Lagos lawyer and human rights activist, Mr. Femi Falana has vowed to stop former military president, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (retd.) from contesting the 2011 presidential election.


Femi Falana
Falana who made this vow at the one year remembrance of the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi, held at Ojota, Lagos State, called on Nigerians to stand against him.

“It is sad to hear that somebody like Babangida is coming to rule us again after he has brought Nigeria to collapse. Somebody like Babangida, who institutionalized corruption and has done enough harm to this country, still wants to rule us, I can assure you that we will stop him. Nigerians will not allow him,’’ he stated.

On the recent endorsement of President Goodluck Jonathan by political parties, the human rights activist said: “I do hope that President Goodluck is sufficiently intelligent to know that the endorsement will not earn him votes, only his performance can earn him votes and I have not seen any performance that will earn him votes that will make Nigerians vote for him.”

Commenting on the zoning controversy which nearly tore the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) into shreds, Chief Falana blamed media for celebrating the issue, saying it is very dangerous for the progress of democracy in Nigeria.

“Instead of promoting the zoning formular, the media should ask the politicians their programmes for the Nigerian masses.

“Our media are not asking the politicians questions about poverty, bad roads and good medical services, but only promote zoning. Babangida institutionalized corruption in Nigeria. I expect the media to ask him how he is going to arrest it, but they are not doing that. The people shouting zoning are using it and religion to deceive Nigerians,” he stated.

He expressed support for the January date set for general elections by INEC, saying: “If Nigerians are determined, we can have successful elections in January. That is why we are appealing to our people to support the new leadership of INEC in ensuring that we all register and we make it one man one vote.”

He commended the decision taken by INEC last week not to allow tenure extension of some governors and promised to stand by the organisation “to ensure that the riggers of election, who ordinarily should have been punished by the law, do not profit from illegality.”

Falana commended the Lagos State governor for the honour bestowed on the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi, adding that the late activist deserved all the honours that this country can bestow on him for his immense contributions to the development of this country and in defence of human rights and promotion of rule of law.

“This is a challenge to all men and women of ideas and vision in Nigeria that someday, whether they are alive or dead, they are going to be honoured by the people at the appropriate time. And for those that have engaged in the primitive accumulation of wealth, this is a challenge to them too. If you made money and you don’t invest in the people, you are going to be abandoned. Gani is gone but we are celebrating him, his integrity and not his wealth,” he said.

http://www.nigeriamasterweb.com/paperfrmes.html

I hate the name ibb with passion

did anybody stop obj?why s dis fool making a hell of noise now.all these yoruba people sef

It is numbskulls like u johnterry4 that are responsibe for Nigeria's youth intellectual underdevelopment. In as much this is an online forum, u shouldn't express ur bizarre idiosyncracy as this is disgraceful to the entirety of the Nigerian citizenry. What has Falana done to deserve the utterances of a knuckle head?

gbam :-x

^^^^ what has johnterry4 done to deserve thisLMAO

@johnterry4
everyone is entitled to his opinion, and the man you call fool could not be as ignorant as you. Even the northerners has not seen any credible Presidential aspirant from their region.

ibb, the desperado!!!

Even karma will not allow him to rule Nigeria egain.

That guy is E V I L .

The Babangida years

By Tolu Ogunlesi
April 17, 2010 10:36PM

In his first New Year Days speech as military president, months after deposing the Buhari-Idiagbon government in a bloodless coup enthusiastically welcomed by Nigerians, Ibrahim Babangida declared: I wish to reaffirm that this administration does not intend to stay in power a day longer than is required to lay the necessary institutional framework to bring about a better and more stable Nigeria. Babangidas bonhomie (its trademark an endearing gap-toothed smile) - in stark contrast to the stern, unsmiling façade of Muhammadu Buhari, his predecessor - made it easy for him to be believed.
The distinction between the two regimes in fact ran much deeper than personality quirks. Babangida, in action, proved to be the complete antithesis of his predecessor. He threw open prison doors, setting free hundreds of 3rd republic politicians convicted and jailed by Buhari. He repealed the obnoxious Decree No. 4 of 1984 with which the Buhari regime had shackled the media. He promised to run an open administration that is responsive to the yearnings and aspirations of all the people - a departure from the high-handedness of the Buhari/Idiagbon era.
One of his first actions as military president was to allow Nigerians to decide, through public debates, whether to accept the $2.5 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan the Buhari government had been negotiating for.
After the terror of the Buhari years, Nigerians appeared to have found a statesman in military uniform.

