Hear the evil genius:

For the first time since the annulment of June 12, 1993 presidential election won by the late business mogul, Bashorun MKO Abiola, former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, has given a reason for the annulment. He said he was compelled to nullify the election because of security threats to the enthronement of a democratic government at the time.

Babangida made this disclosure yesterday on a TV programme, Moments with Mo, anchored by Mo Abudu and broadcast on MNet channel of DSTV.
Babangida, who described the annulment as “unfortunate” and revealed that he would launch a book on the saga next year, said having been on the steering wheel of government at the time, he and the Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) knew that the new democratic government to be installed would sooner than later be toppled through another military coup deta’t, which he said his government wanted to avoid.

According to him, his regime had decided that it would be the last administration that would ascend the seat of power through coup, adding that it would make no sense to install a democratic government that would be truncated within another six months.

He, however, admitted that the June 12 presidential election was free and fair and also the best of all elections ever conducted in Nigeria’s history.
“June 12 was accepted by Nigerians as the best of elections in Nigeria. It was free and fair. But unfortunately, we cancelled that election. I used the word unfortunately, for the first time. We were in government at the time and we knew the possible consequences of handing over to a democratic government. We did well that we wanted ours to be the last military coup deta’t. To be honest with you, the situation was not ripe to hand over at the time.

“Forget about the wrong things that happened in politics. The issue of security of the nation was a threat and we would have considered ourselves to have failed, if six months after handover, there was another coup. I went through coup deta’t and I survived it. We knew that there would be another coup deta’t. But not many people believed what we said. They could have allowed me to go away and then they (coup plotters) would regroup and stage another coup. This is how coups are staged - one man will always come to complain. And he will try to convince you about his complaints,” Babangida said.
He said security threats to the advent of democracy at the time culminated in fresh plans to conduct another election within another six months after June 12 annulment, with better strategy, but which he said he could not achieve as a result of the hostility which accompanied the cancellation. According to him, another election was conceived to come up in November 1993.

He revealed further that he was determined to conduct another election which culminated in the constitution of an Interim National Government (ING), which he noted was eventually toppled by a military coup staged by General Sani Abacha.

Babangida implied that what happened to the ING was eventually the fate that would have befallen the civil rule which his regime would have handed over to.

The former military president said the whole concept of his regime’s plan to hand over to a civil government was aimed at effecting a lasting change which could put paid to rigging. This notion, he said resulted in the decision to register only two political parties, the Social Demoratic Party (SDP) and the National Republican Convention (NRC). “When there are two things, you have an option – this or that or nothing. We tried to regulate the number of political parties. We knew what to do,” he said.

Babangida, who expressed fears that his revelation might put him in trouble, was not categorical about his presidential ambition come 2011. Instead, he played around it, saying he was not getting younger, adding that he would rather make himself available to make certain corrections whenever he deems fit.

http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=134857

lagbaja:

Hear the evil genius.

