IBB Should Wait Untill 2015

General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida's {rtd} intention to contest in the 007 presidential elections is what one can describe as spitting out one's saliva and later coming back to lick the same silver. After long deliberation, l wholly concluded that IBB is not qualified to lead this country in a democratic setup, he {IBB} has not done anything to think of participating in a democratic govt. Maybe he's yet to distinguish the difference between a military and democratic govt.
The IBB I know is the one instead of explaining the true situation of things to Nigerians on the accusations levelled against him by Dr Tai Solarin {late} for stashing millions of dollars in foreign bank accounts and many other investments abroad as well as sending his children to the best and the most expensive universities in the world which led to then students unrest nationwide. In response he quickly called for a meeting of the armed forces ruling council, after which he made a nationwide broadcast in which he dribbled Nigerians by first announcing that Maradona has scored again, as well he stated his government's firm belief in the structural adjustment programme {SAP}, In which in his vision shall bring the long-awaited economic boom, totally jumping the issue at hand and as usual succeeded in calming tension in the country.

As they call him 'the evil genius' one can as well compare him with the great Count Of Mount Christos, for such a great man with power over everything including death, it will be dangerous seeing him participating in a democratic government. To me Babangida has not done anything to convince Nigeria of his readiness to lead our country democratically, if he thinks his money is enough to make Nigeria vote for him then l think he's about to make another political mistake of his life.

IBB has forgotten that before Obasanjo was elected president in 1999 he has a great record democratically, the first military leader in Africa to hand over power to a civilian government in 1979 after serving 3 years as a military head of state. His international recognition and his imprisonment by general Sani Abacha {late} showed he OBJ was a true man of the people. As the saying goes 'the children of a lion shall always remain lions', while he IBB himself said 'once a general is always a general, even if you change your military uniform to agbada, isiagu etc, you can never change yourself as a general, even if you hire best propagandist in the country, tens of Omoruyis, Nzeribes, and Chukwumerijes, how can they explain Dele giwa to Nigerians, how can they june 12 to Nigerians, how can they convince Nigerians to trust you IBB again after such disappointment, a man who totally let Nigerians down by disallowing the freest and fair election the country ever had. To me this is going to be the opportunity for Nigerians to answer IBB on June 12, in which my answer at least for now is total no, simply to punish him for letting the whole country down.

IBB should try to democratize himself a little bit, he should be ready to appear before the Oputa's and he should always be ready to defend democracy even when it entails risking his life, then those godfather-like statements 'unless one is a former military man he's not qualified to be president of Nigeria; or nobody can stop IBB from being president, instead, he should always use his position as an experienced general to defend democracy in the country, and finally he should totally accept responsibility for all the crimes committed by his government, he should wholeheartedly ask for forgiveness from Nigerians, after which he can start agitating for politics for you cannot eat your cake and have it. It is very difficult selling both locally and internationally a man with no clear records on crimes against humanity. IBB should look forward to 2015, to me he's not yet ready for democratic politics, it's entirely a different ball game here, he should go and retouch his homework again. At the same time calling on the president's attention on his recent romances with IBB, Mr president should recollect the 8 years this man ruled Nigeria, he hasn't done much to show he's not the same Maradona, the same ever-smiling evil genius. As his agents will try to sell him by reminding Nigerians that the evil one knows has always been better than the angels he doesn't know, but what l can only advise my fellow countrymen/women is if a devil proves to be too dangerous then they should try to reject that devil and continue to search for the true Angel no matter how difficult. IBB is very clever, cunny and very intelligent a man, we so love him and at the same time, we're so afraid of him.

If you ask me what is the best thing that had happened to this country politically in the last 20 years, my answer will be SDP, NRC and MAMSER, as well as the ECOMOG. If you ask me again what is the worst thing that had happened in this country in the last 20 years, my answer will be SAP and June 12, as you can see all these happened IBB's regime, it shows how intelligent and at the same time how dangerous he is. To be sincere I'm an advocate of IBB, I've always defended some of his policies when others try to criticise him, believing in him even at the most critical moments, I've not stopped believing in him for whenever l pass through his programmes and vision for the country something in my subconscious kept telling me that this man is truly a genius and somehow have some answers to most of our economic and other national problems, anyone who IBB can agree with me that only his personal interest has prevented him from the country, and that's why l said IBB really needs more time to put his kits in other. And as an economist and a man with great experience in travelling, seen and researched a lot both politically and economically there're other reasons l believe IBB should wait at least for now:

a. After 15 years of military rule and 8 years of civilian govt. by a former general, to think of another general will be politically and economically wrong. Coming back to SDP/NRC, and why l said it was one of the best thing that had happened to the Nigerian state: These're political parties which have somehow manifested a sort of economic priorities even though somehow primitive, but l think with time they could have come up with something more serious politically and economically, with the SDP going for employment opportunities and growth:[INFLATION]. While the NRC will go for security and stability:[DEFLATION/UNEMPLOYMENT]. Those who believe in more jobs for the people, more money in the hands of the people with democratic principles joining the SDP, while those who think more of national security and stability with all sorts of national ideologies join the NRC. To cut it short, while the SDP shall be creating jobs, meaning more money in circulation e.i. great purchasing power and demand, in the long run, could force prices to rise [INFLATION].

And the NRC spending bulks of our national budgets on defence, with less interest in economic growth, meaningless job opportunities and rise in unemployment, with less money in circulation, less purchasing power and demand, prices could stabilize and in the long run begins to fall [DEFLATION]. When you look at it from a civilized point of view one can only conclude that the policies of both parties were for the general good of the country, but the most advantageous aspect of it is, it's a bit easy and comfortable to manage the economy when a country has political parties with economic backgrounds priorities. And with a sort of political compatibility and understanding, allowing each party 4-8 or a maximum of 12 years depending on whether the people are enjoying the party in power, and then the other party can come in after such a period to balance issues with their own programmes. With a political mechanism like this people can join parties based on their principles and not just because of the winning party or its ability to manoeuvre things.

these are clear reasons l supported the then party structures, as well as for voting it as one of the best things that had happened in the country. Now are nothing like SDP/NRC, instead, we have lots of political parties with no clear economic policies, though one thing remains unequivocally clear in the political mechanism of the country: The politicians; the former military men vs the civilian politicians, let's take the ex-military men as the republicans while their civilian counterparts as the democrats, after 8 years of republican govt. that's the former military men, it's now the riped time to hand over power to the civilians, after 4 years of leadership if the people like the way the democrats manage the economy or whatever, they can reelect them for another 4 years, making it 8 years in which time there shall befall in unemployment but high inflation because of too much money in circulation, experience has shown that it is approximately unrealistic to create economic growth and manage inflation at the same time be the same govt. Though developing countries could make it with lesser inflations as there are yet little or no money in there economies. Untll we realise this we shall continue to beat about the bush. Now after 8-12 years by the civilians it's another opportunity to let the ex-military boys show their best. I hope you can see there's nothing personal in my campaign against IBB, it's all in the good interest of our great country Nigeria. With a political mechanism of this sort, we can easily resolve the problem of intolerance and imbalances in the country as well enable the people to compare and to contrast for it is not how far but how well. Long live the federal republic of Nigeria and God bless.

Mr L.N.Ubochi