Few days after the public presentation of the autobiography of former Military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (retd), titled: “A Journey of Service,” a relative of the late General Mamman Vatsa and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress in Niger State, Comrade Jonathan Vatsa, has offered reasons why former President Muhammadu Buhari was absent at the launch in Abuja.
The late General Vatsa was a major actor in the military era of 16 years that spanned parts of the Buhari and Babangida rulership of Nigeria.
He was executed for an alleged coup, a topic Babangida, popularly known as IBB and Maradona, addressed in the book.
The younger Vatsa, while disclosing that he was not surprised at Buhari’s snub of the launch, said that the former military ruler was yet to let go of the 1985 coup by Babangida, which removed him from office.
While speaking to newsmen in Minna on Saturday on why he will not be in a hurry to comment on the book because he has not read it, Vatsa, who was a former Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism in Niger State pointed out that it would have been the ninth wonder of the world if Buhari had attended the book launch.
He alleged that the memory of the “mother of all betrayal” and his subsequent detention by General Babangida, denying him the lifetime opportunity to bid his late mother farewell after her death was yet to leave him.
He however said that he has been vindicated by Buhari’s action when he (Vatsa) told the whole world that he neglected Niger State during the eight years of his administration despite the overwhelming votes given to him during his first and second term in office.
According to him: “The whole world knows that Niger state was made a scapegoat by former President Buhari because of General IBB.
“For eight years, he did not pay any serious official visit to the state and no single federal project was executed in the state.
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“The Baro port project, which recently generated some political heat in the state, was abandoned by Buhari, including all the federal road projects across the state.
“The people of the state were made to pay for sin they knew nothing about.
“It was the case of when two elephants fight, the grass suffers.
“He sidelined the state just because of the sin of one person.”
When asked to comment on the book that has continued to generate reactions across the country, the former Publicity Secretary of the APC in the state said he would not until he has digesting all the contents, stressing that: “There are things that I am expecting from the book, so you people should wait until I read it,
“I will invite all of you when I am ready to comment on the book.”
It should be noted that the book launch had in attendance President Bola Ahmed Tinubu; former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan; former Military Heads of State: Yakubu Gowon and Abdulsalami Abubakar; former President of Ghana, Akufo Addo; former President of Sierra Leone, Ernest Koroma; former Vice Presidents: Atiku Abubakar, Yemi Osibanjo, Namadi Sambo; and traditional rulers among other personalities, including states governors.
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