The hoopla generated by General Babangida’s memoir; “A Journey In Service” was typically synonymous with his larger than life image; an image that is immersed in “controversy”. Anything Babangida, for good or bad, right or wrong is always a piece of news. Babangida comes with several octopoidal parts, representing a community of pro-and anti-Babangida sentiments. The man enjoys such mix as the ideal combination of human emanations. His book has already worn the garment of controversy, a mix of several interpretations and potpourri of ideas, realities and occurrences that factorized the former president’s trajectory from birth till date. The man seems to enjoy all the “noises” and “controversies” as he watches the human follies in us, trying to assume his authorial presence in a deliberate effort to “rewrite” the man’s memoirs.
The experiences captured in the book are his, the stories told were drawn from his own perspective as an eye-witness, the presentation was a function of his own cognition, the flowery prose was his making, yet the average reader wants to assume the first person narration of the author, quarelling about the author’s inalienable right to own an opinion. Speaking introspectively, I would have been pleasantly surprised if IBB’s book did not generate such public debates and controversies by the several anecdotes that dominated the narratives. IBB is a subject matter of several magnitudes. He is also a research material with gargantuan spread. He represents a puzzle that is yet unraveled. He cuts the picture of a deep thinker waiting to harness all the knowledge being charted on his criticism boxes, in trying to “rewrite” a book that is called autobiography. His critics have since assumed his authorial deposition, trying effortlessly to brand him in their own borrowed robes, in order to deny him his own unassailable right as a citizen of this great country.
Hate him or like him, IBB has since become the main item on the menu list of most scholars in Nigeria and elsewhere. His thoughts carry the weight of a leader that is least understood, yet occupying a special place in the annals of the nation’s history. His experiences are immersed in uncertainties and realities, between fear and suspense, between possibilities and impossibilities. He understands the Nigerian mind and the complexities that co-habit in a country of over 470 dialects and ethnic consanguinity. He has criss-crossed the country in the course of his professional career as a gentleman officer. He has fought a war of unification. He has led the country for eight unbroken years. He has been interacting with several fellow citizens drawn from all walks of life, helping him to form an opinion about the human mind, yet his critics wouldn’t allow him to go away with his thoughts. They simply want to think for him, rewrite a memoir that would please their own ears, to certify their unscientific profiling of the issues that had dominated public discourse for such a long time. When the subject matter is IBB, be sure to enter into another level of discourse. It is almost certain that the man’s premonition is anchored on “controversies”.
Babangida is no doubt, a behemoth; a community of ideas and experiences, of glorious reminiscences and unequivocal anecdotes that make his persona pleasantly unique and indubitably thick. His sneeze comes with unpredictable verbiage, his effusions another litmus test to decipher. His equivocations loaded in puzzles and dribbles, and his delivery always a subject of many colours and interpretations. The man is never flippant having been part and parcel of the power hegemonies, be it military or democracy, in the West Africa sub-region. He remains stoic, unyielding in most cases to the promptings of his critics in trying to unravel him. He chooses his path, not one traveled by many, but one that cultivates his worldview. He probes into your mind trying to provoke a discourse to situate your intentions. He tells you almost disarmingly, in a tone loaded with benevolence, how the human mind works depending on the socio-political milieu of the individual. He acquisces to your request trying to please your inner recesses while also ensuring he keeps the larger details for another day. His recall as rich as his memory. His aura, charm and quintessence, enough ingredients that sustain his relevance. Aside from being a problem solver for many, he has ears for all categories of people.
No doubt, IBB’s Memoir is a journey in itself. It provokes the hearts of those who were the real actors of his journey, those who were part of the inner hegemonies to sustain power oligarch that endures till date. His book, a collector’s item, detailing stories that were never told but known; stories that were the bitter truths hardly unspoken of. He raises curiosities and dazzles the reader with eye-witness narration; recalling special events that baked his knowledge about life and its complexities. His critics want to rewrite the man’s own story for him, take away his right, capture his experiences as theirs, recount his eye-witness narration, and implant their own stories to suit their impressions about him. We need to rewrite IBB’s book as the documentary and encyclopaedia of all the negativities in Nigeria, a thesaurus of the ridiculous geometry of our nation’s journey and the summation of all the vices of a nation called Nigeria that has been stymied by anti-development factors. Only such narratives would suit the sheer hollowness of his critics ears. We need to “rewrite” IBB’s Memoir to paint him in devil’s colours and tar his government with a negative brush of infamy, as the surviving narration of his trajectory. Anything short of such indecent verbiage will always attract the critics hammer.
But IBB doesn’t care a hoot. He tells his critics with magisterial gusto that he was fully in charge during his leadership of the country, but that being in charge must come with some subtlety; a government with a human face. He scored first in many aspects of our national life; he liberalized the private media sector, he liberalized the private banking sector, he re-engineered infrastructural development, he opened up the rural areas through DFRRI, sustained public discourse and mobilisation through MAMSER, even as a military government, he tapped into some of the best brains in the country. His primary health care initiative, mentored by Late Professor Olikoye Ramson Kuti remained unparalleled in the area of healthcare development in Nigeria. He was a head-hunter, looking for brightest minds to manage our delicate sub-sectors for optimal growth and development. Till date, his lieutenants remained consistently loyal to the ideals that sustained their participation in IBB’s eight year rule. Those lofty narratives are what his critics want to deny him because they are superlative achievements that couldn’t be glossed over. Once the narrative centres around negatives, his critics are well at home with that. But his history remains his history, not anyone’s history, or anyone’s narratives. As we await his critics to rewrite his memoirs and score him in their frugality, we also wait for those who will run the review of what they decided to write. For now, we are very much at home with IBB’s Memoir, a book that has become an instant best-seller with the rich flow of anecdotes, stories, references, and nostalgia, captured in lucid prose and poetry. Reading it will suffice, ignoring it will torment.
Suleiman Abubakar writes from Kano, and can be reached at suleimanabubakar@yahoo.com.
