Re: Reconciling accounts: An Ex-Excellency prepares to meet his Maker

Winston Churchill, late British Prime Minister said “People never look forward to posterity when they don’t look back to their ancestors”. It is in that context; I will like to respond to the write up with above caption on Daily Trust of Sunday, May 1, 2016 and also syndicated on Sahara Reporters with a different […]

Winston Churchill, late British Prime Minister said “People never look forward to posterity when they don’t look back to their ancestors”. It is in that context; I will like to respond to the write up with above caption on Daily Trust of Sunday, May 1, 2016 and also syndicated on Sahara Reporters with a different coloration and title. The writer, one Sonala Olumhense went memory lane with a jaundiced point of view; on the Government and person of Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB). It is not surprising that the writer has submitted his professional conduct as a Journalist to suspicion hence he sat down to write tissues of lies from the pit of hell just because he wanted to use the man IBB as a punching bag a venture many journalists/columnists who want to gain cheap recognition use as a vent for blackmail.
While most of the issues raised by the writer were neither new nor revealing, some of them need to be responded to, in order that the public are not led through the path of ignorance cosmetically made up with tissues of lies and ill informed motives. Though the writer has said a friend of your enemy is not your enemy, his subsequent submissions have exposed his IBB phobia; from the start when he stated, he met him when he was part of a media team to interview the General in 1985. And this is made manifest by verdict of corruption on the General by the writer without the mention of any judicial pronouncement on the General by either a court of competent jurisdiction, Government commission of inquiry and other statutory avenues set by the government and the constitution to address such allegations raised by the writer. In traditional Igbo society, “…Any person caught stealing, will be compelled to stand in a village square naked and later vanished from that particular community”.
Looking at the person of IBB, the writer have underscored his greatness by placing him in the pantheon of great men like Shaka Zulu, his supposed mentor and Diego Maradona, the former Argentine Soccer legend. However, the deeds and misdeeds of IBB like that of any leader will be left to three judgments…that of man, history and the Creator hence every moral standard is measure by those tripod reflections.
 It is important to point out that the regime of IBB been ascribed with bad things, has done great things for Nigeria. It is true that the Man IBB will always be credited with the fact that he assembled the best brains that came up with policies and programmes that are responsible for unlocking the potentials of this great Nation, the ones that readily come to mind are; NERFUND, NEXIM Bank, MAMSER (now NOA), Peoples Bank, Federal Road Safety Commission, NDIC among others. IBB government have taken the bold step of relocating the nations’ capital from Lagos to Abuja thus freeing Lagos to pursue its development agenda and bequeathing a befitting capital city to Nigeria which is a testimony to his foresightedness. He does not only relocate the capital but put in place visible, verifiable and veritable facilities such as the Aso Rock Presidential villa, International Conference Center, Third Mainland Bridge, Nnamdi Azikwe Airport, Abuja infrastructural development, Egbin Power station, Shiroro Hydro power station and many others to say the obvious the third mainland bridge in Lagos, I dare the writer to come up with any administration that has done that much in a circumstance where the oil price was barely quarter of what it subsequently sold after IBB left office.
So why single out IBB if not for phobia and luxury of hate for his success. Is it, a grand design by Mr. Olumhense and his like who might have put him into doing the hatchet job to ridicule a man that sacrifices his life for his country? Let it be on record, the so- called oil windfall that became generic definition term of corruption on IBB government, was judiciously utilized for some of the aforementioned projects and to date nobody has surpassed his landmark eight years rule as military president, these are facts verifiable, yet some of the writers like him have chosen to be lazy critics with little or no credible basis for criticism.
It is very scintillating that the writer understood his limit of judgment as he defers that one to IBB’s Maker; God, it is good that the God he refers to does not use set of criteria, prejudice, sentiment, Jaundiced and parochialism of man as a yardstick and therefore is no go area for man including Sonala and his likes.
As Muslims and Christians even atheists we all know that every soul must taste death, so the mention of the death of his wife and his rumoured demise in an effort to make him look bad leave a sour taste in the mouth of the writer because it is a necessary end for all no matter who you are.
Gen. IBB like other few before and after him had sacrificed themselves by risking their lives to keep this nation intact. Whatever his misdeeds like leaders before and after him should and must not diminish him as one of the leaders who love, lead and did his best for his country. His best may not be good enough for people like the writer, but the history of a nation is not limited to the deeds and misdeed of just one leader, if the writer is ready to be rational.
On the unsolicited advice of the writer for IBB to return some his “stolen wealth” and use the rest for philanthropy and charity, the writer need to spend a day at the Hilltop Mansion of the General to see the retinue of people that throngs there for one help or the other and not because he has looted funds but because he is always open to help in whatever way to people of all shades a virtue that he has possess even at a very younger age and sustained up till date. He has been helping people, but need not do show of it as others do in the form of foundation. Let Mr. Sonala Olumhese be educated, that IBB does need to announce setting a foundation, his contribution sponsoring children of down trodden of the society from secondary to university education from all over the country is a continuous exercise that as of today his Children are Championing through an unannounced MARYAM BABANGIDA FOUNDATION, that mainly focused on health, education and religious activities.
Only God is immortal and one day we shall all answer the call to glory and we shall be asked to account for our deeds and misdeed. As for General IBB his ailment was a result of his doggedness to keep Nigeria one and was shot by a bullet during the Biafran war. It was this bullet, that today make IBB sick but his resolute for unity of Nigeria remains unshakable. If only for this sacrifice in uniting Nigeria, that IBB is receiving bashing, I must say it is a betrayal of the highest order not different from those that betrayed prophets of God. Out of twelve disciples of Prophet Isa (Jesus) only ten stand by him, one betrayed him, while the other one abandoned him. The same with Prophet Noah (Nuhu) after preaching for over nine hundred years, his son was among the unbelievers and God crushed them and they all perished.

Sadiq Munnir, a Public Affair analysts, wrote this piece from Minna.