http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=134857


For the first time since the annulment of June 12, 1993 presidential election won by the late business mogul, Bashorun MKO Abiola, former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, has given a reason for the annulment. He said he was compelled to nullify the election because of security threats to the enthronement of a democratic government at the time.
Babangida made this disclosure yesterday on a TV programme, Moments with Mo, anchored by Mo Abudu and broadcast on MNet channel of DSTV.
Babangida, who described the annulment as “unfortunate” and revealed that he would launch a book on the saga next year, said having been on the steering wheel of government at the time, he and the Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) knew that the new democratic government to be installed would sooner than later be toppled through another military coup deta’t, which he said his government wanted to avoid.
According to him, his regime had decided that it would be the last administration that would ascend the seat of power through coup, adding that it would make no sense to install a democratic government that would be truncated within another six months.
He, however, admitted that the June 12 presidential election was free and fair and also the best of all elections ever conducted in Nigeria’s history.
“June 12 was accepted by Nigerians as the best of elections in Nigeria. It was free and fair. But unfortunately, we cancelled that election. I used the word unfortunately, for the first time. We were in government at the time and we knew the possible consequences of handing over to a democratic government. We did well that we wanted ours to be the last military coup deta’t. To be honest with you, the situation was not ripe to hand over at the time.
“Forget about the wrong things that happened in politics. The issue of security of the nation was a threat and we would have considered ourselves to have failed, if six months after handover, there was another coup. I went through coup deta’t and I survived it. We knew that there would be another coup deta’t. But not many people believed what we said. They could have allowed me to go away and then they (coup plotters) would regroup and stage another coup. This is how coups are staged - one man will always come to complain. And he will try to convince you about his complaints,” Babangida said.
He said security threats to the advent of democracy at the time culminated in fresh plans to conduct another election within another six months after June 12 annulment, with better strategy, but which he said he could not achieve as a result of the hostility which accompanied the cancellation. According to him, another election was conceived to come up in November 1993.
He revealed further that he was determined to conduct another election which culminated in the constitution of an Interim National Government (ING), which he noted was eventually toppled by a military coup staged by General Sani Abacha.
Babangida implied that what happened to the ING was eventually the fate that would have befallen the civil rule which his regime would have handed over to.
The former military president said the whole concept of his regime’s plan to hand over to a civil government was aimed at effecting a lasting change which could put paid to rigging. This notion, he said resulted in the decision to register only two political parties, the Social Demoratic Party (SDP) and the National Republican Convention (NRC). “When there are two things, you have an option – this or that or nothing. We tried to regulate the number of political parties. We knew what to do,” he said.
Babangida, who expressed fears that his revelation might put him in trouble, was not categorical about his presidential ambition come 2011. Instead, he played around it, saying he was not getting younger, adding that he would rather make himself available to make certain corrections whenever he deems fit

For IBB to give such a reason for annulling the only free and fair election in Nigeria is unbelievable and untenable,anyway we knows the actual reason for his action i.e to perpetuate himself on power,but when he had no choice he had to ''step aside ''while leaving his crony,abacha to do exactly what he he was against,looking back at those years i realize Nigeria and Nigerians had not changed,it's beyond me to know that THIS man can still walk free in Nigeria,I know for sure that the blood of the souls he murdered will judge him.I can assure you that .

When did cutting off the head become the cure for a headache?

IBB must think Nigerians are dummies, or maybe he thinks Niger state is the only state in the country.

If there were security concerns, as the Chief Security Officer of the country, couldn't he have put in place adequate structures, like OBJ did (by sacking or power thirsty military men), to prevent further milliatry incursion into the country's administration.

My generation is trying hard to forget the evil done against us, yet the perpetutors keep rubbing insults on the injuries. Someone should please advice IBB to keep shut and stop insulting us.

but ibb, it took u very long time to give us this stupid reason even when u know that stupid reasons are better than non.

soon obj will come up with reasons for not probing ibb and his reasons for not providing nigeria and nigerians with steady power supply.

been as helpless and choiceless as we are, baba, we accept and believe u with our ass.

while i, like most nigerians  have castigated ibb and co for the annullment of the election,i think he has made very good points,as coups are essentially the handy work of disgruntled military personell,if there was that much hostility and resistance to abiola being president(i guess due to his antecedents and baggage he would have carried over)then there is a good chance that the likes of david mark and co could and probably would have simply taken over through another coup

Roflmao!! I hope nobody buy's this argument of his which he has had over 15 years to rehearse, and fine tune. Even after all that time, it does not make any sense considering the situation in that country in 1993. Roflmao!!

I'm glad he cancelled the election when he did. Cos I had a feeling that the democracy would not have lasted.
Was the election free and fair?? Hells yeah
Would Abiola have made any difference?? I really did not think so

All the same, I.B.B is still Nigerias biggest political criminal.

lucabrasi:

while i, like most Nigerians  have castigated ibb and co for the annulment of the election,i think he has made very good points,as coups are essentially the handy work of disgruntled military personell,if there was that much hostility and resistance to abiola being president(i guess due to his antecedents and baggage he would have carried over)then there is a good chance that the likes of david mark and co could and probably would have simply taken over through another coup

To say i'm surprised at your comment is a fatal lie.

