Former military President General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida yesterday said his discussion with President Goodluck Jonathan centred on Nigeria and how to improve the country.


He said the meeting had nothing to do with any move to persuade Jonathan to step down for him as being speculated.Babangida spoke when he led a team of his campaign organisation to Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Secretariat to express compassion over last Saturday’s fire that razed part of PDP Headquarters Wadata Plaza.


“It is not what you guys have been insinuating. So, whenever you find two heads of states, they talk about this country: how can we improve this country, what can we do? All the heads of states – about ten of us still living – that’s what we talk about,” he said.

Babangida said, “2011 belongs to God and I am fully prepared. The negative comments I do appreciate. I will be a fool if I accept that everybody loves me. But there are also others who do. That’s life.”

He said, “Unknown to most of you, there is a very robust relationship between the family of President Jonathan and the Babangidas. His wife has been very kind, she asks after my children all the time and I appreciate that.

“I don’t run away from my friends, my brothers and I had an opportunity to thank the wife, through her husband. His wife has taken a lot of interest in my children and I used the opportunity to convey my appreciation to his wife for his concern about my children.”

Babangida was accompanied by members of his campaign team headed by the Director General Chief Raymond Aleogho Dokpesi, Alhaji Sada Ilu, Prof. A.B.C Nwosu, Prince Kassim Afegbua, Mrs Remi Adiukwu-Bakare, Alhaji Farouk Bibi-Farouk and Alhaji Shehu Musa Gabam.

Responding, PDP national chairman Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo, hailed the former president for his concern, describing him as one of the front runners for the party’s presidential ticket.

He said, “We are very happy to receive our very revered leader, former president of Nigeria, who today is visiting us in a different capacity as one of the front runners in our party, for the ticket of the PDP in the forthcoming presidential election and we receive him as a member of our party who has come to commiserate with us on the unfortunate fire incident in our secretariat.”

“The president has been here himself. So, the tremendous empathy that this unfortunate incident has generated within the leadership and rank and file of PDP shows that the party is strong.”

Former Secretary of the PDP Board of Trustees (BOT) Abdullahi Adamu also visited the party yesterday to express sympathy over last Saturday’s fire incident.

http://www.dailytrust.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2200:ibb-what-i-discussed-with-jonathan-&catid=2:lead-stories&Itemid=8

Responding, PDP national chairman Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo, hailed the former president for his concern, describing him as one of the front runners for the party’s presidential ticket

All these knives with 2 faces politicians in PDP no go kill me with laugh , i believe he told GEJ the same thing when he visited.

princekevo:

All these knives with 2 faces politicians in PDP no go kill me with laugh , i believe he told GEJ the same thing when he visited.

What is this their name again? P.o.l.i.t.i.c.i.a.n.s yes that's it!

Very typical! Is it not IBB

Well, truly we know 2011 belongs to God! Yes, the same God that took away Abacha at the right time. HE is still on the throne!! And ready to still take away those who do not wish Nigeria / Nigerians well!!

We shall see!!!

Deliver us O! Lord from the hand is evil men,

who plans our sink.

May Sango, Amadioha slam them

Who wants to know?

Yea,who evn wants 2knw,dey shd al go 2hel,pretenders,oge hw fa nw?

otondo55:

Deliver us O! Lord from the hand is evil men,

who plans our sink.

May Sango, Amadioha slam them

Who gives a hoot abt what they discussed? "Improve the country" and "IBB" should not be in the same sentence.

WHO CARE'S ,
BATH A PIG,
PERFUME A PIG,
CLOTH A PIG
HE STILL REMAINS A PIG
so IBB pls GO and WARM your MAT.
you should be concentrating on your ramadan fast.

[b][/b][font=Lucida Sans Unicode][/font]mscheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew!!!!!!!!!am on d wrong page, thieves and murderers

Everyone should see through these shenanigans which the IBB campaign train / team are acting out !

No to IBB ! Full stop; End of Discussion.

Who cares what a slow poke has to offer which he couldnt do whilst in 8yrs of office.Go drink some cheap rat poison make person hear word abeg!!!!!!!

IBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBb NA YOU GET THIS HAND. YOU GO WIN,YOUR THE BEST CANDIDATE.I wil vote for you,but after try to recollect our Bakasi land from cameroun

what is it called?

POLITICS - DIRTY GAME -

bones1:

Everyone should see through these shenanigans which the IBB campaign train / team are acting out !

No to IBB ! Full stop; End of Discussion.

Discussion continues . , . , . , . , . , . , . , . , . , . , . , . , . , . , . , ,

And who cares, when they have pocketed Nigeria. Let them remember that God is still on the throne.

WHY GIVE THIS OLD UNNECESSARY PUBLICITY?

I will only advice Jonathan to be wary of wolves in sheeps' clothing.

wales, thank you for the update.

He said, “Unknown to most of you, there is a very robust relationship between the family of President Jonathan and the Babangidas. His wife has been very kind, she asks after my children all the time and I appreciate that.



GOOD THAT IS HW VISTA ASK AFTER UR CHILDREN REGULARLY AND WEN THE TIME TO KILL HIM - U DID NOT LOOK BACK. YOU STILL KILL HIM

Babangida was accompanied by members of his campaign team headed by the Director General Chief Raymond Aleogho Dokpesi, Alhaji Sada Ilu, Prof. A.B.C Nwosu, Prince Kassim Afegbua, Mrs Remi Adiukwu-Bakare, [b]Alhaji Farouk Bibi-Farouk [/b]and Alhaji Shehu Musa Gabam.

Please who are those men in bold? I just want to be certain that they are not the ones I am thinking about. I expect those men I am thinking about to try and launder their stinky names and the evils their families have done to Nigeria. They are still romancing with IBB? Na wa o

.

who be thief, who be the hunter?

Journalists have succeeded in making IBB the most popular candidate for 2011 elections. The general is getting a shade too much attention. And that's the game plan of the evil genius.

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
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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!!!