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General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida as military President
By James T. Gwar
Former Military President, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, who just turned 80 on 17th August, has remained an outstanding example of a Nigerian leader. His vast sagest wisdom, deep knowledge and empathy for humanity, sense of history and vision for a greater Nigeria and its future in the comity of nations, gave direction to the state and its institutions and curtailed ethnic and religious conflicts, created the objective conditions for economic growth, progress, development, and the spread of wealth and prosperity among communities, societies and the nation.
The nature of Babangida’s leadership of Nigeria and the decisions that were undertaken remained crucial to the sustenance and survival of individuals and groups, agencies, institutions, organisations and the fabric of the Nigerian state.
For Ibrahim Babangida, there was no ethnicity, no religion, there was only Nigeria, and no individual, group or institution was greater than the country. Babangida undeniably stood upon the strong shoulders and also the frailties of former leadership giants such as Balewa, Ironsi, Gowon, Muhammed, Obasanjo and Shehu Shagari. He knew almost exactly where each got it right or where each got it wrong with regards to the nation and its people.
Babangida’s interaction with pressure groups, public opinion, socio-economic and political structures, and other state institutions in order to struggle towards the forging of development and the spread of prosperity was unparallel in Nigerian presidential history. His engagement of the international community for mutual benefits, respect, co-operation and understanding, and the search for peace, progress and development was always undertaken based upon long held historical objectives in the national interest.
The former President laboured to fulfil the tenets of the national interest, as according to Alan Tonelson, “the national interest is a finite set of intrinsically important goals either essential or beneficial to the countrys survival, its prosperity, the psychological well-being of its population, or any combination of these. Babangida combined a personality trait and a process leadership style which in the former produced certain qualities in his human nature and career that led him to a position of military and political leadership. In periods of crisis or emergences, Babangida rose to the occasion and with extraordinary leadership qualities, avoided disaster and helped propel the nation to a higher plane. In the latter, that is, the process leadership style, Babangida became a leader by choice, that is, he consciously took the decision to seek power and exhibit leadership. He then learnt leadership art and imbibed its skills as well as the comportment and mien of a leader who works to achieve genuine legitimacy. This is why Yakubu Muhammed, then of Newswatch Magazine, described his presidency as a silent revolution. For he was transformational and kept on adapting to constant re-assessment, re-interpretation and re-evaluation of ideas, philosophies and concepts necessary for success and survival for the public good, stability and order.
Beginning on 27th August, 1985, Babangida was determined to enforce human rights, to give voice to the voiceless and to run an accountable government. In this period, he saw the need for many political prisoners who had been unjustly jailed to be released.
Certain obnoxious decrees were abrogated and this guaranteed some level of freedom of expression and gave freedom to jailed or detained journalists such as Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor. Nigerias international image as official human rights violator was redeemed and this helped the country’s interactions in the international community which boosted the objectives of the national interest.
The observation of certain levels of the rule of law was one of the main concerns of the Babangida military leadership which ensured that government does not act arbitrarily and is predictable in its policies and actions with respect to the unbiased application of law and order. Babangida made efforts to ensure citizens participation in public policy decisions that affected them mainly through public hearings and debates especially with regards to whether Nigeria should take the IMF loan with its conditionalities or else accept a Structural Adjustment Programme, (SAP) for the economy. Thus, in this critical issue of international economic relations, decisions were made in consideration of the people and the national interest.
The military presidency of Ibrahim Babangida made great strides in the sphere of public service delivery demonstrable by the evident record of infrastructural development such as roads, the steady supply of electricity in the years of his presidency, potable water supply, healthcare services such as the primary healthcare facilities, and the advancement of educational institutions throughout the country. The government negotiated or secured its way out of several ethno-religious conflicts, several other national security threats, and resource control agitations, and efforts were made to curtail the rise and expansion of communal clashes and inter-group frictions in the interest of national security. In the period of the mid-1980s when President Babangida came to power, several policies and programmes of governance were either lacking or were yet to be put in place.
The military presidency had to respond swiftly with such programmes, projects, agencies and organisations such as: the Better Life for Rural Women (BLRW) Programme, Mass Mobilisation for Social Justice, Equality, and Self-reliance, (MAMSER), which fronted for the National Orientation Agency, (NOA), the Directorate of Food, Roads, and Rural Infrastructure, (DFRRI), National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, (NAFDAC), National Agricultural and Land Development Authority, (NALDA), and the National Directorate of Employment, (NDE). Others included the Federal Roads Safety Corps, (FRSC), Technical Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation, (TCPC), now called Bureau for Public Enterprises, (BPE), the National Electricity Regulatory Commission, (NERC), Oil Minerals Producers and Development Commission, (OMPADEC), now called Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC), as well as numerous other commissions and agencies in all sectors of the economy and polity unprecedented in Nigerias history.
