Akanniade:

That fox should return all the money he stole before we can take his words seriously.

2011 Presidential poll: Count me out, says IBB
By NDUBUISI ORJI, Lagos and AKIN ALOFETEKUN, Minna

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida has no ambition to contest the presidential election in 2011.

General Ibrahim Babangida




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Babangida debunked speculations that he was staging a comeback to the nation’s political scene.


Speaking in an interview with the Channels Television in Minna, Niger State, monitored in Lagos, the former president said contrary to the speculations that he would run for a second time, he no longer had interest in any elective position.


Babangida said there were pressures from many quarters for him to vie for the post of the president of the country in 2011, but he would not bow to such pressures.


IBB, as he is fondly called, said he would be willing to lend a hand of support to whoever emerged as the nation’s president in 2011.


Babangida had indicated interest to contest the 2007 presidential election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).


But stepped down for President Umaru Yar’Adua few days before the party’s presidential primaries. He said he had to step down because of what he called ‘a moral dilemma’.

Babangida became president after he seized power in a bloodless coup on August 27, 1985. He ruled the nation until August 26, 1993 when he stepped ‘aside’ owing to pressure after he annulled the June 12, 1993 election won by the late Chief MKO Abiola.

Meanwhile, the former military president has advocated a review of the nation’s federal system in which there should be less responsibilities for the Federal Government, even as he called for the abolition of the federal character policy in federal appointments.


He made the call in Minna, Niger State while speaking at the third annual United Nations’ International Peace Day lecture series tagged: Constitutional review as a mechanism for peace and stability.

He noted that the Federal Government had been saddled with too much responsibility and called on the constitutional review committee to take a closer look at the issue with a view to reducing the responsibilities of the Federal Government and allocating them to the states and the local governments.

The former leader, also among other things, called for the creation of state police, abolition of federal character in appointment into federal offices, saying appointments should be based on merit, pointing out that the federal character system had outlived its usefulness.


Babangida also suggested that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) be statutorily responsible for the conduct of the presidential and national assembly elections alone while the state independent electoral commission (SIEC) be made to conduct other elections at state and local government levels and announce the results without taking orders from Abuja.

The guest lecturer on the occasion, Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu of Niger State, enjoined the audience to see the opportunity of a constitutional review as a way of having their say on how the country is governed.


Aliyu, however, observed that it is not only the document that should be changed, according to him, “it is important to change the mindset and attitude of the people because both the document and the mind of the people must work together if any constitution must succeed.”

Also speaking at the occasion, the Deputy Senate president and the Chairman of the Constitution Review Committee, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, disclosed that despite the cry in some quarters that the present constitution lack legitimacy because it was done during the military era, the constitution, he said, is legal and will remain so until another one is produced.


He thanked the state governors for their support for the National Assembly in its efforts to review the constitution.


The annual International Peace Day lecture series also had in attendance members of the national and state assemblies from across the country

@onlytruth I am sorry for you. You wan die? IBB de talk and you are listening. No jupiter can bring me back for now until all of those leaders are dead and i have built my fortress, not a house but a fortress 'cause na war zone be that ooooooo.

cre8tivity:

i think his ideas are very bright; ibb is getting better and better with age. i also think it wouldn't be a bad idea for others who are currently in-charge to start listening to this man. hate him or love him, we can all agree that the man has the key.

avobode:

How is Gani dead and this criminal is still alive?