Former Special Adviser to President Jonathan on Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati says former Military President, Ibrahim Babangida would have been long dead if curses could kill a man.
Abati, who quoted a woman’s reaction to Babangida’s viral Friday interview with Arise News, stated this in ‘IBB and the burden of history’, the latest installment of his Thisday column.
In the interview, Babangida touched on different subjects, including the annulment of the June 12 election, agitation for secession, corruption in government, among others.
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In his assessment of the interview, Abati praised Babangida’s “sharp” faculties that belied his 80 years.
He also drew attention to the former military leader’s controversial place in the nation’s socio-political history.
Abati wrote, “General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB), Nigeria’s military Head of State from 1985 to 1993, is arguably the most controversial person to have ever led Nigeria since independence. He turns 80 next week, August 17. Ahead of that birthday, he granted an interview to Arise TV, aired on Friday, August 6, which has understandably generated considerable interest. It has been a while since Nigerians heard directly from IBB. More recent stories about him focussed on speculations about the state of his health. Given the controversial nature of his place in Nigerian history, many also obviously waited for that interview out of curiousity. There have been reactions from different quarters. The most telling reaction for me was someone making the remark that she was pleasantly surprised that IBB is still alive. I was shocked.
“She added that no other Nigerian President has been more abused by Nigerians, and if curses could kill, IBB should have been long dead and forgotten. In the wake of the annulment of the 1993 presidential election by the Babangida junta, activists in the South-West rained curses on IBB. Old women stripped themselves naked, based on the general cultural belief that if an old woman curses anyone with her exposed chest, such a person is doomed for life. Hurriedly-made wooden coffins were paraded on the streets of Lagos, and mock funerals were conducted. IBB’s offence was his annulment of the 1993 presidential election. The lady remarked that her only take-away from the Babangida interview is how God has a way of preserving the wicked. That is the kind of man IBB is. He evokes extreme passions of opposite varieties, with near-equal intensity.”