IBB at 73: The postscript

Ten years ago, on the occasion of former Military President Ibrahim Babangida’s 63rd birthday I wrote a lengthy piece titled “IBBs Regime: Another View” on the legacy of his contentious presidency.  Today, ten years after, I have taken the liberty to reproduce substantial parts of that piece today to mark his 73rd birthday which was […]

Ten years ago, on the occasion of former Military President Ibrahim Babangida’s 63rd birthday I wrote a lengthy piece titled “IBBs Regime: Another View” on the legacy of his contentious presidency.  Today, ten years after, I have taken the liberty to reproduce substantial parts of that piece today to mark his 73rd birthday which was celebrated at the weekend by the man himself, in the midst of friends, family and associates from all parts of the country and beyond.
In terms of public perception of his legacies, nothing appears to have changed much since I wrote that article.  Nigerians remain ever too eager to reap from the gains of various social and economic reforms – and this includes but are not limited to the reforms in the banking sector, communications, rural development, health but to name just a few- which coincided with the return of democracy more than fifteen years ago without sparring a thought for the genesis of those reforms which are traceable to the bold initiatives of the Babangida administration.  
Today, when Nigerians recall the regime of IBB, a singly epoch of it readily springs to mind. Before David Mark’s “Doctrine of Necessity” unleashed President Goodluck Jonathan on unsuspecting Nigerians, Babangida was the most abused and vilified leader in Nigeria for reasons that have to do with raw emotion but little logic or even commonsense.
Even without the benefit of hindsight, IBB would be the first to admit that the annulment of the June 12 elections was a monumental and life defining error of judgement on his part. But must we on account of that singular glitch in his presidency also ignore the other fundamental impact of his presidency on our national development?
Surely, his legacies transcend a single erection of a single national monument if we are to be sincere with ourselves. His leadership was more structural to our socio-economic wellbeing, and set the stage for the other laudable economic reforms that have followed in their wake. They were enabler’s to our socio-economic growth and development over the past two decades.
Without his banking reforms we would probably not have had our robust banking system most of which are now privately owned along with the financial safety net to inspire confidence in Nigerians. He was the first leader to recognize the role of SME’s to national economic development. He, it was who also initiated the various poverty eradication policies that have followed with the Peoples Bank etc.   
IBB was not a saint, no doubt, but without his bold initiatives in the communications sector we would not have had the African Independent Television (AIT), Channels and the other TV and radio stations that presently employ thousands of Nigerians. Like him or hate him, we cannot ignore the fact that IBBs reforms opened the flood-gates for the rapid enthronement of the private sector of the economy as we know it today and their collective impact on the lives of ordinary Nigerians are such that any decent account of his legacies cannot afford to ignore them simply because he annulled the June 12 elections. What follows therefore are excerpts from the piece I referred to:
“First, we must accept the obvious fact of his charisma because it is God given. Second, we must look beyond June 12 because it was nothing but a fallacy. Third, we need a second look at how he ran his government particularly the content and intention of the policies he introduced. As for the first, even Tam David West will testify that the General has enough charm to awaken the dead. On June 12, we know that a great majority of those who railed against the annulment were the same people who openly derided the transition programme when it was in progress, only to shamelessly join the campaign for reversal of the annulment like drummers trailing a masquerade. In the process the issue was effectively sectionalized and trivialized. IBB is yet to publish his memoirs, but when he does, I have the uncanny feeling that several prominent people in the Southwest will be severely embarrassed.
IBB’s transition programme was unnecessarily prolonged and chaotic no doubt. It was also in the end fruitless and costly to the tax payers.  But for a balanced view of his tenure we must extend our scrutiny to his economic reforms. When he took over in 1985, socialism was already on the retreat but was not fully routed. Its ultimate demise was to come after Gorbachev introduced glasnost and perestroika which trailed the eventual disintegration of the Soviet Union. The idea soon spread to most of Eastern Europe.
The recent enlargement of NATO and the European Union as well as the reforms in China complete with its new pseudo capitalism, effectively dealt the death blow to socialism as a viable economic system. Yet IBB introduced the Structural Adjustment Programme [SAP] in 1985 with the intention of creating a market-driven economy! But it soon transpired that his bold initiative was ahead of its time. It was an extremely bitter pill for Nigerians to swallow first on account of its novelty, and second due to the sordid implementation of ancillary projects designed to cushion the effects of the reforms.
If SAP was tailored towards deregulating the economy, other projects such as the one handled by the Directorate of Food Roads and Rural Infrastructure [DFRRI] and the Peoples Bank, were tailored towards poverty alleviation. Similar economic reforms introduced by the Chinese and elsewhere in Eastern Europe years after the introduction of SAP were hugely successful. The Chinese in particular are now experiencing unprecedented prosperity and economic growth largely due to the pragmatic reforms initiated by Deng Xiaoping after the demise of Chairman Mao and the Cultural Revolution and despite his brutal suppression of the pro-democracy movement at Tiananmen Square.
With the benefit of hindsight, IBB deserves credit for his tremendous vision in terms of the economic reforms he initiated. However, the poor implementation of the same policies only resulted in the massive devaluation of the Naira without the intended tangible economic benefits. With the passing of time, it has become evident that even the economic reforms embarked upon by the Obasanjo administration, are nothing but a revival of SAP in another guise. But SAP did have a positive impact which most analysts of the IBB era failed to recognize or appreciate. It led to the full deregulation of the banking sector and the emergence of the so-called new generation banks setting the pace in the industry today!
Similarly, I refuse to accept the view that IBB alone institutionalized corruption in the country because if at all he succeeded in doing so, we must all accept partial if not collective responsibility for obvious reasons. As for the 12 billion Dollars Gulf war oil windfall, the report of the Okigbo panel was explicit in its conclusion that the money was not expended on ‘regenerative expenditure’ pure and simple. The General was never directly accused for diverting the funds as most have claimed. But I agree with many that he is accountable for the obvious flaws and consequences of his leadership style.
It seems to me that his soft stance occasioned by the desire to ensure the absolute loyalty of his staff and cronies, wittingly or unwittingly contributed to their excesses while in government often at the expense of the national interest. Most obviously benefited from his generous disposition and must be nostalgic about the good old days. But poor implementation of otherwise laudable economic reforms was only a part of his problem. His reforms could only have succeeded within a stable polity”.