Those that cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,-----George Santayana
He said he was only stepping aside when he left in 1993. Now he is ready to step back in ,come 2011.Former President Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida on the issue of his aspiration to be the next president of Nigeria in 2011.
We have all been mentored, advised and even told point blank, not to duel on the past, be it when a relationship ends, or when a loved one dies, or you lose a job , a business,or even fail in a particular aspiration of yours. Your loved ones, friends and foe, will urge you to move on.
But is moving on from the past the same thing as forgetting the past? I readily have that answer, NO.
Moving on is not the same thing as forgetting the past. In fact you need to remember the past,by way of learning from it so that it guides your new decisions better and to shape your future.
Let us go back and remind IBB OF THE PAST,just in case he has forgotten. Or even to remind ourselves, to jolt our memory, to state why, why we are saying, NO TO IBB, why we do not want to make the same mistake again.
"Sir, I a Nigerian youth have this to say : I have heard you". "You have stated your intention, that you desire to return to public service to come and serve your people once more as their president"."Sir, your intention is honorable,every Nigerian should desire to serve their country, it is a beautiful ,well endowed country, but public service is about serving the public and not yourself, giving that you came into power through a military coup and your singular role as the Military head of state then, was to call and to oversee an early democratic election, and hand over to a civilian government, like your military counterpart Major General Abubakar Abdul Salami did in May 1999,"may I ask you, have your conducted the opinion poll , felt the pulse of the people of Nigeria on your aspiration?
If your answer is yes, does the outcome indicate to you that they think you are their preferred choice, is that your main driving force?
Or giving that you self imposed your self on the Nigerian people once and then adopted the title President, is your tactics, same of the same, just that, this time, its the cabal tactics?
The tactics of coming into power not through a free and fair election that all Nigerians know you are not a promoter of, but through election rigging, malpractices and declaring you as president elect, by the cabal government in power today? And have you had time to reflect on how you served or did not serve the public, the 1st time around? Well we Nigerians will remind you.
"Initially you were seen as a liberalizing force, because you released political prisoners and promised to return the country to democratic civilian rule by 1990 but of course you delayed the transition process by several years and increasingly brought it under your control to serve your own agenda ".
"Under your structural adjustment programme sir, only your Allies and any one who could be come one benefited, despite it being funded by the various monies borrowed in the name of the country from the world bank.
The structural adjustment programme did not bring about self reliant, long term national economy growth like it promised, instead the under the adjustments Nigerians, suffered and encountered increasing farming production yet increase in government earnings; privatizing state-owned companies to lessen the financial burden on the government yet increase in government earnings, reduction in the country's foreign debt but reliance on money earned from exporting oil,yet increase in government earnings and the devaluation of the NAIRA,to stimulate exports other than oil,yet the increase in government earnings.The governments earnings was consistent , simply because we still were sellingour Oil".from which we generated revenue.
"In 1992 ,in your 7th year in office, you created two ideologically espoused political parties and left the people with no real choice, but even when ,the people eventually took to the polls, you did not uphold their electoral mandate: the presidential election of July 1993, which was regarded as the most free and fair to have been seen in the country. It was annulled by you sir, and the outcome and effect of that? A dangerous political crisis in Nigeria, further tenure of tyranny,dictatorship and maiming, sparing no gender, both men and women,young and old activists, were maimed and many people were forced on exile under the Gunter of Sani Abacha sir, after he overthrew the interim government you propped up when you famously stepped aside"
"Your tenure sir, taught Nigerians that corruption was cool,and today our leaders have taken corruption and embezzlement to the level of trillions!" You taught them the rootlessness and malpractices we see today in electoral practices, they simply stepped up higher but worse,of course.
Lets not talk about unanswered killings, drug smuggling scandals ,that rocked your tenure sir and today? Many more have been killed and just like your tenure, unsolved,their killers not brought to justice,but known to all.
"You claim the Nigerian youth can not rule the country, yes you can say that because you mortgaged their future during your tenure sir, the dwindling and decadence of the education sector, started under your administration and the brain drain. One thing that we will prevent you of accusing us of, in the future, is not standing against you this time around. We know the kind of leader we want, it happens not to be ,YOU.
I am standing against you and everything you stand for. I do not know what you have forgotten to take along with you,when you left in 1992,but sir,Nigerians have not forgotten the past, these are some of the issues between Nigerians and you, all of these have shaped our political history, they cannot be waived aside.
"We shall not be condemned to repeat the mistakes of old sir.You were a mistake of old and will be a calamity of the future,our future. Let us heal our land of the pieces you left behind, its ripple effect is what Nigeria is today!
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