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Nigerians are such
ungrateful people. It is only here that the presidential ambition of
former military president, Ibrahim Babangida, would be opposed;
elsewhere, in recognition of his contribution to national development,
Babangida would not only get the PDP ticket uncontested, but go on to
win the presidential polls with the biggest landslide in electoral
history. Even Saddam Hussein’s regular 99 percent of all votes cast
would be child’s play in comparison.

Have we forgotten
so soon how this former general, at great personal risk overthrew the
uncompromising administration of Buhari/ Idiagbon and freed Nigeria
from a government that was using a whopping 42 percent of national
income to pay off foreign debts when Nigerians had to queue for
essential commodities?

Our politicians are
particularly unappreciative. Why should any politician have second
thoughts about working for the man who freed Second Republic
politicians from the draconian prison sentences handed them by the
Buhari regime? Have they forgotten that Babangida not only freed them
from prison, but also returned the billions they allegedly stole from
Nigerians?

It is only an
ungrateful people that would forget the eight glorious years Babangida
gave Nigeria. This man decided that our currency, the naira had no
business being more valuable than the almighty American dollar and
promptly devalued it with his second tier foreign exchange market. That
was only in 1986, the same year he dissolved Nigeria’s Commodity Boards
and left farmers of cash crops to the mercy of ‘market forces’.

Have we forgotten
so soon that for the first time in our history, a leader actually
engaged the citizenry in debate on whether to collect dubious loans
from the International Monetary Fund? We all gave a resounding NO, but
Babangida could see what we couldn’t. So he went ahead and took the
loan, along with the bitter pill of a Structural Adjustment Programme.
The structure of Nigeria has never been the same.

It is truly strange
that a man who did so much for the country would face the possibility
of being rubbished by the same people he worked so hard to serve.

It is unfortunate
that Babangida is not picking an automatic ticket to the presidency as
a birthright. This man committed billions of naira to the longest
political transition programme anywhere in the world. The record still
stands.

At the end of the
transition, he again saw what 14 million Nigerian voters could not see
and promptly annulled the election. He did it in the national interest,
but we still refuse to see the great service he did us.

Babangida has always had the interest of Nigeria at heart, in or out of office.

Seeing that the
country was teetering on the brink of disintegration, he promptly
imposed Obasanjo as president in 1999. Evidently, we are yet to fully
recover from the damage to our collective psyche inflicted by
Obasanjo’s eight years, otherwise, we would all be jostling to usher in
the Prince of the Niger for another eight golden years.

Babangida knows
more than all Nigerians combined; that is why we must take him
seriously when he says he will not only win the PDP primaries, but also
trounce Buhari and other pretenders to the throne. Sadly, this time
around, he will not give us another eight precious years of his life.
He has told us to be content with only four as he will be in his mid
seventies by the time he completes his four years. But the four years
will be magical and will transform Nigeria beyond belief.

When Babangida
becomes president, he will re-appoint the indefatigable Michael
Aondoakaa Minister of Justice and Attorney General. That charlatan
Jonathan should never have sacked him. As president, Babangida will
embark on national reconciliation beginning with the immediate
rehabilitation of James Ibori. All charges would be dropped. All assets
seized from Tafa Balogun, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha and others would be
returned. All pending cases against politicians and bankers would be
dropped in the spirit of reconciliation.

Again, for
transparency and accountability, President Babangida will order a probe
of Obasanjo’s eight wasted years, Yar’Adua’s useless interregnum and
Jonathan’s costly ‘no zoning’ jamborees. All the trillions missing from
the NNPC, the Federation Account, LNG, and ‘excess’ crude account will
be traced and returned to the country. He will arrest Professor Jega
and lock him up as he did before.

The EFCC and the
ICPC, those needless irritants would be scrapped. That troublemaker at
the CBN Sanusi would be dismissed. He will transform Nigeria to a Land
of Milk and Honey and we will live happily ever after.

When Babangida becomes president…