I guess there is nothing more to discuss about the IBB’s book. It is now eight days since the book, titled: “A Journey In Service,” was presented in Abuja. The reviews are as varied as they are many. We have had more reviewers than the pages of the 420-page book. Anyone that can read and write and who also witnessed, as an adult, the years of IBB as President of Nigeria, that is, between 1985 and 1993, has a perspective to present regarding the book. He or she is a potential reviewer of the IBB book.
Engineers, doctors, teachers, lawyers, diplomats, politicians, and some enlightened traders have been running commentaries. The most outbursts, understandably, have come from journalists, many of whom experienced, first-hand, the circumstances recounted in the book. Google and internet access providers must have earned more money from readers of the reviews than what the publisher or author ever hopes to earn from readers of the hard book itself. The presidential library bazaar was a different plot. I will come to it later in the course of this outing.
In all, it has been a big literary fanfare. The content has made every commentator an expert in textual interpretation. I cannot remember the last time that the content of a book, written in English, attracted so many interpretations, as if written in Greek. In searching for what was on the writer’s mind, some have remained with the text, others shifted to the subtext and yet many others have created contexts to load imputations. At least, one beautiful thing has been achieved. IBB has managed to direct attention to written content in Nigeria, where reading engagements and mental inquisitions outside smart phones, have become such a burden among old and young people.
I hear, the book sells for N40,000 a copy. Jokes apart, that is so much to spend on a textbook that cannot easily fulfil the taxonomies of scholarship and be appropriated into any discipline in our higher school system. The closest would be political science. Yet, except by an extensive drive down for specific meaning, personal stories of life do not strengthen into hard positions in academics. This is not to say the book is valueless. It may not exactly go for a tale told by an idiot that is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. The stuff can still pass for an interesting story book on military leadership in Nigeria even though portions of it, from what can be gleaned from the avalanche of reviews, may read like ‘Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves in The Arabian Night’.
I have another good reason not to bother about the book. While the theme remains the military career of General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, the area of real impact is the annulment of the presidential election held on June 12, 1993 by him. I did not only witness but participated in the events that gave June 12, 1993, its character in Nigeria’s recent political history. As a Staff Writer with The African Guardian Magazine back then, I was part of the official chroniclers of that piece of history. Lagos was the epicentre of the protests that followed the annulment of the election which was won by the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Chief M.K.O Abiola. The city was on a complete lock-down. All commercial activities were at a complete standstill. It was like a war zone where fatalities were normative. Movement through the barricades and bonfires in the streets required the special skills of a war reporter.
Only protesters enjoyed the privilege of unhindered movement from one point to another. You were instantly branded an enemy with attendant consequences, which could include being beaten to coma or death, if, instead of a rough-looking protester, you appeared dressed for the office. To move around therefore, you must be kitted for street combat. Movement didn’t also mean going about in vehicles or on auto-bikes. I trekked from my own part of town in Daleko-Ejigbo to The Guardian office on the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway on a daily basis while the protests lasted. That is a distance of about five kilometres. To step forth and arrive safely at my destination, I would wear a pair of trousers under an unbuttoned flying shirt that showed I was fully out and ready to chest the consequences of any police action. With a big stick in one hand, as if going to club down the enemies of June 12 in wherever they were, the picture was complete. I had the right of passage through the charged streets to Rutam House to do my work. The protests would have dissipated by night and it was much easier returning home from the office.
The Guardian itself was taken out of circulation for 14 months (between August 1994 and October 1995) as a consequence of its tough position on the senseless annulment of the election. This was the same period that I picked skills in buying and selling to avoid slow death by starving. I had escaped sudden death in the streets from police strayed bullets as I navigated through battle frontlines to the office in the heat of the June 12 protests. I pushed deep into yam producing communities in Oke-owo in Oyo State to bring truck loads of yams for sale at Mile 12 Market in Lagos. The overall experience of that episode was captured in my article: “The Reporter As A Yam Seller,” published in The Guardian after its reopening on October 1, 1995. I cannot remember the specific edition.
