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Afe Babalola (SAN) has blamed the nation’s economic woes on the incursion of the military into political affairs.

At an interview
with journalists in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, over the
weekend, Mr. Babalola faulted the economic policy implemented during
the regime of former military president, Ibrahim Babangida, adding that
the country has not recovered fully from the trauma caused by the
cancellation of the June 12, 1993 elections by Mr. Babangida.

He pointed out that
the Babaginda regime should be blamed for the devaluation of the
country’s currency that caused great havoc on the country’s economy
system. He identified the discovery of crude oil as the beginning of
the nation’s problem, saying “The discovery of oil in 1970s has done a
great damage to the country. The damage was compounded by the military,
which devalued the naira and introduced IMF loan, even when a few years
earlier, we were told that money was not our problem, but how to spend
it.”

The legal
practitioner also blamed the Babangida government for the current
political upheaval, stressing that the country would have moved forward
if Babaginda had not cancelled what observers adjudged as the best
election in the nation’s history.

According to him,
he was representing the late Moshood Abiola, the presumed winner of the
elections in court in Kaduna when the judge presiding over the case
announced that the case could no longer take place as a result of the
annulment of the June 12 presidential election.

The road to nowhere

He said, “When the
judge came and announced that the case could no longer go on because
June 12 election had been annulled, I was angry. How can a man annul
the wishes of the whole nation? But I said then that we were at the
beginning of a road which nobody knew its end, and here we are today.”

Answering questions whether Babaginda should contest next year, Mr. Babalola said,

“Babangida has the
right to say he wants to come back. But you will never have the right
people voted into power as long as the majority of the voters are
extremely poor.

“So many people
don’t make up to N10 in a day and politicians seeking their votes are
aware of this; they are ready to sell their houses and other property
to buy voters’ conscience.”

He advised that the remuneration of political office holders should be made less attractive too.