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Babsajayi@yahoo.com Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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2007: IBB SLEEPWALKED INTO THE JAWS OF TROUBLE

brahim Badamosi Babangida recently picked the presidential nomination form of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abuja. The doors of the PDP headquarters were flung open for the evil genius, the man who fought tooth and nail, dribbled with maniac efficiency, swore on the name of Allah in vain and to no avail, deceived himself and most of the people, brought ruin to the middle class and the nation, abused the human rights of teachers, journalists, editors, rights campaigners and the generality of the people, to secure an unhindered access to the democratic gains achieved at the cost of the blood of thousands of our people, including the winner of the June 12 election Bashorun MKO Abiola and his wife Alhaja Kudirat Olayinka Abiola. Babangida walked into the PDP headquarters, picked the presidential form and walked straight into the jaws of trouble. All along we thought he was kidding and jesting, but now we know he meant business; he is determined to continue from where he stepped aside in 1993.

At the form collection ceremony, Ibrahim Babangida ignorantly compared politics to sport:

"Mr. Chairman, I was once reminded that politics is like sport. There is a difference, however. In sport, there are gold, sliver and bronze medals. In election, we only have the gold medal. Only one person would become the winner in an election. There will be no second best or third best."

Babangida has woken up a sleeping lion; he voluntarily roused the lion and will have his babariga more than rumpled and stained. IBB has thrown a challenge at the Nigerian people and the people must rise up in one voice to make him understand that he got it all wrong this time. They should tell him that he has declared a war and a continuum of the June 12 battle is here, and they are prepared to return to their trenches and resist him as they did in 1993. The Nigerian people should make it very clear to Ibrahim Babangida that his departure in 1993 was for good, a final disengagement from public life, and without any side to step to. This is an affront on the people and the people do not have a short memory as he thinks; the pains and anguish of June 12 are still fresh, the wounds are hurting bad and the losses are irreplaceable. How do you forget a son that was shot and killed by rampaging soldiers at the orders of Babangida? How do you forget the pains of an executed husband and father for involvement in coups that never existed? How do you forget a shattered dream and the endless pains of hopelessness and indignity of lack, poverty and diseases?

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It is a new world Babangida will face this time - a global village that leaves him with no where to hide. Fortunate enough to get away with diverse atrocities and assorted crimes the last time, there will be serious consequences for Ibrahim Babangida this time. His years of unilateral, know-all dictatorship easily make him a pariah in today's world of change and civility. It will be at his own peril and at a huge personal cost only can IBB venture into any elective position in Nigeria. Stones will be thrown at him, cities will not welcome him, he will be shut out of playgrounds, he will address empty halls and he will not be fit enough to travel at day time through some towns and cities. Life will be made impossible for this self-styled agent of death. Those who have been minding their business and those who have elected to be complacent will emerge to confront this virus that is desperate for a final battle. There is no doubt something or someone is pushing Ibrahim Babangida to hara-kiri. If a man succeeded in entering a lion's den and emerged with a goat, he would be taking his luck too far to think he can return to the den and emerge with a ram.

There have been rumours that the 2007 presidential election in Nigeria will be a payback, one-good-turn-deserves-another affair between a sitting president and his friend who stepped aside, albeit reluctantly in 1993. One guy, big mouth, swore that it is "settlement time." The reasons for the transfer plan included the huge financial, logistical and moral support provided President Olusegun Obasanjo by the evil genius in 1999. The skirmishes experienced by some of Ibrahim Babangida's family, business associates and sidekicks, including Mohammed Babangida and Michael Adenuga are said to be smokescreens meant to mislead the unwary and send the rest of us in the wrong direction. Big mouth swore that Babangida is returning to Aso Rock, because that was the agreement reached long before Baba Iyabo took over in 1999. IBB's return will be branded as the outcome of a fair and truly democratic process, a flawless and transparent electoral system that was monitored and witnessed by foreign observers. The observers, we are told, have been contacted and invited. Some of the chosen observer groups have already accepted the invitation. They are the rubberstamps that will seal the return plan of the evil genius even as the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Sunday Ehindero led the convoy of Babangida to the headquarters of the PDP when he went to pick up his presidential form!

It is absolutely impossible for Ibrahim Babangida to win a presidential election that is free and fair in Nigeria. However, nothing is impossible in Nigeria, the only nation in the world where all things are possible and evils are considered as acts of God. The future of the nation and its youths is at stake and it appears only the masses can stand up to defend it and restore hope. If it ever happened that Babangida returned to rule any part of Nigeria, then my citizenship of the nation will come to an immediate end. I will join many other Nigerian-Canadians to travel to the Nigerian High Commission in Ottawa to return the green passport to the High Commissioner. The direction of Chief Obasanjo is getting clearer and it will take an even glaring turn if Babangida is not disqualified for all the atrocities and corruption he committed between 1985 and 1993. If Atiku Abubakar is not fit to run for the presidency (and he is not, truly), then how can the grandmaster of corrupt enrichment, looting and other endless list of malpractices be qualified? What has become of the Okigbo report and the more than $12 billion in First Gulf War windfall IBB could not account for? It is certain that Chief Obasanjo only see corruption among his real and perceived enemies and opponents. Fighting corruption is simply a weapon for getting even, for dealing with those who opposed his failed third term agenda and for harassing those who remain a threat to him and his other agendas.

But as things stand today, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida should be warned that the man whose head will break coconut would not partake of it. Babangida will not and has no moral right to partake in the affairs of the nation; he is unfit, unqualified, unworthy, corrupt, dishonest and a bad example to all. He is an anathema to himself, his family and society at large. Every attempt made or planned by, and on behalf of IBB, should be shut down and not allowed to see the light of day. Legal and constitutional steps must be pursued along with the collective popular action of the people of Nigeria and those who treasure democracy, one dream Babangida himself did everything to deny our nation and our people.