The proscription wasn’t the worst experience for The Guardian in the June 12 debacle. After IBB had stepped aside on August 26, 1993, and Chief Ernest Shonekan whom he brought in as replacement, shoved aside on November 17, 1993, the one that came next entered with a suicidal determination to crush all obstacles for his own survival. He was General Sani Abacha who died in office on June 8, 1998; just four days to the fifth anniversary of June 12. Somehow, The Guardian Publisher and my big brother from Agbarha-Otor Kingdom, Mr Alex Uruemuesiri (good character) Ibru, was marked as one of the obstacles that must be cleared for Abacha to reign supreme. Abacha had thought making Mr Alex Ibru a cabinet member would soften the anti-regime stance of The Guardian. That did not happen as Alex Ibru himself pleaded helplessness regarding the issue. He exited the government but was marked for liquidation by Abacha.
Abacha’s hit man, Sergeant Rogers, had not been reported to fire in vain. Except he didn’t fire, his targets did not survive to recount the encounter.
But on this day, February 2, 1996, he did fire and fled, without hindrance, the Falomo Bridge Ikoyi scene of the attack, thinking the matter had been settled. Perhaps, for the first time, in his demonic operations, Sergeant Rogers was cheated by his target. Mr. Alex Ibru survived to recount the encounter. Mr Ibru fled the country and only re-entered after the death of Abacha on June 8, 1998. That day remains green in my memory. It was the same day I bought my first car; a 1978 crafted Mercedes 200 straight engine. I had real difficulties taking the car from the Mile 2 car mart to my new location on Akinbaye Street in Isolo area of Lagos. The roads had been taken over by crowds carrying mock coffins to celebrate and mourn the passing of General Abacha.
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As you can see, I do not need any tutorials by IBB on June 12, 1993. I was part of the story. The other thing is that everybody that has commented on the IBB book is angry with the author for telling lies. How? The man has told his version. And I have just given an abridged version of mine here. All witnesses should come out to tell theirs. People are even angry with IBB for playing safe with Abacha. Really? Are they saying Abacha didn’t exhibit enough signs to be dreaded by all except God? Here was a man who exercised power maximally and did anything to defend his hold on power. While Babangida mostly engaged on good terms and with a view to winning over opponents, Abacha engaged to terminate opposition. He did it with Generals Olusegun Obasanjo and Musa Shehu Yar’Adua. The former was actually waiting to die after the death of the latter when fate rearranged the chart and made it the turn of Abacha to die. This precipitated the uncommon grace that moved Obasanjo from prison to the presidency in 1999.
In the endless battle of life, there is a time to beat a tactical retreat to stem a strategic collapse. I guess that was what IBB did regarding Abacha. He retreated to avoid absolute capitulation. Wise men take flight to fight again another day. They do not obstinately push on when danger outweighs hope. Of the key actors in the June 12 high drama, IBB appears the only one standing to do the final curtain call after the diabolic performance. Others are missing in action. And so, IBB is standing alone in the cast line-up to talk as he likes. It shows some wisdom if you ask me. Overall, he has performed very well to earn his special name: The Evil Genius.
Finally, on the crowd and the billions that rolled in at the book launch, there is really nothing much to say. The scene, you may call it obscenity if you like, is a validation of my narration. IBB is a human relations expert. He is loaded with emotional intelligence and knows how to cut deals with human beings. Did you listen to the testimonies of the people, including Dangote and President Tinubu? They said IBB had a hand in the very successful men and women of today. IBB had more professors and academic doctors in his government than the most established university of that time. Even now, these big brains are ready to do anything and everything for IBB. Who, then, is the fool amongst us, if I may ask?
I will name names on another day. For today, I want to state, without fear of being contradicted, that IBB in his heydays issued bankable political IOUs across board. In simple management and accounting, all IOUs must be retired. The billions that rolled in at his book launch the other day are part of the retirement of IOUs previously issued. The process continues. Here is a man who left office 32 years ago exerting that degree of gravity from his wheelchair as if he has become the centre of the earth. We have every reason to work at things and wait patiently for Nigeria to reset and change character. It is only then that we can muster the ammunition to tackle the evil geniuses among us.
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