Babangidas administration saw it fit to initiate certain Security Sector Reforms, (SSR). These saw the creation by 1989 of a Federal Investigation and Intelligence Bureau, (FIIB) set up within the police force as the successor to the Directorate of Intelligence and Investigation, (DII). Three other directorates were established for operations, administration, and logistics, each headed by a deputy inspector general and the Criminal Investigation Department, (CID) headed by a police commissioner. The nations Nigerian Security Organisation, (NSO) also had an Achilles hill in this period under the leadership of the ‘Gestapo-minded, to use a famous Newswatch phrase, Muhammadu Lawal Rafindadi, variously accused of cruelty, viciousness, and ‘Gestapo-like’ tactics. The new regime opened up the NSO detention centre in Lagos to the press and released 101 detainees that included Senator Gbenga Ogunniya, Femi Falana and Folu Olamiti, the editor of the Sunday Tribune who was detained under decree 4. Aliyu Mohammed a Brigadier-General was made the acting DG of the NSO.
The NSO was now dissolved into three separate divisions according to the provisions of Decree 19. The State Security Service, (SSS) became responsible for domestic intelligence, the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) took responsibility for Foreign intelligence and counterintelligence operations, while the Defence Intelligence Agency, (DIA) became responsible for military intelligence. The National Intelligence Agency, (NIA) was tasked with overseeing foreign intelligence and counter-intelligence operations. In line with these reforms, the Defence Intelligence Agency, (DIA) has been the primary military intelligence agency of Nigeria. Established in 1986, it was to provide an efficient system of obtaining military intelligence for the Nigerian Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defence.
The DIA promotes Nigeria’s Defence Policy, enhances military cooperation with other countries, protects the lives of Nigerian citizens, and maintains the territorial integrity of Nigeria. It has remained under the headship of the Chief of Defence Intelligence (CDI) who is an appointee of the President.
The State Security Service, (SSS) also styled the Department of State Services (DSS), held responsibility as the primary domestic intelligence agency of Nigeria. Since 1986, the SSS has operated as a department within the presidency and was placed under the control of the National Security Adviser, (NSA). This then ensured effectiveness in the conduct of Nigerias national security affairs.
Babangidas mission for Nigeria in the international community was driven by the national interest, issues of development, security, trade, and the search for a more peaceful world especially in Africa and for Nigerians and Africans in the Diaspora. It was also a struggle for success with concerns such as climate change, renewable energy, ecological degradation, human rights, and shared experiences on methods of tackling various growing concerns affecting Nigeria and Africa. The difficulties of the country in the foreign exchange market beginning from 1985 necessitated the coming on stream of programmes such as the Second-tier Foreign Exchange Market, (SFEM). Furthermore, economic diplomacy was carried out to sell the nations economic recovery programmes abroad for foreign creditors acceptability, support and sustainability especially in the face of the countrys rejection of the IMF loan. This was also meant to strengthen the countrys relationship with the various economic clubs around the world and to improve bilateral or multi-lateral cooperation for maximum and mutual benefits, as well as negotiations for debt relief, debt rescheduling and other palliatives.
These difficulties were reminiscent of the western worlds muscling of the successful administration of Khedive Muhammed Ali of Egypt in the late 1830s and 1840s.
President Babangidas vibrant foreign policy, almost reminiscent of the Muhammed-Obasanjo era helped place Africans at the top of world bodies such as Egypts former foreign minister and deputy prime minister, Boutrous Boutrous-Ghali at the UN, and expanded sub-regional cooperation in West Africa with the establishment of the Economic Community of West African Countries Monitoring Group, (ECOMOG), for peacekeeping and threats to the developing new order of democratisation and the search for stability in the West African Sub-region. Babangida’s Peace Committee on the Sudan, (PCOS), set up in 1993 and first headed by the academic and diplomat Tunji Olagunji, laid the basis for the various peace negotiations leading to the end of the civil war in the Sudan and the rise of South Sudan. His administrations up-scaled efforts in the final dismantling of apartheid in South Africa were great factors in Nigerias unprecedented expansion of its foreign policy in African affairs in the period 1985-1993.
It was during the Babangida era that Nigerians were placed in very high and active roles in international organisations as the countrys permanent representative to the UN, Joe Garba was elected President of the UN General Assembly in 1989, Adebayo Adedeji became the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, Emeka Anyaoku was elected Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Nations, while Olusegun Obasanjo was selected as member of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Contact Group, (EPG), for Southern Africa earlier in 1986. Babangida was cautious of the ethnic and religious mix of the country in the pursuance of policy towards the State of Israel.
Therefore, his administration balanced it up with the restoration of diplomatic relations with the State of Israel in 1992, severed under the Gowon administration in 1972, while earlier in 1990 moved the country from observer status since 1973 to full membership of the Organisation of Islamic Conference, (OIC).