Tough times that lasted

By 1985, Nigerias foreign debt had ballooned to $18 billion, up from $3.4 billion in 1980 (it would rise beyond $30 billion by the end of the 80s), and external reserves had dwindled to less than $2 billion. Oil prices had been in freefall for 3 years running, and in January 1986 they finally fell to less than $20 per barrel, a record low since the start of the decade.
To his credit Babangida made all the right noises about revamping the economy. In his Independence Day 1985 speech, barely two months old in office, he declared a state of economic emergency for the next 15 months. That speech went on to lay down a comprehensive plan for economic reconstruction.
This plan included a moratorium on new foreign debt, promotion of agriculture and industrial development, restriction of importation to essential commodities, financial sector reform and privatisation.

Populist leanings

IBB was a master of the populist move - ambitious government programs targeted at tackling poverty, and empowering rural dwellers. His government churned out program after program, in a bid to actualize his promises to run an inclusive, people-facing government. In 1986, Babangida launched the Mass Mobilization for Self Reliance, Social Justice, and Economic Recovery (MAMSER).
In 1987, the Directorate of Food and Rural Infrastructure (DFFRI) was launched to promote agriculture and transform Nigerias rural landscape by providing modern infrastructure. Other Babangida creations include the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), National Economic Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND), Peoples Bank of Nigeria (PBN), National Board for Community Banks (NBCB), Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Nigeria Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), National Planning Commission (NPC), and the Urban Development Bank.
No other Nigerian government presided over such substantial expansion of government bureaucracy as the Babangida administration. In time, the fiscal prudence that Babangida espoused vanished: billions of naira were sunk into an endless transition programme, and in the early 90s, 12 billion dollars worth of windfall crude oil revenue (courtesy of the rise in the oil prices due to the Gulf War) could not be accounted for.
Mr. Babangida also came to perfect the art of dispensing patronage through political appointments (mostly targeted at leading members of the opposition) and a far-from-transparent allocation of lucrative oil blocks.

A man whose words mean nothing

Mr. Babangidas contradictions eventually overwhelmed his reputation so that when, in May 1993, the activist and lawyer Gani Fawehinmi described him as a man whose words mean nothing to him, evidence of this littered his eight years in power.
Only months after vowing to run a government by consultation with the people, Mr. Babangida in 1986 surreptitiously - and unilaterally - took Nigeria, an avowed secular state, into full membership of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), a body which describes itself as the collective voice of the Muslim world.
Mr. Babangida lamented the large role played by the public sector in economic activity with hardly any concrete results to justify such a role.Ironically, over the course of the next five years, he would go ahead to supervise an unprecedented expansion of government. And despite his deference to the wish of Nigerians to reject the IMF loan, Mr. Babangida went ahead to implement some of the Funds most drastic requirements - a devaluation of the naira, and removal of subsidies, chief of which were the petroleum subsidies.
Mr. Babangida promised Nigerians that the belt-tightening was sorely needed: the painful injection that would usher in vibrant economic health; the mandatory dark lining before a cloud of prosperity. Those reforms, which he christened Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), came into effect in 1986, with a far-from-pleasant impact on Nigerians. Purchasing powers dwindled, inflation rose, and the obliteration of the middle class began. In 1989, SAP riots rocked the country, as Nigerians had finally had enough of economic reforms which silver lining they waited in vain for.

