What exactly does this man want? You would want to wonder aloud. But he adamantly insists he is neither given to frivolities nor trivialities. General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) is convinced and confesses as much.
IBB, Nigeria’s Military President, between 1985 and 1993, was in one of his best moments last Monday. And he graphically displayed it. The Sallah message, I am a Nigerian, he dropped from his Hilltop residence in Minna, Niger State, that day was something else.
It was his honest view on the on-going discourse on the restructuring of Nigeria. He was down-to-earth and sincere: “At 76, I have seen it all. I have seen war. I have fought war. And I have survived war.”
War is scary and painful. He should know better: “Today, with a deep sense of nostalgia, I still carry within my body, pains of injury from the civil war.”
He is cocksure: “There is nothing romantic about war in any form. War is bad, condemnable and must be avoided.”
What does it take to beat war drums? Almost nothing. It can be done effortlessly. But IBB sounded a notice of warning: “The drums of war are easy to beat, but their rhythms are difficult to dance.” Very profound!
He succinctly admits there is a glaring system failure: “The management of conflicts is the acid test of maturity, of mutual livelihood and of democratic governance.
“As a people, we need proper study and understanding of our history in order to correct the warped perceptions of our past, so as to minimise the dangers of badly skewed stories of our democratic experience in governance.”
No sane person would opt for a repeat performance of that gory 30-month war of July 1967 to January 1970. Not in any clime, not even IBB.
With this in mind, the ex-military president went into sober reflection. With the benefit of insight, he utters his concise and timely Sallah memo.
It is not like any other. He considers the pros and cons, with finality and all the strength in him, he makes that historic pronouncement. Restructuring is it! It is a bang, a bam of sorts. This time around, he can hardly be faulted.
In a nutshell, he believes strongly that Nigeria is in dire need of restructuring: “Restructuring has become a national appeal whose time has come. I will strongly advocate for devolution of powers that more responsibilities be given to the states, while the Federal Government is to oversee our foreign policy, defence and economy.”
He agrees that “restructuring and devolution of powers will certainly not provide all answers to our challenges.”
All the same: “The talk to have the country restructured means Nigerians are agreed on our unity in diversity.”
No part of that utterance is fit for the dustbin of history. Every word of it is heavy, weighty and enduring. The message has hit the dreaded and ugly nail on the head. It gets its target right.
It can only secure a ready and reliable compatriot in ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar. He is a co-traveler on this tortuous journey. He is another leader that sticks to restructuring. He sincerely believes it and preaches it at all times. He does not allow it to depart from his mouth, heart, soul and body.
Everywhere he goes, Atiku chooses not to mince words on restructuring. That has become his sing-song, and he sings it admirably. He does it with nationalistic passion. He never pretends about his stand on the issue. He is firm and resolute on it.
It is courageous of him to have been at poles apart from his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) on restructuring. He shouts it to high heavens on every platform he finds himself, ignoring whose ox is gored or bruised. He is at home with every word in IBB’s message. He buys whole-heartedly into the sermon.
It is, however, disheartening and disgusting how some principal actors in this government and the ruling APC have flagrantly denied restructuring. They did it brazenly with reckless abandon.
It is a great pity how they carelessly stripped restructuring naked in the marketplace. It is high-level official arrogance. It is sad indeed.
Imagine, its hitherto strong and aggressive advocates, especially of Yoruba extraction, now firmly entrenched in government, are singing a new strange and weird song. Quite unbelievable!
They have abandoned and jettisoned the struggle to its fate now that they are comfortably holding the carrot. They are the likes of Acting President Yemi Osinbajo and Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed. We are amazed and amused at what could have caused this terrible detour. We are still wondering.
Government mouthpiece, Mohammed, was more ferocious in this regard. He insightfully led us to his principal’s mindset. He annoyingly slammed it on us that this administration and its APC do not want to waste time and resources on restructuring that they never promised.
That it is our own warped figment of the imagination that President Muhammadu Buhari would ever add the burden of restructuring to his myriad of challenges. We just laughed our hearts out at this deceit.
He forgets so easily that with genuine and real restructuring, the so-called legion of challenges and problems will fizzle out naturally and usher in the desired change we dearly need.
How? IBB puts it aptly: “It (restructuring) will help (us) to reposition our mindset as we generate new ideas and initiatives that would make our union worthwhile.”
Verdict: Without restructuring, nothing moves in this country. Dare it; restructure Nigeria now, all other good things shall be added onto it.
Are you still in doubt?
Restructuring: What exactly does IBB want?