What points has he made that is comprehensible? A group of egg heads that were fortunate to
wear a uniform provided by tax payers money now have an overriding view over millions of ''fellow''
Nigerians? What hostility is the fool talking about, that could warrant the cancellation of an election
described as ''free and fair'' by the whole world?

He stole Nigeria blind in his 8 years inglorious rule, ran the country to the ground, scampered to a
temporary safety at his blood filled villa in Minna, now he thinks, he is a voice on Nigeria affairs.

I blame the media who deem it fit to put this misfit on set, _{or did MO collect money?}
IBB, bury your head in shame, you are not worth being mentioned. You are a mistake in Nigeria political history.

This arrogant bastard is insulting our collective intelligence as Nigerians.

this guy is quite dull o; imagine the excuse he could come up with after 15 years of thinking.

while i, like most Nigerians  have castigated ibb and co for the annulment of the election,i think he has made very good points,as coups are essentially the handy work of disgruntled military personell,if there was that much hostility and resistance to abiola being president(i guess due to his antecedents and baggage he would have carried over)then there is a good chance that the likes of david mark and co could and probably would have simply taken over through another coup

@lucabrasi
You have an excellent point.
It doesn't make sense to follow through with something that clearly indicates future failure. I think IBB knew for sure that sooner or later, Abiola's administration was going to be brought down. So, Annulment of the election was supposed to be a strategy to avoid an unwanted catastrophe.
I honestly feel that IBB thought he was doing what is right at the time. In-fact, the annulment should be labelled as a strategic vision.
A strategic vision works effectively sometimes, but also doesn't work well in some cases; I guess, this is why it is called strategic vision. An accurate prediction or vision could only be determined by God.

Nigerians should also look at the other side of the coin before making any judgement.

JustGood:

This arrogant bastard is insulting our collective intelligence as Nigerians.

Seconded! Reading through all that fluff, and knowing the situation in the country prior to the elections and after, it is clear this man is seriously trying to play on our intelligence. I do hope people do not buy into this nonsense as I see this as a ploy to get himself elected soon.

this guy is quite dull o; imagine the excuse he could come up with after 15 years of thinking.

IBB, absolutely not a perfect man.

When you're dealing with sensitive issue in a country as big as Nigeria with multiple culture, multiple ethnic groups and religion, one must be very prudent and effectively calculate when to release certain information.

Imagine IBB releasing this information sometimes in July 1998; what do you think would have happened "to Nigeria", I repeat "to nigeria"?

Kobojunkie:

Seconded! Reading through all that fluff, and knowing the situation in the country prior to the elections and after, it is clear this man is seriously trying to play on our intelligence. I do hope people do not buy into this nonsense as I see this as a ploy to get himself elected soon.

I was a grown adult at the time and the Babangida idiot cant pull the wool over my eyes. Can you believe he has the cheek to come up with such an atrocious defense?

It shows how much disregard or  lack of respect the idiot has for Nigerians to come up with such   He must believe that we are just a stupid people and he can say any daft thing which we will start to believe.

May God never give Babangida and his family peace in this life and any other life hereafter.

@BIG B1
What is this? A kind of IBB Renaissance group or what?
What is your definition of strategic vision? A useless strategy
that nearly plunged tha whole nation into a civil war?

You guys really amuse me with your utterances on NL. Please,
come up with something better. Soon your likes will recommend
the thief for presidency.

May God bless Nigeria and everyone of us.

@meexteriox:

A beg, slow down.
This is nothing but a mere discussion. You don't expect all of us to sleep and face the same direction. It is absolutely fine to see the same thing differently. This is what makes up a great nation.

IBB is a quiet man and mostly operates in the back room; this is why this man is being painted with black images. I believe lately he has realized this weakness and this is one of the reasons why he continues to release this kind of information.
We shouldn't beat a man down just because he prefers to be quiet.
The man is not perfect, but remains one of the most serious, sincere and honest men around in nigeria today.

