”Nobody is worth being called a friend unless he is prepared to suffer attacks on account of defending you” – Anonymous Annual tributes to former military President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, IBB, has become a ritual; shared by several highly respected individuals than most people realize. Despite the determined efforts by the June 12 opportunists, all they can actually point to is the fact that the June 12, 1993 election was annulled. As is always the case with propagandists, they conveniently ignore the fact that if the first primaries, which produced Adamu Ciroma for the NRC and Shehu Yar’Adua of the SDP, had not been annulled by IBB, Abiola would never have been a candidate at all. Obviously, as far as the hypocrites are concerned, it was acceptable to cancel a primary which ended with two northerners emerging as the candidates!!! In fact, they endorsed the measure by IBB. “A man who has made no mistakes does not usually make anything” – Edward Phelps, VBQ p 141 Only God is infallible. All humans are prone to error; sometimes under external pressure. Granted, a serious mistake was made when the June 12, 1993 election was annulled, nobody can claim to know how things would have worked out if Abiola was president. I had my fears. Any country which unites the greatest personal wealth with the ultimate political power in one person has already murdered democracy. That was what an Abiola presidency could have unleashed. At any rate, we have since then experienced life under six Heads of State, two military and four civilian. Though the circumstances under which each one governed are not the same, one measure of good governance is the establishment and maintenance of institutions. To simplify the comparison, I have chosen to compare Babangida’s eight years in office with those of two elected presidents since 1999 – Obasanjo and Buhari – who both served eight years in office. Despite being very selective in the presentation of evidence, the facts speak for themselves. SELECTED BABANGIDA DECREES AND INSTITUTIONS ESTABLISHED OR STRENGTHENED “A better educated and hopefully more enlightened Nigerian populace will in the future look at these initiatives and wonder: “Where are the monuments to honour the individual who made them possible?” IBRAHIM B BABANGIDA, 1985-1992: LETTING A THOUSAND FLOWERS BLOOM, p 352– Dele Sobowale Babangida did not start the Lagos Third Mainland Bridge. Civilian President Shehu was the initiator. But he had completed less than 25 per cent before his government was overthrown in 1983. Military Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari, ever unimaginative, ignored the uncompleted project during his 19 months in office. IBB came to power and immediately saw the potentials for the rapid development of Lagos State once the bridge was completed. But, unlike other self-seeking presidents, he did not name the bridge after himself; when he could have done it without a single dissenting voice. Close the bridge for six weeks and experience the difference between excellent statecraft and empty slogans about reforms which impoverish the masses. IBB enriched Lagos and indeed the entire nation immeasurably with that bridge. Nothing else that any president or governor has done can compare. Fortunately, he did more than that. Here are just a few, listed in chronological order – just in order to remind us of the debt of gratitude most of us refuse to express. Count me out. I have lived long enough, traveled to some many countries, worked with so many types of people and read so many publications to know that some people are so incorrigibly biased they would not let facts stand in the way of their prejudices. This is strictly for those with minds still open. 1988: • Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation, NDIC, Decree 25 •Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, Decree 29 • Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, Decree 45 1989 •National Economic Reconstruction Fund, NERFUND, Decree 2 •National Population Commission, NPC, Decree 23 •National Directorate of Employment, NDE, Decree 24 •National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Decree 48 •Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC, Decree 49 1990 •Company and Allied Matters Act, CAMA, Decree 20 • National Council of States, NCS, Decree 27 •Nigeria LNG (Fiscal Incentives, Guarantees and Assurances), Decree 39 1991 •Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Decree 24 • Bank and Other Financial Institutions, BOFI, Decree 25 •Nigeria Export Processing Zone, NEPZ, Decree 34 •Nigeria Export-Import Bank, NEXIM, Decree 38 1992: •Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission. OMPADEC, Decree 23 (now NDDC) • National Institute for Sports, NIS, Decree 31 •National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, Degree 38 •National Commission for Women, Decree 42
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