Ahead of his 74th birthday today, erstwhile military
president, General Ibrahim Babangida had an interactive
session with journalists in Minna, Niger State. In the
revealing interview he opens up on his response to the coup
plot led by Major Gideon Orkar in April 1990, the Dimka
coup plot earlier in 1976, his assessment of the unfolding
Muhammadu Buhari led administration and of his thoughts
towards his one time friend, Chief Moshood Abiola among
other things.
Excerpts
By Wole Mosadomi
SIR, is it true that you are from Ogbomosho, a claim that is
backed by assertion that your second name ‘Badamasi’ was
coined from the Yoruba name Gbadamosi? Please can you
clear the air?
I appreciate your concern. I had to answer the question way
back in November 1962. I answered the question during my
final year in secondary school when I had to answer that
question and 52 years later, I am glad I am answering the
same question.
The truth is that I hail from here, Niger State. My parents
were from between Wushishi and this town (Minna). My
grandparents travelled to settle down here and I think that
that says it all but there is nothing wrong in being from any
part of the country. The truth is that I hail from Niger State.
Indigene of Niger State
My grandparents and great grandparents moved from
somewhere to settle down in Niger State. There are some
who still call us settlers in Niger State and that we are not
indigenes of the state because our grandparents came from
somewhere to settle here but having lived all my 74 years in
Niger State, I think I am more than qualified to be called an
indigene of Niger State.

What is your reaction to reported claims by U.S. officials
that Nigerian troops were not properly trained to fight Boko
Haram?
I must admit that a lot of us were trained in America, so it is
not anything new to talk about training because they knew
they had trained people. I was trained in America, I was in a
place called Portsmouth in Kentucky where I did my senior
officers course, so you can see that a lot of us were trained
in America. They are right but there is an old saying that
says, no matter the sophisticated weapons we have, the
man behind the weapon really matters. I appreciate what
they are trying to do.

Are you satisfied by the Federal Government’s renewed
fight against insurgents? ( cuts in sharply)
Yea, they have to be fought. I think the renewed effort and
fight the Federal Government is doing is commendable.
But it was thought that the insurgents had been routed at
the end of the Jonathan administration.
So, what do you
think may have happened that gave them fire as President
came on board?
I think there is a general misunderstanding of the whole
concept of insurgency. You can call it anything, instability,
terrorism. The fact is that we are not fighting a regular army
where you can confront them with sheer use of force and
weapons to overwhelm the enemy.
No, we have gotten a small trained army whose tactics is to
inflict maximum casualty on his so-called enemy, inflict
casualty on him when and where he least expects it. The
army is not fighting a conventional war and that makes it
exceptionally difficult. They blow out bridges, they go as far
as blowing up barracks. This is an unconventional war. I
think the soldiers are trained for it and they know this is the
sort of thing they do. I think the public should be educated
about this unconventional war.

How do you feel celebrating your 74th birthday, given that
several attempts were made against your life while you were
in service?
I will continue to be grateful to God and it strengthens my
belief that no matter what happens, if God doesn’t will it,
nothing will happen to me.
Gratitude to God
So it is a matter of believing that no matter what happens,
either good or bad, nothing happens without the approval of
Allah.
I am grateful to God for sparing my life up to this time
despite what we went through. Those who participated in
combat will say the same. God has kept me and I remain
grateful to Him and grateful to you all for your support.

Don’t you think that it is necessary to have a body of elder-
statesmen to proffer advice to successive administrations
especially given the situation Nigerians found themselves
after the recent transition?
I think one of the most unique things in Nigeria is that this is
one African country that is specially blessed. There are
about seven of us (former leaders) alive today and every
one of us has his experience in one way or the other but the
other good thing is that there is a forum where we all meet
the current leadership, chat with him, talk about the
situation in the country discuss and offer solutions to any
problem confronting us. All of us are always free, we are
very accessible to government, so we can either put across
either in writing or talking.

In your opinion what are the key areas the present
government should focus so that the country will move on?
I must commend the present leadership for identifying even
before and after the election some of the problems facing
this country. Number one has to do with security and the
president talked about it extensively.
Security of the state
The security of lives and property, the security of the state,
the security of this environment called Nigeria has been
identified.
And the second one has to do of course with the way we
live, the way we walk and the way we behave which is
corruption. The third one has to do with the economic
development of the country. We should support the
President towards achieving these objectives.

