Babangida as a blessing and a lesson

Last Sunday, retired military President, Ibrahim Babangida clocked 84. He had a “quiet” celebration. No drums. No cymbals. The Hilltop was quiet from his end. But admirers trooped in (Lagos boys would say; won gbori wole). Big boys wheeled in. Multiple photo sessions and selfies with him saturated the digital and legacy media. Love him, hate him, the Minna retired general will always be news because he is the (in)famous (depending on your take), IBB. There were even newspaper adverts. You ask why shelling millions of naira on someone with fading star in the power space. Yoruba will say “onikun lo mero” (recommending the first part of Proverbs 16:1 in interpreting this). Another Yoruba wise saying will rationalize as “ohun to ko iwaju seni kan eyin lo ko si elomiran (different strokes for different folks).

High-flying RCCG Evangelist J.T. Kalejaiye is fond of saying, “whoever you meet in life is not an accident, he/she is either a blessing or a lesson”. That is where I got today’s headline. Babangida impacted the Nigerian socio-economic political space so significantly that even in death, God preserving him for many more years, he would remain poignant in Nigeria’s political landscape. One photo that caught my attention was his, with a presidential predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, beaming beside the fading General. The first thing I noticed is the significant depreciation in his visage between February 20 of the running year when he made a public appearance to launch his autobiography titled “A journey in service” and his apperance for photo-ops for his birthday. Just an interval of six months. Jonathan is 67, so Babangida is significantly older with a gap of 14 years but in the photo, the younger President could pass for the older leader’s first son. Yes, numerous 14-year olds, especially girls of African descent in the US are already mothers and some unguided boys too, have fathered children for their mums to nurse, while still nursing the wannabe-fathers. While I run into these cases a lot on Paternity Court hosted by Judge Lauren Lake, the kid-having-kid phenom isn’t a black person disease and certainly not continent-exclusive.

Couched as adolescent births, global data says, maybe not surprising, it is mostly prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa. Yes, tradition, culture and some religious beliefs around Africa may be fueling this social problem but there is a way these findings always find their negative net in the continent as if hell is located here. Everything must be wrong with and in Africa, even when the West which usually coordinates the research works, isn’t actually smelling like a rose. Yoruba will tag hypocrisy as “ari teni mo wi” or “ipako oni pako lanwo, eni eleni lo nri teni”.

Available data claim that globally, approximately 13% of adolescent girls and young women give birth before age 18. In 2021, mothers under 20, reportedly accounted for about 10% of the total worldwide births, equating to roughly 13.3 million babies born of “babies”. In 2023, the total global birth rate for girls aged 10-14 was 1.5 per 1,000 women!

Arguably with 49 countries in total, sub-Saharan Africa is generally understood to include all African countries south of the Sahara Desert (all African countries minus those in Northern Africa), and of course, Nigeria, which has produced both Babangida and Jonathan as leaders at different times, is not just a member-nation, but the biggest of all. Predictably, almost all socio-economic developmental indicators are in the negative for nearly all the sub-Saharan countries, including their supposed Big Brother; Nigeria, mismanaged by locust leaderships.

It can however be argued that IBB left power 32 years ago and still-drifting Nigeria can’t be his fault. Yes, Nigeria remaining in the wilderness decades after the Minna-Maradona dribbled himself into a seemingly unprepared-for retirement, can’t entirely be blamed on his much-vilified policies especially the economic and political, yet the beginning of the massive economic dislocation for many Nigerians is locatable in his economic programmes. His SAP birthed Sapa (financial hardship).

Briefcase billionaires, a term popularized by factional Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, depicting surging illicit wealth, believed to have fathered today’s yahoo yahoo community, is widely held to be the making of his military presidency. Some of the emergency deep pockets, sucking from the feeding bottle of his regime’s dollar racket, ended up as leaders in his curated-to-fail multiple transition programmes.

However, there are national monuments standing to his credit. Three will race to mind; Lagos Third Mainland bridge, completing what Shagari administration started (the Fourth is being constructed by mouth since 1999), the International Centre in Abuja, (which he built for N240 million) and the massive development of FCT Abuja as seat of federal government after he bolted Lagos, following Gideon Orkar’s coup.

Then the fatal error that sealed his journey in service, June 12.