Big B1:

May God bless Nigeria and everyone of us.

Ameen

ibb again

In order to make us understand his reason for the annulment better,I wish to present some scenarious here:

1."Because of the possibility of unemployment after graduation,its a waste of resources to send my wards to school,
   therefore,I choose not to give my wards the legacy of good education"

2. Because I might get hungry in the afternoon even after having my breakfast,therefore there is simply no need to have breakfast
   at all"

  Obama chose hope over fear,which gave rise to his transformational metaphor[b]"YES WE CAN"[/b]
  Our leaders "feared" fear and chose fear over hope which culminated in the annulment of the election.

Big B1:


IBB is a quiet man and mostly operates in the back room; this is why this man is being painted with black images. I believe lately he has realized this weakness and this is one of the reasons why he continues to release this kind of information.
We shouldn't beat a man down just because he prefers to be quiet.
The man is not perfect, but remains one of the most serious, sincere and honest men around in nigeria today.

I sincerely hope you posted this as a kind of joke

@BIG B1
Of course, he is bound to operate from the back room. Evil Genius like him
always operate from the back room, what else do you expect?
IBB, a quiet man? Well, if you had experience any kind of loss due to his
useless strategic vision, maybe you would see him in another light.

If a man like IBB is down, then he deserves to remain down, infact, beaten to pulp.
If IBB to you (his self professed praise singer), remains one of the most serious,
sincere and honest men in Nigeria today, then we are all doomed as a nation.

I don't think i would want to dignify your post with more response, until you tell me your age.
Your age will give me an insight into where you are coming from. For some of us that were
adults during his inglorious rule, we know better, not history reading, IBB speech reading dudes like you.

I use to think IBB was smart, but with this kinda statements, am beginning to have doubts

meexteriox:

To say i'm surprised at your comment is a fatal lie.

What points has he made that is comprehensible? A group of egg heads that were fortunate to
wear a uniform provided by tax payers money now have an overriding view over millions of ''fellow''
Nigerians? What hostility is the fool talking about, that could warrant the cancellation of an election
described as ''free and fair'' by the whole world?

He stole Nigeria blind in his 8 years inglorious rule, ran the country to the ground, scampered to a
temporary safety at his blood filled villa in Minna, now he thinks, he is a voice on Nigeria affairs.

I blame the media who deem it fit to put this misfit on set, _{or did MO collect money?}
IBB, bury your head in shame, you are not worth being mentioned. You are a mistake in Nigeria political history.

the pertinent point he has made is that at that time,there were disgruntled fifth columnists in the army(which we now know by subsequent accounts of what transpired)who were totally opposed to abiola being the president,either due to the fact that they wanted their turn,ethnicity or the fact that abiola'a antecedents up to that point hadnt been that great.

by participants including humphrew nwosu's account,some millitary personell in the a.f.r.c incuding david mark playing a prominent role and abacha were purpoted to have swore that abiola will be a president over their dead body, meaning they were ready to go to any lenghts to make it possible,if you recall, these guys were virtually in controll of the airforce,army,navy hence the whole machinery and planning a sucessful coup was just a matter of agreement within eavch other,you honestly reckon babangida stood a chance against them?

an evidence to show you that point might actually be tenable is what happened to shonekan,was he not pressured to give up governance by abacha?
was that not essentially a palace albeit bloodless coup?
now imagine what they would have done to abiola and babangida,
also look at all the governors that came on board at the first term of obasanjo,you realise that virtually all of them were ex military men?same as senators and house of reps, you think that was a mere co-incidence?

like i said before,i totally agree that he erred in not declaring the results but these reasons he has given are very important and tenable and his actions might be the reason nigeria is at least not another rwanda by now,and i totally agree with you as well that he stole nigeria blind,just like his predecessors and people that came after him including virtually all the participants both civillian and military in the whole 1993 saga,

he is not a voice for nigeria,or mandating nigerians to do anything,the man is just stating exerps of his own accounts of what happened finally,irrespective of his moral standing,the hard cold fact is that even right now,there is still a possibility of a millitary coup as we have seen in guinea,talk less of the time the millitary were still in contorll and a "bloody civillian"as we were called then was trying to take over the juiciest pie when abacha and co has not had their turn

i don't know why y'all still interested in IBB story, we all knew he was maradonic about everything he ever did. Common folks.

