Former Nigerian dictator Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida is adopting more desperate measures in the face of signs that his campaign for the Nigerian presidency has no steam.
Babangida’s latest misfortunes came from a video he uploaded to youtube. The video was an invitation to people to visit Babangida’s campaign website. But soon after the video was posted on youtube, anti-Babangida groups began mobilizing their members and the Nigerian public to leave critical comments on the youtube video page.
A source inside Babangida’s dispirited campaign told Saharareporters that several of Babangida’s staffers spent the last two days deleting negative postings and writing positive comments on the video. But by yesterday, when it became clear that they could not cope with the deluge of negative comments, the Babangida campaign office received instructions to lock down the commentary section on youtube.
The desperate step is the latest in a series of woes befalling the presidential dreams of the former dictator whose regime murdered foremost Nigerian journalist Dele Giwa in October 1986.
Since announcing his widely unpopular intention to run in the forthcoming presidential election, Babangida has blundered from one gaffe to another, earning derision and condemnation from Nigerians. The former dictator’s grave missteps include a statement that young Nigerians do not have what it takes to lead the country and a recent statement that he would not answer questions about the assassination of Giwa as well as his annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential polls won by the late businessman Moshood Abiola. “General Babangida’s statements have been generally incoherent and even destructive to his ambition,” said one of the former dictator’s former associates who is not backing him for the presidency.
Babangida’s campaign has neither got any traction nor made any progress even as he is using part of the funds he looted from the public treasury to revive the campaigns. He was forced to abandon his much-publicized campaign stop in Ibadan, capital of Oyo State, after youths warned that they would not let him appear in the ancient city.
“Lots of people are taking IBB’s mon no one is really buying his snake oil,” said a civil rights activist in Abuja.
Babangida is widely hated by Nigerians, including many who were not even born when he was chased out of power in 1993 following his annulment of the June 12 1993 general elections.
In addition to his political crimes, Babangida stands accused of stealing over $12 billion from the Gulf War oil windfall of 1991. The letter bomb murder of Dele Giwa ranks as one of his most notorious crimes.
Military intelligence sources also accuse him of killing many military officers opposed to his rule either by implicating them in phony coup plots or, in a highly dramatic instance, by ordering the sabotage of a military jet carrying many officers.
His economic policy, known as the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP), was largely responsible for destroying the Nigerian economy in the 1980s and decimating the country’s middle class.
“Babangida has managed to evade trial for his many crimes against the Nigerian people by using his illegitimately acquired wealth to buy his cronies, like former President Obasanjo, into office,” said a former military intelligence operative. “These cronies in turn offer him state protection.”
As his campaign flounders, Babangida yesterday resorted to his usual divide-and-conquer form of politics. He stated that he only wants to stay in office for one term after which he would turn over power to an Igbo successor.
But a major Igbo politician told Saharareporters that Babangida’s cheap ploy would win him few votes in the southeast. “The Igbos have borne the brunt of institutional marginalization promoted by Babangida and his colleagues in the army,” said the politician, adding that the former dictator unceremoniously removed Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, an officer of Igbo extraction, from his post number 2 in IBB’s regime. “Ukiwe was disgraced and humiliated despite the fact that he was one of the most upright and admirable officers in the Nigerian military,” said the politician.
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