of the magazine to refrain from publishing the report, given its sensitive nature, until the government had studied it. He said the magazine turned down that plea and published the document, damning the consequences of that action on the stability of the nation.
'Nowhere in the world is there unlimited freedom of the press, not even in America. So the magazine had to be sanctioned. Proscribing Newswatch to the administration was like a father smacking a child he loved," said Onabule who further explained that the government did not hesitate to lift the ban as soon as it was persuaded that the right lessons had been learnt from that experience.
Onabule then proceeded to address other issues that had come up. He wondered why a section of the media kept saying Babangida ran an interminable transition to civil rule programme when, according to him, it was the same media that had led the chorus of the demand for the cancellation of the primary election of the then Social Democratic Party (SDP) won by the late Shehu Musa Yar'adua. He said it was a natural consequence of the cancellation that the transition programme was elongated. Speaking on the relationship between his boss and key operators of the media, he said never had any leader enjoyed so much friendship with the media and yet consistently and constantly be at the receiving end of their cruel barbs.
Quite often, he said, he would find writers who had in the day written damning editorials against Babangida and his policies only to be huddled with him in the evening, sharing coffee. He rejected suggestions in the media that Babangida institutionalised corruption in the country. 'At least I have the benefit of age. I have been around through all the administrations in the country, civil or military and I know what the trend has been. I was part of the Babangida administration and I can say without fear of contradiction that all members of his cabinet came with their integrity and left with their integrity intact."
Bitterness in the land
Then it was the turn of the women in the house. Taking the lead was Dr Bisi Abiola, one of the wives of Babangida's late friend, Chief M. K. O. Abiola whose election was annulled by the administration in 1993. She pleaded with Nigerians to put an end to the bitterness in the land. What the nation needed now, she said, was a leader who will unite the people and make Nigeria truly great. According to Dr Abiola, what matter most in the campaign to produce a new president in 2007 was experience. 'And I dare say that Gen Babangida has that experience. You cannot beat experience", she said.
Taking the microphone after that passionate speech, Mrs. Josephine Anenih, described as the women leader of the IBB Movement. Mrs. Anenih said many women shy away from politics because of the kind of mudslinging in the media that Babangida had endured. She described Babangida's portrayal in the media as heart breaking and a great disservice to the nation. She said what the people expected from the media were facts and not speculation. Noting that the country's future depended on how the media performed their duty, Mrs. Anenih appealed to media practitioners to be factual.
'I am fully in support of IBB," she said, pointing out, 'and I am anxiously looking forward to his declaration." She said many had asked her why she supported Babangida and that her answer had been 'why not IBB?"
She explained that she was encouraged to pitch her tent with Babangida because the former president while in power encouraged Nigerian women, concluding that Nigeria needed an experienced and tested leader.
When it was his turn to speak, Chief Victor Doily, described as doyen of the pro IBB groups, said his group needed to engage in more dialogue with various segments of the society, particularly the media. He pleaded with the media not to run down Babangida if they would not support his cause.
Giving the vote of thanks, director of publicity of the Babangida Campaign Organisation, Venatius Ikem, said he was a product of the new breed politics advocated by Babangida in the 1990s.Just completing national youth service in 1990, Ikem said he was drafted into politics in his village and that within months he had become the chairman of his local government area. He said Babangida deserved praise for his courage in confronting issues and challenges as well as take policy initiatives. Already, he said the 2007 debate had opened and that it was clearly a Babangida debate. According to Ikem, Babangida is crucial to shaping the issues that would dominate the politics of 2007.
•Ayoola, a freelance journalist, lives in Abuja