IBB has had his date with history. The massive pushback at his attempt to whitewash history in his book, must have been a great shock to him. Nigerians won’t allow him to delete his wrongs from their memory. He is a lesson to Nigerians on what should not be tolerated and who their leaders must not be. But what appears to be working against Babangida in his quest for rebranding with Nigerians could be put down to how he came to power and what he was wearing: gun and khaki. Since him, and particularly the comeback of civil rule, leaders in agbada with stolen mandates have practically gotten away with murder. The Abuja ICC which he built for N240 million was recently renovated with N39 billion by today’s administration, just 34 years of erecting it. The same Tinubu administration is about spending N3.6 trillion to repair the Third Mainland bridge after 35 years of use and multiple repair efforts in-between. Ironically, while Nigerians are not ready to forgive IBB for annulling considered freest and fairest poll in Nigeria’s annals, handlers of elections with zero integrity have been allowed to get away with their thievery by the same Nigerians resisting IBB and now in every election cycle, it is always a sigh; of resigning to helplessness. Instructively, the abortion of majority mandate of voters for which Babangida got into the eternal black book of Nigerians, is what is routinely done by today’s politicians without consequences. IBB would be the hero of the people if he had the power to annul elections being conducted in this republic. He came too early and stole the destitute chicken. He will always be in the villain conversation.

But today’s piece isn’t much about IBB’s public service records. I felt sad seeing how he appears, now in the borderline of his mortality, though life and living rests with God. 1 Samuel 2:6 says, “The Lord brings death and makes alive; He brings down to the grave and raises up”.

Yes, in a country with life expectancy of between 55 and 62 years, 84 is a big deal and God has actually been kind to the former military leader. The quantum of medical relief his wealth can procure is definitely above what is available to a lot of Nigerians. His friends and “boys” in high places can also be there for him. But General Babangida is not aging gracefully. In the last three years especially after the exclusive interview granted to Trust TV, something appears to be eating him up faster than excited children gobbling up ice cream.

Certainly, old age comes with biological degradation of the body, but he is almost looking unrecognisable, considering that some of his agemates (don’t want to mention names) are still strutting all over the place, including doing unbelievable younger people’s stuff. I understand graces are different. There is a unique grace upon Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo. He bounces around like old plastic ball affectionately dubbed “unbreke” (shortened form of unbreakable). Yes, I know about IBB’s long-running battle with radiculopathy and very aware it can be degenerative, but the man that showed up at book launch and in birthday photos, has something close to permanent gloom even when trying to glow. In contrast to Jonathan, Babangida looked bored, broken, tired and disinterested in what was happening around him. He was like someone mummified while still with breath. Is the old man depressed?

In the January 15, 2022 interview  I referenced, the General said he refused to replace his late wife Maryam in his heart by shunning other women, noting, “It is a matter of choice; I decided to honour her by being not a bachelor but being unmarried”.

Even lesser mortals in his situation would not be bachelors; cooking their meals and doing their laundry. An average widower with means can get that fixed too, let alone a Babangida. But there is warmth of spousal companionship an average widower would miss, taking his stance. God who created man, said in Genesis 2:18 “It is not good for a man to be alone” and the companion He deemed fit was a woman. Because men are believed to be capable of fixing themselves, the society hardly bothers about how an average widower feels while all attention is on the widow. Woe betide that widower who has adult children who aren’t ready to share their late mom’s space with some “random” woman. Most times, such men caught in the middle, give in to their children and tuck their loneliness in the inner recesses of their hearts, living outwardly but dying inwardly. If he decides to dare, he becomes an insensitive randy old man “who can’t respect mum’s memory”.

In a viral video on the recently passed Nollywood icon, popularly known as Chief Kanran, a younger female colleague claimed the veteran thespian was regularly sending her pleas to have female companion arranged for him because he was lonely. The actress said the ladies she approached on Kanran’s behalf declined because of his age. One of his children disclosed that his cause of death was a fall in the house but the man had no one around to help him up. He died right there on the floor.

The much-beloved former First Lady died on December 27, 2009. Ibrahim is still a single widower 16 years after. Hopefully, it wasn’t their children that blocked his path to another help meet. The night of a man’s life should be filled with merry not misery. Happy birthday, General.

READ ALSO: Speaker Tajudeen felicitates Ibrahim Babangida at 84