As Military President, My Government Was Above Board -- Says Ibrahim Babangida

Former Military President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (retd), has said he should be regarded as a saint with the level of corruption in Nigeria today.Babangida also scored himself high in the management of the economy in the latest edition of the Economic and Financial Crimes quarterly magazine, Zero Tolerance. He stated: “Maybe I have to accept that but anybody with a sense of fairness has no option but to call us saints. I give you an example, in a year; I was making less than $7 billion in oil revenue but in the same period there were governments that were making between $200 billion and $300 billion.

“With $7 billion, I did the best I could but with $200 billion there is still a lot to be achieved. I don’t have all the facts but if what I read in the papers is what is currently happening, then I think we were saints.” Babangida further claimed that he did his best to stabilise the Naira, leaving the exchange rate at N22 to the dollar, saying that the current exchange rate in the country was not his making. The Naira is exchanging for between N193 and N200 depending on where and when, following the slight devaluation of the Naira in the wake of plummeting oil prices.

He said: “I am not an economist but I have an understanding of what this is. Our argument then was if you have the money then why keep it and be looking at it when you have a lot of things to do that will benefit the ordinary man? So that money was not stolen. Let us take Abuja for example. I built it. Today, we have a brand new capital; we used that money. I gave you a Third Mainland bridge, Lagos, which you cannot build today with all the money that Nigeria is making.”

The former leader said he remained the most investigated former president in Nigeria but, “now, even our fiercest critics give us credit for certain things we did. I have been the most investigated president Nigeria has ever had. By now somebody should have come forward to say here it is. Every government that came after me investigated me because of that perception because they wanted to retrieve the billions that I stole.” On why he annulled the June 12 election won by his late friend, Chief M.K.O. Abiola, IBB said : “All those who fought for June 12 ended up serving the military government they didn’t like and that perpetuated a longer stay of the military in government.”

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About Unknown

Deji Sadiq, a.k.a DEJI OF LAGOS is a LASU trained Economist turned freelance journalist, a Blogger, an information strategist, a public affairs analyst and a committed activist with a passion for equal opportunities.