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Gen.Babangida in his book “A Journey in Service” portrayed himself as a faint-hearted soldier who could not go against the wishes of his lieutenants to avoid a bloody coup.
This is the same soldier who quelled the Dimka coup in 1976, engineered the overthrow of Shagari administration in 1983, enthroned Buhari as head of state and in 1985 staged a coup against the same Buhari.
I think IBB initially had no interest in writing a memoir. He was clearly inspired by the fact that he had outlived most of the actors who helped his regime annull the June 12 presidential election.
From Abacha (who led the anti-June 12 forces), Augustus Aikhomu (who directed his press secretary Nduka Irabor to announce June 12 annulment without IBB’s knowledge), Arthur Nzeribe (whose unregistered Association from Better Nigeria secured a court order to stop the election), Justice Dahiru Saleh (who annulled the election) to Attorney-General of the Federation Clement Akpambo (who insisted that the illegal order must be respected), are all dead.
I wonder why a military dictator who executed his close friend and best man at his wedding, Mamman Vatsa, for allegedly planning a coup, executed Gideon Okar after a failed coup, locked up 13 political godfathers, including his boss Maj-General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, for hijacking NRC and SDP primaries, failed to act when anti-June 12 forces truncated the transition.
Credit: Jaafar Jaafar.
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