Twenty-seven years after he toppled the administration of General Muhammadu Buhari, former military president General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) has explained why his administration took over Radio Nigeria, Kaduna, immediately after the 1985 coup.

Babangida, who took over from Major-General Buhari on August 27, 1985, on the grounds that the Buhari-led government was too rigid and uncompromising in its attitude to issues of national significance, told participants at a public lecture organised by Radio Nigeria, Kaduna that he and other military officers had to take over the radio station because everybody wanted to listen to it whenever there was a problem

He said "We were there very close to you as your drivers, but when we staged a coup, we didn't waste time in taking over your radio station. But we still remain friends, you still remain true to your profession, and when there is a problem, everybody wanted to listen to your organisation because it says it all most of the time."

"Fourty- eight years ago, there was somebody called Lt Babangida. I got posted to this very town and I was living just next door, not very far away from the FRCN, in a place called Kanta Road.

"I must say that, that was the beginning of the turning point in my life and in my career because, during the course of my stay there, I mingled, I came across, interacted with some of the best species of human talent that we have in this country.

"Everybody who came here either in one position or the other --- George Bako, Sani Katsina and even the younger ones at that time we all interacted very closely. We interacted very closely at the most pressing period in the life of this country.

"And then after the civil war, we began to get into little politics here and there. But your organisation remains steadfast and produced some of the best reporting, analysis that everybody wanted to hear.

"We had a very powerful radio station during the war; for example, the Voice of Biafra , but your organisation succeeded very well in dwarfing the Voice of Biafra.

"Everybody wanted to listen to you and I think this should not be lost in history. You have made a tremendous contribution to the unity of this country; you have made a tremendous contribution in keeping this geographical area as one entity which, at the end of the day, also helped in uniting the cause of this country."

The former military president further praised the radio for its steadfastness, saying that its contributions during and after the civil war between 1967 and 1970 were worthy of note.

IBB said: "I think you also did wonderfully well when the regime of Gen. Yakubu Gowon introduced the 3 R's , that is, Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement. Everybody wanted to listen to you.

I want to commend you, to congratulate you on your services, not to yourself, but to this great country of ours and I do pray that you will continue to train the younger generations who are behind you to maintain the professional ethics which you have established during the course of your services in various capacities. I will have a story to tell you one day."

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