Talking of corruption, what is your reaction to the
President’s vow to recover stolen funds from the nation’s
treasury?
During the tenure of my boss, President Obasanjo, he had a
similar strategy and to be fair to him, he made a lot of
recoveries, so we should support this present Federal
Government in trying to do the same to achieve the same
objective. If that objective is pursued, I believe it will
achieve some degree of nrecovery of stolen funds. You talk
about oil theft, I am sure President Buhari is resolute to
stamp out all those and to bring to book all those who have
tampered in stealing our oil.

What is your reaction to the Federal Government’s assertion
that it could negotiate with Boko Haram?
The President has got it right by saying he will talk to people
who are credible who have been identified as some of the
leaders of the insurgency but so far, apart from one or two
names, we do not hear any other name.
Democratic practices
I don’t think the government will like to talk in a vacuum, to
talk to people who are not worth talking to as far as these
issues are concerned. So the government is right in being
careful to identify and talk if there is anything to talk about

How do you feel as a leader of a former leading party that
you are now in the opposition and secondly, do you think
the PDP can come out of the waters in 2019?
I think one of the good things we are experiencing in this
country is that for 16 years there has been democracy and
democratic practices in the country. A lot of things must
have gone wrong somewhere and the right judges are the
people and the people have spoken. I think it is natural they
needed a change after 16 years and they did what is right,
they did not go wild, they did not fight anybody, they used
their ballot papers to change the government. I think this is
the beauty of what happened. I look forward to such
practices in the next 50 years of democratic practice in this
country. I hope they learn from their mistakes, what they
did wrong, what they did right and what they can do now to
re-launch their party.
One of the major challenges your administration faced was
the Gideon Okar coup where people thought death had
finally gotten you. How did you escape?
I can remember very well that I had some loyal officers who
were supposed to be my protectors and my body guard.
Initially they told me to leave but I told them no, I am not
leaving anywhere but they remained steadfast and later I
took my family outside Dodan Barracks and I joined my
guards. So we went out of Dodan Barracks and we went to
a safe house where we got in contact with loyal troops.
May God bless Sani Abacha. Sani Abacha was the chief of
army staff. He got in touch with me, I got in touch with him
and we sat down and talked on what we were going to do.
Abacha and I rallied the loyal troops and then I left my safe
house and joined Abacha in his house. That was how I
escaped.

How will you rate the role of the media in the just concluded
general elections?
I think the media has been fair and that is my rating. Very
unusual but you are fair. You didn’t show or play
partisanship, you saw and said it the way it was. I have
seen the media during a lot of other elections but this
particular one you were very, very fair. And I hope that will
be the trend.

What is your assessment about the performance of the
present administration so far?
So far, I am confident that they are doing well.
Sound advice
They have identified the problems and they look resolute in
confronting these problems head-on and there are a lot of
people in the society who are offering a lot of sound advice
on what to do.

Are you missing your friend MKO Abiola?
Let me see, last week, I dug out one of the letters he wrote
to me and I read it, so that shows that I still miss him.

What is your best food?
I eat everything legal that is not against my religion, I don’t
eat pork meat. I eat cereals, carbohydrate, give me anything
I will eat it.

Recently, your political god son was being drafted into the
contest for the president of FIFA (cuts in sharply)

I will vote for him. (Prolonged laughter). No doubt, he made
a very good outing, that is talking about his personal interest
in sports especially football when he was a governor.
The Enyimba Football Club during his tenure as governor
was brought into limelight. He was very much interested in
soccer and if he is as such recognised in this country and
outside, there is nothing wrong in trying his hand to be
recognised in the world and that was why I said if I have a
vote, I will cast it for him.




http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/08/how-i-escaped-orkars-coup-ibrahim-babangida/

Is not easy to ba a general

Now, tell me, how would this story affect Chelsea's 3 Nil loss to Man City.

I was there too back den I remember does anybody remember that oo

makzeze:
Now, tell me, how would this story affect Chelsea's 3 Nil loss to Man City.

the story go help morinhno strategies against the coming pellegrinies coup

makzeze:
Now, tell me, how would this story affect Chelsea's 3 Nil loss to Man City.

the story go help morinho strategies against the coming pellegrinis coup

The "rumour" of Babangida being an Ogbomosho man has been on for long. From what he said here, by inference, I can say he supports it.