General IBB At 79
By Nurudeen Dauda
Seventeenth day of August of every year marks the day on which our brilliant, intelligent, bright, brave, and cosmopolitan officer in the person of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, GCFR, was born. He led and kept our very complex country intact for good eight years. Late Dr Yusuf Maitama Sule (Danmasanin Kano) of blessed memory once likened the rule of Nigeria as that of wearing a slick gown.
Your Excellency Sir, permit me to felicitate with you on this great day of yours. I wish you many more years in good health. May the Almighty Allah bless us all. May I use this great opportunity to reiterate my call on you to please write a book for your own side of the story on several issues associated to you. Please Sir! My generation and beyond need it. I do hope my call will once again get to you through the power of both conventional and social media.
Sir you need to write your own side of the story on the following:The annulment of June 12 election of 1993; the Late Gen. Mammam Vatsa coup; the Late Mr Dele Giwa murder, and the Structural Adjustment Program, SAP. Others include the late Lt. Col. Dimka coup; the late Col. Orkar coup and the Nigerian Civil War among others. Sir, you should write it in your best interest and the interest of the younger generations. If you put your own side of the story on paper, history will surely be kind to you, but otherwise am very afraid.
May the Almighty God give you the strength and the will power to write it soonest. May He give you Good health and long life. May He forgive your shortcomings. No doubt, as an Ex- military man, a General and a former president you have paid your dues. Permit me to congratulate you for paying your dues to your motherland. You fought the Civil War to keep the country one. You even got shot by bullet that you are still suffering from the wound. May the Almighty God heal you. You kept the country one in your 8 years of reign.
However, I know for sure, there is “No” perfection in humanity. To “err” is human, perfection is for the Almighty. Sir arguably you are the most influential Army General alive! It is often said that you have the loyalty of the Nigerian elite. I strongly believe that you and most of your colleagues in the military truly believe in the unity of this country! Writing a book especially on Civil War will go a long way in safeguarding our future.
Sir in my understanding, even the perennial agitation for Biafra is a product of one-sided account of the Nigerian Civil War which dominated the market. We the Northern youth and the rest of Nigerian youth are living in danger of knowing only one side of the story about the Nigerian Civil War. We need a balanced account of the war not one-sided account presently in circulation. In the next fifty years when most of the people from your generation are gone we will be left with the Books written by the Biafran side! Whatever they documented about the Civil War must be accepted rightly or wrongly.
Sir, in my observation, ninety eight percent of the Books written on Biafran War were written by Igbos or Biafan sympathizers! It is an open secret that most of the books were written in order to show how injustice was done to a particular set of people which was totally untrue. In my view, Northern soldiers did not do well to us by not writing their own account if truth be told. Very few have written!
President Obasanjo who fought for the Nigerian side wrote a book called “My Command”, Chief Emeka Odumegwu Ojuku wrote “Because I am Involved”, One of the Five (5) Majors, Major Adewale Ademuyega wrote “Why we Struck” , Major General Alexander Madiebo wrote “The Nigerian Revolution and The Biafran War”, Professor Chinua Achebe wrote “There was a country”, Emefiena Ezeani wrote “In Biafra Africa Died: The Diplomatic Plot” and Major Nzeogwu Junior, Prof. Okele Peter Nzeogwu wrote” Fighting the illusive Nigerian Enemy from Childhood to Death” etc.
There were a lot of hyperboles on most of the books written to favour one interest or the other. We need a balanced record that will promote reconciliation, integration, and unity, but not the ones currently in circulation.
As far as I know, those who fought for Nigerian side did not write enough books about the Civil War; except of Course, few ones; such as the ones of the Former Governor of North West, Usman Faruok, CON who wrote “The Victors and the Vanquished of the Nigerian Civil War: Triumph of Truth and Valour over Greed and ambition”, General Paul Tarfa Profile in courage and General Domkat Bali’s poem on Civil War. There were books written on same but not by direct actors like yourself.
Sir, I beg you and your contemporaries of Northern extraction to write something about the Nigerian Civil War in order to set the records straight for the future and national unity. Sir I know you have the capacity, ability and the intellect to do that. I know too very well that you have the influence to convince all your contemporaries to write theirs too. I beg you in the name of Almighty God to write something for posterity. May Almighty God give you good health. I wish you many more years!
May God bless Nigeria!