Greatest failings

Mr. Babangidas greatest failings were however in two key areas: 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 government. After Vatsa was convicted and sentenced to death, Mr. Babangida assured a delegation of distinguished writers (Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe and J.P. Clark), which had come pleading for mercy, that he was determined to do everything in my power to save (Vatsa).
Hours later, Vatsa and the other alleged plotters were executed.
As opposition to Mr. Babangidas 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. He also promulgated a series of draconian decrees targeted at quelling all opposition, and on occasion did not hesitate to deport foreign critics (University lecturer Patrick Wilmot and journalist William Keeling).
In October 1986, frontline journalist Dele Giwa was murdered by a letter bomb in Lagos. Preliminary police investigations stated that senior officers of Mr. Babangidas intelligence services, who had hounded Giwa in his final days, had questions to answer regarding Giwas death. The mystery of the Giwa assassination remains unsolved till date.

An interminable journey

A maddeningly convoluted transition programme, whose terminal date soon became a mirage - first 1990, then 1992, and then 1993 - is one of the most significant things Babangida will be remembered for.
Early on in his administration, Mr. Babangida inaugurated a Political Bureau to kick off, as it were, the national debate on a viable future political ethos and structure for our dear country.
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, he cancelled the results of the parties presidential primaries, causing new primaries to be held in March 1993. And then in June 1993 he annulled the results of the presidential elections, presumed to have been won by billionaire businessman MKO Abiola.

This was the final straw
.
By this time, Nigerians had finally had enough of his shenanigans, and violent protests forced him to step aside on August 27, 1993,My colleagues and I are determined to change the course of history, Mr. Babangida told Nigerians in his maiden speech as Head of State, on August 27, 1985.
By the time he reluctantly relinquished power exactly eight years later, he had achieved that goal, far more successfully than he, or anyone else, could ever have imagined.

Source: Next
====================

The Holy Book says "my people perish for lack of knowledge".
Will you allow 150m of us (Nigerians) perish or will you ALSO forward this article on the (mis) deeds of our self-proclaimed "evil genius" to all Nigerians that you know
Will you help confirm "maradona" IBB's claim (in Germany in the 90s during one of his radiculopathy treatment trips) that we, his fellow citizens are "docile" (MUGUs) by not sharing this mail
Find a way to get involved at all levels- local, state and federal- this election period for a better Nigeria!!!

BOLA IGE, HARRY MARSHALL, CHUBA OKADIGBO WERE ALL KILLED BY OBASANJO AND NOBODY SEEMS TO ASK ABOUT THIS MURDERS, JUST BECAUSE OBASANJO IS YORUBA ABI. OBASANJO DID MORE EVIL THAN IBB AND FEMI FALANA, WOLE SOYINKA etc ARE NOT COMPALAINING. YORUBA WHEN WILL THIS YOUR TRIBALISM STOP

johnterry4:


[size=14pt]gbam.

ask these cowards.y didnt u stop obj.he ruled for 2 terms,u guys didnt do anything now u want to stop someone else frm another tribe.did obj not kill people?silly cowards.ibb is as useless as obj,so if obj could rule then ibb shld be allowed his turn.if u guys are not down with this then prepare for war.weak set of cowards[/size]

only a slowpoke will align with your STUPIDITY, its clear that you idiots abound on Nairaland and we need to cut your coat below your size, am not in support of OBJ but dont compare OBJ to IBB when it comes to evil, there are miles between them!!! so you dont believe we YORUBAS can stop IBB?, ask him how we forced Him to step down when he annulled the election of MKO, what did Ibos did when IBB removed his vice because he complained on the drafting of Nigeria into Islamic countries association?
You lack Memory Update

The guy want to be noticed.

sayso:

The guy want to be noticed.

Evil Genius or Falana?

IBB is a shamless man, after all he had acquire, he is still fighting 4 presidential seat.

I will advice all you Yoruba haters to STFU, cos u seems to look for every opportunity to attack the Yoruba race. .

The greatest opposition to OBJ till date are still from his people(Yoruba).

