By Rev Fr Gerald Nwafor
I took my time to read the book written by Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, one-time military head of state of Nigeria from 1985 to 1993. The author called the book “A Journey in Service.” It is also called an autobiography. In book review, as an academic, I have the freedom to question facts that do not assent to public knowledge, and the liberty to disagree with what is contrary to my opinion or public opinion.
I do not wish to review all the points raised by the author, but I would like to address the one that touched me in a particular way.The question of June 12 (1993) was not even the main contradictory story in that book, because I know that the Yoruba oligarchy knew what happened afterward; if not why would Abiola die after Abacha? In this review, I would say that the author was economical with the truth, and sometimes half-truths were written down and asserted as truth.
How on earth can a President (head of state) who enacted many decrees to make sure an election was canceled and the proponents jailed under his watch, claim that he knew nothing of the cancellation? You are telling Beatrice (ina agwa biati). Trying to romanticize the June 12 episode would be giving time to one of the lies that are in the public domain.
The author knew that the 1966 coup was not an Igbo coup, and he was the President of Nigeria for 8 years. He was in the army from 1966-1970 when the genocide was committed against the Igbo people, and he fought in a war that he knew was unjust.
What did you do to remedy the situation, when you knew that this lie against a particular group of people was harming the unity of Nigeria? I was curiously reading the book to see where he would say that he tried to unite Nigeria. What the book did not say is more important than what the book said. In 1983 a legitimate civilian government was toppled by the author and co-coup plotters.
An Igbo man was on the line to become the President of Nigeria, to heal the wounds of the Civil War, in the person of Sir Alex Ekwueme, but the author did not tell us why the Vice President was put in prison and the President was not; and he was the chief of staff in that military administration. Okwa madu ka ana agwa (I hope he knows he is writing for humans to read).
Another part of the book that romanticized lies and glorified half-truths was the foreword by General Yakubu Gowon who was the head of state when the war genocide was going on. Gowon is 90 years old now and has refused to write his account of what happened during the Civil War that he spearheaded.
I was thinking that as you get old you begin to make amends for how you lived your life, so that you can meet your creator peacefully. In conclusion, he suggested that only 1985-1993 will be included in our history books. So, the whole book is not worthy of history except 1985-1993? “To the youth of our land in particular, I recommend this book as an essential piece of history from 1985 to 1993.” Of all the general and past Presidents why would IBB pick Gowon to write the foreword of a book that has to do with the two most important times (Civil War and June 12) in the unity and foundation of Nigeria? I do not know why Obasanjo, Buhari, Abdulsalami, Goodluck, or Tinubu were not picked.
These heads of state or civilian Presidents must have disagreed with some verisimilitude in the book. If Gowon can write a foreword of a book of 480 pages, why can’t he write a page about what happened between him and Ojukwu and what happened during the Civil War? Hatred cannot be wished away.
During the Civil War, it was the Igbo who were killed. During June 12 (Oso Abiola) it was the properties of the Igbo that were destroyed all over Nigeria. A book that touches on these two fundamental episodes of Nigerian togetherness that does not address the root cause of the hate towards a particular group of people is a waste of time and resources. The Northerners are not bad people, but their leaders are afraid of some people being in government in Nigeria. Gowon should have been honest enough to say that the 1966 coup was not an Igbo coup.
But telling us to focus only on the 8 years of military rule of IBB was a big mistake.I was hoping to see what happened to Dele Giwa, Kudirat Abiola, and the plane crash of more than 100 military personnel (the finest breed of the Nigerian army). Trying to point accusing fingers at Abacha is not a good way to write a book. Abacha is gone, Abacha did not write a book, therefore alluding that in some way he was the person running the affairs is being too smart by half. We know that Abacha was in the corridors of power but pushing all the blame on him about June 12 is a sign that he thinks Nigerians are not ready for the truth that will set them free.
Look at the last election cycle where a northerner truncated a zoning system just because of power hungry. He would soon write a book to tell us that what we see in 2023 is not true and that some party stalwarts pushed him to do so. The current President cannot compete with Peter Obi in a country that wants to go forward. This book could have been a source of reconciliation and a contact point had it been written with an open mind and sincerity. The author is in his 80s, I do not know why he is withholding the truth.
The history he is planning to change by writing this kind of book will hold him accountable and condemn him. The author is more interested in the book Lunch and the gathering of who is who around him in Nigeria today than about the content of the book. I do not suggest that anyone should waste his time reading the book because it added nothing to the truth, we know, but a little twist in the lies they peddle among the political class.
The day of judgment would come when a member of that class would take the bull by the horns and speak truth to power and history would be allowed into our school system again. Until then this book (A Journey in Service) is not worth reading.
