IBB has been viewed by very many in different lights. The nine years of his rule had been conceptualized as a mixture of developmental programmes, corruption, giant economic achievements, failures, reforms and all sorts.

Before one takes a stance on the times of IBB as the president of this country, one needs to chronologically examine the events before during and possibly after the regime.

Times Before IBB
Pesident Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida too over power on the 27th of August 1985 as a result of a palace Coup d’Etat that removed the then Military Government of Mohammadu Buhari (Major General). One cannot separate the stories of the two administrations as the Babangida regime was also brought in by the same clique that brought in Buhari.

The civilian Government of Shehu Shagari began in 1979 and was re-elected in the allegedly rigged election of 1983. The first tenure of Shagari was marked with lots of corruption syndicates which were composed mainly of the rich of that time who had assisted in the success of the Shagari election. Special import licenses were issued to the rich that gave rise to inflated contracts of government. The national housing scheme, for example, which was one of governments massive scheme for housing was a façade of corruption. It opened up an avenue for massive importation of cement from which many siphoned money.

Also, people like Umaru Dikko who was the Minister for transport had participated in the massive road constructions in the country where he cornered millions of naira for personal use.

Other avenues of the corruption of the Shagari regime was the Green revolution which was brought in to alleviate the problems of food in the country but ended up unsuccessful and full of fraudulent activities.

The aforementioned including the gross unemployment and economic backwardness of the Shagari regime brought about the very welcomed coup of 1983 that ushered in the General Buhari regime.

The bane of the Buhari regime was to bring about law and order, economic recovery and to prepare a ground for another smooth transition to a civilian government.

To bring back law and order, he arrested, and convicted a number of government officials of the defunct Shagari regime. However the administration was charged of human rights abuses for keeping some political prisoners from the beginning up to the end of his 20 month rule without conviction and some without trial. This discredited the administration though it had good intention but lacked professionalism in the treatments. In restoring law and order also, the administration created the War Against Indiscipline (WAI) that sought to inculcate into Nigerians the sense of orderliness, to address lateness to work, cleanliness, patriotism and the like which were learnt by the Nigerian public during the previous civilian regime. It was forcibly accepted and followed by the Nigerians and therefore lack its true essence as it was not really inculcated. Other measures under this were the long prison sentences for some offences and the death penalty.

There were practically no efforts in the economic recovery efforts of the administration except the currency change, wage freeze, cutting down on Government’s spending. These decisions of government led to wide range of retrenchments and suffering.

The Buhari regime for its 20 month stay did not propose any transition programme to civilian rule which made it suspicious.

During IBB
Because of the problems faced under this regime and the feeling of the Supreme Military Council was that Buhari was not administering as they planned which led to a palace coup d’état that ushered in the Major General Babangida administration on the 27th of August 1985. Since it was an extension of the previous military administration, it promised the same as the Buhari administration.

The first attempt by the Babangida administration was its creation of a tribunal to look into the human rights abuses of the Buhari administration especially on those that were still in detention as at the end of the administration. Those that were found not guilty were immediately freed.

He also repealed the Decree 4 of the past regime which prevented freedom of the press which gave a breeding space for the press to cover events of the country. Because of the repeal of the decree 4, the Babangida administration received a lot of media coverage while that of Buhari had only scarce media coverage. As a matter of fact, Babangida gave his first media interview in November 1985 to consolidate his accessibility to the press. Further, under the Babangida administration, several private media licenses were issued and a number of them were started including the popular African Independent Television (AIT).

Some economic programmes were introduced during the Babangida administration which are still being used today. The regime employed the services of experts in every sphere of its programme recommendation and implementation. For example, the Political Bureau was formally inaugurated to seek the best approach to the transition program which culminated into the freest and fairest elections of all times in Nigeria. Similar bodies were created for economic reconstruction and recovery.

One will not talk about the Babangida administration without his well criticized but laudable project of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) that was introduce to induce self reliance in the economy and to encourage exports and subsequently less reliance on imports. The programme was poorly managed probably because of its advanced nature for the country at that time. The programme, the dwindling oil prices and the devaluation of the naira led to the loss of faith in the administration as it was not giving the expected result.

So many developmental programmes were introduced to uplift the face of the country which included:
• Mass Mobilisation for Economic Recovery, Self Relianceand Social Justice (MAMSER) now known as National Orientatio Agency (NOA)
• Constitution Review Committee (CRC)
• National Economic Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND)
• National Road Safety Commission
• Peoples Bank aimed at bringing Banking to the rural public
• Directorate For Food Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI) that was broken down and changed names severally and today, the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) is an offshoot of the program

• OMPADEC - Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commision which became the NDDC or Niger Delta Development Commission

• And so forth.
Despite all thses programmes, Nigeria could not have been said to have achieved the desired economic and developmental levels.

The transition programme to civil rule, under this administration was viewed with mixed feelings as it gave rise to the freest election which was finally annulled without explanations offered to Nigerians.

On a whole, although it had the longest period of rule, the Banbangida Administration brought out the most innovative governance since independence and needed only fine tuning of bodies such as the National Assemblies to have been better.

With the coming of the next elections and the expression of intention of Babangida to be the president, it is worth is to look at him as one of the preferred candidates in view of his records of economic activities. For Buhari, although he had a very short rule that could not be given economic scrutiny, there was no indication that he had any economic plans.

I, personally, will Vote IBB.

God bless u!Even I will vote for him!

dgdatong:

IBB has been viewed by very many in different lights. The nine years of his rule had been conceptualized as a mixture of developmental programmes, corruption, giant economic achievements, failures, reforms and all sorts.