For your information the human right community irrespective of any tribe will always oppose IBB.

So enough of this[b] BAD BLOOD AND JEALOUSY[/b] to the Yoruba people.

The ignorance of an ignorant is an ignorance to the ignorant. Come 2011 we will have a president and i am sanguine it will not be 'the evil genius' Ibb or whatever he is called. He should be happy Nigerians still allow him to go free despite his evil deeds. The rule of law will be promoted in this country just wait and see

sd-6:

It is numbskulls like u johnterry4 that are responsibe for Nigeria's youth intellectual underdevelopment. In as much this is an online forum, u shouldn't express your bizarre idiosyncracy as this is disgraceful to the entirety of the Nigerian citizenry. What has Falana done to deserve the utterances of a knuckle head?

Stop hitting your head on a brick wall. . .It was a harmless statement

seanet02:

only a slowpoke will align with your STUPIDITY, its clear that you idiots abound on Nairaland and we need to cut your coat below your size, am not in support of OBJ but dont compare OBJ to IBB when it comes to evil, there are miles between them!!! so you dont believe we YORUBAS can stop IBB?, ask him how we forced Him to step down when he annulled the election of MKO, what did Ibos did when IBB removed his vice because he complained on the drafting of Nigeria into Islamic countries association?
You lack Memory Update

Man u r wrong. . .Evil is evil.Obj spent 8 years in power and acheived absolutely nothing.He spent our billions providing "electricity".During his tenure,assasinations took a new dimension.Like someone said on d other thread,Obj had d chace 2 redeem himself while in power and even arrest d Ibb of a man and he wouldn't be talking of contesting.But did he?Whatever made Obj not try Ibb for "crimes" u call grevious,should definitely not make him "worse" than Obj.So y now come and begin 2 talk like Obj commited less crime?

philip0906:

Stop hitting your head on a brick wall. . .It was a harmless statementMan u r wrong. . .Evil is evil.Obj spent 8 years in power and acheived absolutely nothing.He spent our billions providing "electricity".During his tenure,assasinations took a new dimension.Like someone said on d other thread,Obj had d chace 2 redeem himself while in power and even arrest d Ibb of a man and he wouldn't be talking of contesting.But did he?Whatever made Obj not try Ibb for "crimes" u call grevious,should definitely not make him "worse" than Obj.So y now come and begin 2 talk like Obj commited less crime?

Yoruba people and they usuall my people are saints rants . . . . . . . . . . . .

IBB is not worst than OBJ . . . . . . .They are at par with human right violation . . . . . . .Or, was the WIPING OUT of a whole village called ODI by OBJ less evil to his YORUBA dudes?

IGBOS and HAUSAS imposed obasanjo on Nigeria against the wish of his OWN people.I wonder why some dimwits are now alligning him to the yorubas, and for the nincompoops yapping on Femi Falana, this dude has sacrificed for the common good of Nigeria than your whole generation and he probably hates obasanjo more than IBB, then volume of ignorance on this forum is smply stifling!

mrgbite:

IGBOS and HAUSAS imposed obasanjo on Nigeria against the wish of his OWN people.I wonder why some dimwits are now alligning him to the yorubas, and for the nincompoops yapping on Femi Falana, this dude has sacrificed for the common good of Nigeria than your whole generation and he probably hates obasanjo more than IBB, then volume of ignorance on this forum is smply stifling!

Why are some people making cases like they have little or no reasoning power? abi IBB don share the loot reach una?
Obasanjo performed excellently when he was the military head of state. In 1999, he was just coming out of abacha's den of death when some nigerians(excluding me cause i voted OLU falae) decided to vote him. Note that he did not get the support of the west.it was the same northerners who rigged him in because they thought they could dictate to him like they did in the 70s.I remember the headline of a popular magazine then, Olu vs Olu as Babangida returns to Aso rockThe rest is history, he outplayed them in their own game.
However in the case of IBB, we are all aware of his evil.Hhis 8 year reign started and ended with promises not kept and corruption in high places. He rewarded loyalists by turning the other way from their corruption. which is why associates like Dokpesi would be on his campaign team. thief, ole,all of them are.bloody thieves.
Obasanjo handed over to a civilian regime when he was head of state, IBB "stepped aside" for an interim government after killing hundreds during the june 12 riots.
Obasanjo was stopped by Nigerians from his third term bid because we were tired of the new evil obasanjo. Why then should we welcome an already known and acknowledge evil IBB. Never again.

