Ibrahim Babangida: The Untold Story of an Evil Genius

Ibrahim Babangida, the Evil Genius, failed in two key areas as Nigeria's Head-of-State: his human rights record, and his political transition programme.

In December 1985, a group of soldiers, which included his close friend, Mamman Vatsa, were arrested on allegations of plotting to topple the 4-month-old Babangida regime.

After Vatsa was convicted and sentenced to death, Babangida assured a delegation of distinguished writers, Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, and John Pepper Clark, who had come pleading for mercy, that he was determined to do everything in his power to save his dear friend. Hours later, Vatsa and the other alleged plotters were executed.

As opposition to Babangida's rule grew, so did his intolerance for dissent, so that he routinely shut down or proscribed media houses; and harassed journalists, civil society, and labour groups using the instruments of state (the State Security Service, Directorate of Military Intelligence and the Police).

In 1986, five students of the Ahmadu Bello University were murdered when mobile policemen invaded the campus to quell anti-IMF protests. Babangida also promulgated a series of draconian decrees targeted at quelling all opposition, and on occasion did not hesitate to deport foreign critics.

On October 19, 1986, frontline journalist Dele Giwa was murdered by a letter bomb in Lagos. Preliminary police investigations stated that senior officers of Babangida's intelligence services, who had hounded Giwa in his final days, had questions to answer regarding Giwa's death. The mystery of the Giwa assassination remains unsolved to date.

An annoyingly complex transition programme, whose terminal date soon became a mirage – first in 1990, then 1992, and then 1993 - is one of the most significant things Babangida will be remembered for.

Early on in his administration, Babangida inaugurated a Political Bureau to kick off, as it were, the national debate on a viable future political ethos and structure for Nigeria.

The political bureau was soon followed by a Constituent Assembly, which in 1989 fashioned a new constitution for the country.

Also, in 1989, he created, by presidential fiat, two political parties, the Social Democratic Party and the National Republican Convention. Then in 1991, he released a controversial list of prominent politicians whom he said were banned from participating in the transition programme.

In October 1992, Ibrahim Babangida cancelled the results of the parties’ presidential primaries, causing new primaries to be held in March 1993.

And then on June 12, 1993, he annulled the results of the presidential elections, presumed to have been won by billionaire businessman MKO Abiola. #HistoryVille #IbrahimBabangida

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TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Intro

01:52 Ibrahim Babangida and the Decline of Nigeria’s Economy

03:23 An Expansion of Government Bureaucracy

04:59 An “Evil Genius”

05:55 The Mamman Jiya Vatsa Conspiracy Trial

07:11 The Assassination of Dele Giwa

08:34 Annulled June 12, 1993, Presidential Elections

10:20 Next Video