Before one takes a stance on the times of IBB as the president of this country, one needs to chronologically examine the events before during and possibly after the regime.

Times Before IBB
Pesident Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida too over power on the 27th of August 1985 as a result of a palace Coup d’Etat that removed the then Military Government of Mohammadu Buhari (Major General). One cannot separate the stories of the two administrations as the Babangida regime was also brought in by the same clique that brought in Buhari.

The civilian Government of Shehu Shagari began in 1979 and was re-elected in the allegedly rigged election of 1983. The first tenure of Shagari was marked with lots of corruption syndicates which were composed mainly of the rich of that time who had assisted in the success of the Shagari election. Special import licenses were issued to the rich that gave rise to inflated contracts of government. The national housing scheme, for example, which was one of governments massive scheme for housing was a façade of corruption. It opened up an avenue for massive importation of cement from which many siphoned money.

Also, people like Umaru Dikko who was the Minister for transport had participated in the massive road constructions in the country where he cornered millions of naira for personal use.

Other avenues of the corruption of the Shagari regime was the Green revolution which was brought in to alleviate the problems of food in the country but ended up unsuccessful and full of fraudulent activities.

The aforementioned including the gross unemployment and economic backwardness of the Shagari regime brought about the very welcomed coup of 1983 that ushered in the General Buhari regime.

The bane of the Buhari regime was to bring about law and order, economic recovery and to prepare a ground for another smooth transition to a civilian government.

To bring back law and order, he arrested, and convicted a number of government officials of the defunct Shagari regime. However the administration was charged of human rights abuses for keeping some political prisoners from the beginning up to the end of his 20 month rule without conviction and some without trial. This discredited the administration though it had good intention but lacked professionalism in the treatments. In restoring law and order also, the administration created the War Against Indiscipline (WAI) that sought to inculcate into Nigerians the sense of orderliness, to address lateness to work, cleanliness, patriotism and the like which were learnt by the Nigerian public during the previous civilian regime. It was forcibly accepted and followed by the Nigerians and therefore lack its true essence as it was not really inculcated. Other measures under this were the long prison sentences for some offences and the death penalty.

There were practically no efforts in the economic recovery efforts of the administration except the currency change, wage freeze, cutting down on Government’s spending. These decisions of government led to wide range of retrenchments and suffering.

The Buhari regime for its 20 month stay did not propose any transition programme to civilian rule which made it suspicious.

During IBB
Because of the problems faced under this regime and the feeling of the Supreme Military Council was that Buhari was not administering as they planned which led to a palace coup d’état that ushered in the Major General Babangida administration on the 27th of August 1985. Since it was an extension of the previous military administration, it promised the same as the Buhari administration.

The first attempt by the Babangida administration was its creation of a tribunal to look into the human rights abuses of the Buhari administration especially on those that were still in detention as at the end of the administration. Those that were found not guilty were immediately freed.

He also repealed the Decree 4 of the past regime which prevented freedom of the press which gave a breeding space for the press to cover events of the country. Because of the repeal of the decree 4, the Babangida administration received a lot of media coverage while that of Buhari had only scarce media coverage. As a matter of fact, Babangida gave his first media interview in November 1985 to consolidate his accessibility to the press. Further, under the Babangida administration, several private media licenses were issued and a number of them were started including the popular African Independent Television (AIT).

Some economic programmes were introduced during the Babangida administration which are still being used today. The regime employed the services of experts in every sphere of its programme recommendation and implementation. For example, the Political Bureau was formally inaugurated to seek the best approach to the transition program which culminated into the freest and fairest elections of all times in Nigeria. Similar bodies were created for economic reconstruction and recovery.

One will not talk about the Babangida administration without his well criticized but laudable project of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) that was introduce to induce self reliance in the economy and to encourage exports and subsequently less reliance on imports. The programme was poorly managed probably because of its advanced nature for the country at that time. The programme, the dwindling oil prices and the devaluation of the naira led to the loss of faith in the administration as it was not giving the expected result.

So many developmental programmes were introduced to uplift the face of the country which included:
• Mass Mobilisation for Economic Recovery, Self Relianceand Social Justice (MAMSER) now known as National Orientatio Agency (NOA)
• Constitution Review Committee (CRC)
• National Economic Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND)
• National Road Safety Commission
• Peoples Bank aimed at bringing Banking to the rural public
• Directorate For Food Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI) that was broken down and changed names severally and today, the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) is an offshoot of the program
• And so forth.
Despite all thses programmes, Nigeria could not have been said to have achieved the desired economic and developmental levels.

The transition programme to civil rule, under this administration was viewed with mixed feelings as it gave rise to the freest election which was finally annulled without explanations offered to Nigerians.

On a whole, although it had the longest period of rule, the Banbangida Administration brought out the most innovative governance since independence and needed only fine tuning of bodies such as the National Assemblies to have been better.

With the coming of the next elections and the expression of intention of Babangida to be the president, it is worth is to look at him as one of the preferred candidates in view of his records of economic activities. For Buhari, although he had a very short rule that could not be given economic scrutiny, there was no indication that he had any economic plans.

I, personally, will Vote IBB.

Having looked at your conclusion "I, personally, will Vote IBB." I decided this write up would not worth a read, having said that you are very much entitle to own opinion.

I lost hope in Nigeria long ago. I'm not voting. And for your information. . . Your votes don't count, so don't waste your time

IBB is not the man neither is GEJ,