And Falana is right, i am still waiting for Goodluck's performance. He is yet to impress.

Folks!!! the question at hand is not who is the lesser evil between OBJ and IBB but our destiny is at stake. Must we continue to hand our future to people who have sorted the future of thier next five generations and care less about the poor masses hoping for a daily bread. It surprises me that people who have regular access to the internet and information and see what good governance has brought to so many countries even in africa still believe in the "Chop I Chop" mentalilty of nigerian politics and preach the mesage.

For me who wins the election,and his tribe does not matter to me but what they have in mind for the youth of nigeria who make over 70% of the current population matters a lot to me. The election is less than 3 months away and I'm yet to see any credible candidate (including Jonathan), no manifesto, no presidential debate, no concrete plans by inec, etc. These question are a few of what we need to be asking our politicians instead of arguing on "who chop pass". The progress of our nation is for us all. Most of these politheivecians will be dead or incapacitated in in the next 20 years. What will life be for us then? We need to take our destiny in our hands by ensuring that the right people get the votes and our votes our counted. If we continue to vote on tribe, ethinicity, kick backs etc then we would be stuck in the past forever!!!

IF IBB CONTEST WE WILL WIN. AS the ibo's alone will give him the presidency, i trust Francis Arthur Nzeribe,he will quikly organise another ABN,Association FOR BETTER NIGERIA,so if anybody want ibb not to rule naija,the person rather stop him now if not if he contest is all.

I read this thread with pain in my heart and tears in my eyes. At this stage and in this era, we are still battling with which tribe. It is a pity. Am not here to support anybody but to share some reasoning. Which tribe is Obama in US - minority or Majority. I know we are way way behind to start squaring shoulders with US. Shall we continue to wallow in ignorant while the world around us is leaving us behind at a very fast pace. Did we remember that when the north supported and packaged OBJ, he had challenges with acceptance by his own people. This very man and Chief Gani said he is not to be trusted. This was what lead Gani into registering a party.
Like somebody said, it is amazing that those who have access to information on-line that are supposed to be fronting for a better Nigeria through great leadership are still neck did in tribal, ethnic, religious and other myopic reasoning. It is a pity that even the younger generation do not care about what happens to this great nation of ours.
When I join Nairaland, I thought I had found a place where realistic ideas will be shared, knowledgable people with information will be discussing based on current happening round the world compared to where we are.
So much wrong has been done in this nation. Let us for once put all this discrimination aside and support the leader (no matter where he's from) that will move us forward. We are tired of NO POWER, NO GOOD ROADS, NO JOBS FOR THE TEAMING YOUTH, NO HEALTH FOR THE COMMON MAN, NO WATER FOR THE COMMON MAN, COLLAPSING EDUCATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE, CONSTANT INCREASE IN PRICE OF PETROL, JUMBO PACKAGED FOR LEGISLATOR BUT PEANUTS FOR WORKING MASSES. HIGH RATE OF CRIME AND ETC ETC ETC ETC

ibnew:

