From: Anthony Akinola <anthony.a.akinola@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Aug 10, 2020 at 9:32 PM
Subject: FROM THE ARCHIVE-Babangida and his rank mentality.
To: Anthony Akinola <anthony.a.akinola@gmail.com>
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BABANGIDA AND HIS RANK MENTALITY
eneral Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida must be revelling in the controversy he continues to generate! He had just made a statement, the significance of which cannot be lost on ordinary Nigerians, of his refusal to comment on criticisms allegedly made by one Major General Ishola Williams, on the grounds that the latter is his subordinate in military ranking order, which makes one wonder what type of democratic leadership a potential Babangida presidency has in store for all of us, come 2007.
General Babangida's interview reported in This Day (6 September 2004) gives a lot away about him. The interview itself centred on the famous Pius Okigbo report. At the end of the interview, the reporter sought the views of Babangida on "a critical position" Major General Ishola Williams "had taken against his perceived 2007 ambition". Babangida did not need to dwell on whatever the Major General had said. A simple statement, such as "Williams is entitled to his opinion", could have done the trick. But simple statements can hardly do for arrogant and contemptuous individuals. Hear our autocratic democrat in his barrack language, "as a matter of policy, I don't join issues with my juniors. I joined the service before him and retired as a four star general. He left as a two star general. I don't join issues with my subordinates no matter how highly placed".
At least we now know that the infamous political decisions made between 1985 and 1993 were unilateral decisions, no collective responsibility. We now know the truth behind the annulment of the presidential election of 12 June 1993.
This writer does not know much about Major General Ishola Williams but one nevertheless endeavoured to make a few enquiries about his person. A well-educated army officer revealed that Williams was once the acting commander of signals in the Nigerian Army. A brilliant and decent officer who is reputed for his opposition to military involvement in politics, "Nigeria could have been a better place today if the likes of Major General Williams had been at the helm of national affairs", concluded the retired colonel who preferred to remain anonymous.
The colonel's testimony to Major General Williams' personality was enthusiastically corroborated by two research colleagues at Oxford. One of them had interviewed him in the past in the course of academic research. Major General Williams was said to be rushing out for an engagement when the scholar, who had been held up in a traffic jam, came into his office. Williams said, "well, we could have had the interview on our way". To the surprise of the scholar at what he described as an "uncommon modesty", the Major General was heading towards the bus stop. However, one good turn deserves another, the research scholar offered to give the Major General a lift to where he was going, while the interview was conducted in his "jalopy" car.
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The other scholar had actually read the excerpts of General Ibrahim Babangidas interview in This Day and was equally as furious as the writer was over Babangida's rank obsession. The complimentarity of opinion on an issue could not but have helped in further fleshing out the article which otherwise could have been a mere skeletal comment in the letters page of the newspaper!
It must be worrying to all of us that a view expressed by someone of the standing of Major General Ishola Williams can be dismissed as inconsequential by one who aspires to lead us, come 2007. If an individual who had attained the enviable rank of a Major General in the Nigerian Army is incompetent or inferior to engage Babangida in a political discussion, what hopes have those ordinary mortals with private or corporal ranks in the military? Will the opinion of the ordinary man in the street mean much to a Babangida who has become arrogant and overbearing because of dubious personal achievements? Has Babangida not realised that retired military officers, his subordinates in the military, now constitute an important political class in our present day democracy?
General Babangida has been quoted as saying that only God can stop him from becoming president in 2007. His conviction is not borne out of religious piety, as we have never known him for that, but out of utter disregard for ordinary Nigerians. The will of God in a democracy is the will of the majority of those who chose to express their opinion in a free and fair election. Babangida, in his characteristic dubious manner of doing things, believes Nigerians have no opinion because they can easily be bought by the highest bidder.
There is an air of arrogance and impunity about Babangida which, sadly, was encouraged by Nigerians themselves. We failed to call him to order on numerous occasions when he circumscribed public opinion for his own selfish agenda. The soubriquet of "Maradona" which we gave him was to him a badge of honour, not realising that "Maradona" also means "a cheat" to the English people who still cannot forget that Diego Maradona's "Hand of God" goal sent them prematurely out of the 1986 World Cup.
The murder by parcel bomb of Dele Giwa in 1986 was not sufficiently startling to Babangida, a less contemptuous individual would have chosen every available occasion, including the opportunity provided by the Oputa Panel, to attempt to exonerate himself of alleged involvement in such a gruesome and defaming act.
Babangida now assumes he has been exonerated from corruption by the Pius Okigbo report. There have been many generalisations about the report, not least the allegation that a windfall of about $12 billion from Nigeria's oil money during the Gulf War in 1991 has not been accounted for. Babangida, rather ambiguously, claims the report exonerates him. How one wishes he had gone to the courts to compel the publication of this report, as he was too enthusiastic to do in preventing that of the Oputa Panel.
If General Babangida cannot be humble with us he should, at least, try to be humble with himself. A series of lessons at the English language department could do him a lot of good. Evidence from the printed excerpts of his interview do not suggest one has been able to string together a few sentences of good English. The Niyi Osundares of Nigeria can be trusted to provide good tutorials for those who are not too pompous to learn. Competence in corruption, incompetence in communication, has been the irony of our leadership class.
Babangida should feel honoured that Major General Ishola Williams, who did not promote himself to the rank he achieved in the military, still has time to comment on his perceived ambition in 2007. General Williams does not live in an opulent mansion and he is not a man of legendary wealth and influence but we respect his decency. Nigeria will be a much better place for all of us if our greater respect is for the content of an individual's character and not for class or questionable professional attainment. Rank mentality, in some decent societies of the world could be interpreted as rank stupidity.
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