Coup or no coup, the point is no single individual has the right to annul the mandate of a whole nation. it's simply absurb

IBB is solely responsible for one of the greatest tragedies that has ever befallen Nigeria (only next to the civil war). No amount of rebranding or PR would exonerate him. According to him - he was just not in government, he was in power. Personally I ll never forgive him for setting my country a 100 years backward, same way I ll nver forgive Ojukwu and the other military idiots that instigated the civil war.

Xavier.:

Coup or no coup, the point is no single individual has the right to annul the mandate of a whole nation. it's simply absurb

would a coup(that later happened anyway)where the likes of abacha,david mark and co snatched power been a better alternative at that time?
the only reason we are all against babangida is simply because of his moral standing and all he has done in the past,dont judge him by his moral standing, but in the context of a millitary head of state in an unstable country making a decision considering national security, in other words "overall good"look at the larger picture not just a compartment of the whole story

painful and sad. But guys there is absolutely nothing anyone can do about it.



Even the crook sef no sabi sey NL dey exist

mind numbing argument up there


Lucab, is your argument painting a picture of him helping avert a coup? cos all he did was defer it to a later date, aka abacha snatching power.

lucabrasi:

the pertinent point he has made is that at that time,there were disgruntled fifth columnists in the army(which we now know by subsequent accounts of what transpired)who were totally opposed to abiola being the president,either due to the fact that they wanted their turn,ethnicity or the fact that abiola'a antecedents up to that point hadnt been that great.

by participants including humphrew nwosu's account,some millitary personell in the a.f.r.c incuding david mark playing a prominent role and abacha were purpoted to have swore that abiola will be a president over their dead body, meaning they were ready to go to any lenghts to make it possible,if you recall, these guys were virtually in controll of the airforce,army,navy hence the whole machinery and planning a sucessful coup was just a matter of agreement within eavch other,you honestly reckon babangida stood a chance against them?

an evidence to show you that point might actually be tenable is what happened to shonekan,was he not pressured to give up governance by abacha?
was that not essentially a palace albeit bloodless coup?
now imagine what they would have done to abiola and babangida,
also look at all the governors that came on board at the first term of obasanjo,you realise that virtually all of them were ex military men?same as senators and house of reps, you think that was a mere co-incidence?

like i said before,i totally agree that he erred in not declaring the results but these reasons he has given are very important and tenable and his actions might be the reason nigeria is at least not another rwanda by now,and i totally agree with you as well that he stole nigeria blind,just like his predecessors and people that came after him including virtually all the participants both civillian and military in the whole 1993 saga,

he is not a voice for nigeria,or mandating nigerians to do anything,the man is just stating exerps of his own accounts of what happened finally,irrespective of his moral standing,the hard cold fact is that even right now,there is still a possibility of a millitary coup as we have seen in guinea,talk less of the time the millitary were still in contorll and a "bloody civillian"as we were called then was trying to take over the juiciest pie when abacha and co has not had their turn

It would have been better for IBB to have announced the result, inaugurated Abiola's Government and scampered away.
Do you know why?
The annals of history would have been crowded with his effort at enthroning true democracy during his tenure.
He should have left the rest for history to judge. One worthwhile task carried to a successful conclusion is better
than half a hundred half finished task. What did Abacha accomplish during his tenure?

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moment of comfort and convenience, but where he stands
at times of challenge and controversy. _{Martin Luther King Jr}
This is where IBB missed it.

BUUUULSHIIIIT!!!!!
Can u believe this Guy!
IBB is just doing his MARADONA MOVES again
Guyz, Watch out 2011 presidential polls.