I read this thread with pain in my heart and tears in my eyes. At this stage and in this era, we are still battling with which tribe. It is a pity. Am not here to support anybody but to share some reasoning. Which tribe is Obama in US - minority or Majority. I know we are way way behind to start squaring shoulders with US. Shall we continue to wallow in ignorant while the world around us is leaving us behind at a very fast pace. Did we remember that when the north supported and packaged OBJ, he had challenges with acceptance by his own people. This very man and Chief Gani said he is not to be trusted. This was what lead Gani into registering a party.
Like somebody said, it is amazing that those who have access to information on-line that are supposed to be fronting for a better Nigeria through great leadership are still neck did in tribal, ethnic, religious and other myopic reasoning. It is a pity that even the younger generation do not care about what happens to this great nation of ours.
When I join Nairaland, I thought I had found a place where realistic ideas will be shared, knowledgable people with information will be discussing based on current happening round the world compared to where we are.
So much wrong has been done in this nation. Let us for once put all this discrimination aside and support the leader (no matter where he's from) that will move us forward. We are tired of NO POWER, NO GOOD ROADS, NO JOBS FOR THE TEAMING YOUTH, NO HEALTH FOR THE COMMON MAN, NO WATER FOR THE COMMON MAN, COLLAPSING EDUCATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE, CONSTANT INCREASE IN PRICE OF PETROL, JUMBO PACKAGED FOR LEGISLATOR BUT PEANUTS FOR WORKING MASSES. HIGH RATE OF CRIME AND ETC ETC ETC ETC

Please! Please! Please! I fully understand what you are saying. Your input is totally waste of time. Most of them are not clever enough to understand that unity is far more powerful than nuclear weapon.

I think there are a lot of fools in Nigeria than anywhere esle in the whole world.

@ ibnew - it shall be well with you, but just as the other guy said, It could also be a waste of time, lots of us are damn too greedy, the issue of tribes is smthn else in Nigerian politics, I wonder how we could move forward this way, sometimes I even think perhaps God did not design us to live together- especially north and south.

But one thing is sure, these people that decides the fate of millions of Nigerians at odd hrs, God would arrest them sooner than you know it,

To all Nairalanders, just make sure you- REGISTER, VOTE & STAND BY and let YOUR VOTE COUNT. in 2011.

@ John terry,
You're a fool! the problem of this country can be routed to you via your lack of manner. if you can start calling cow your dad simply because of monetary value it actually shows where you belong in the arena of idiocy.
This country problems and her afflictions are unambiguous to common citizen of the nation. i agree with bad effect of this act on person like johnterry but at least common sense should be left to view things normal, not to daftly against people oriented idea, such person needed to be shown Yaba left side for rehabilitation.
You have i chance of correcting yourself because the day mad man discovered his madness sees his healing, you're just fortunate to be here, at least nairaland has impacted greatly in your life by getting a clue to your problem.

jas_o:

@ John terry,
You're a fool! the problem of this country can be routed to you via your lack of manner. if you can start calling cow your dad simply because of monetary value it actually shows where you belong in the arena of idiocy.
This country problems and her afflictions are unambiguous to common citizen of the nation. i agree with bad effect of this act on person like johnterry but at least common sense should be left to view things normal, not to daftly against people oriented idea, such person needed to be shown Yaba left side for rehabilitation.
You have i chance of correcting yourself because the day mad man discovered his madness sees his healing, you're just fortunate to be here, at least nairaland has impacted greatly in your life by getting a clue to your problem.

I think you are more foolish and dumber than whoever you are replying. Take my words to the bank . .

The sad part of the people who are supporting IBB is how the choose to ignore most of the point made by the OP. instead the try to play the ethnic and race card. Oh obj is worse than IBB. is that the best thing you can say about your man? How about coming out to tell us why IBB is good without resulting to racial slurs? FYI OBJ lost in the southwest twice when he ran for president. The Yoruba people hate him but that is not even the issue. The point is IBB administration for 8 years took Nigeria to the dogs. I lived through his era and I have a long memory. Tell me one thing IBB achieved through his administration. Please do this without telling me how he is not as bad as YXZ cus doing that only shows you are nothing but someone whose opinion is for sale

Interesting to note that in other societies, when  dictator steps down  or is ousted from office, he goes into exile. Its only in Nigeria U c dictators and their families living well, making public appearances, and even bold enough to contest [ and win]elections,