General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida: I accept full responsibility June 12 Annulment

General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida

By Chinedu Eze and Zacheaus Somorin

Former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, said yesterday that there were certain things he did in office 17 years ago that he wanted to do again by contesting in 2011.

Responding to a question on what he forgot in Aso Rock that he wants to go and pick, he said: “'Seventeen years ago, when I left Aso Rock, I Ieft so many things that I think I should go and bring back. I left for example, the value of Naira, I left, again for example stable price of fuel.

“I also left a whole lot of reforms, and I need to go back and get them back. So there are lot of things that I left behind that I want to go and pick up for the benefit of ordinary Nigerians.”

He also said by accepting responsibility for the annulment of June 12, he has already apologised to Nigerians.

Babangida who has already thrown his hat into the ring for the forthcoming presidential election spoke in an interview with journalists after attending the wedding of the daughter of Globacom Chairman Dr. Mike Adenuga (Jnr).

Reminded that he has been asked to tender public apology over the annulment, he responded: “I want the definition of public apology. I [already] said that I accept full responsibility.”

“Here I am - I conducted the best election and I annulled it. Every president, a leader, must be respected for taking responsibility for anything good or bad. As a leader I accepted it. Every leader makes mistake, I am not an exception,'' he said.

Nigerians have always asked IBB why he annulled the freest and fairest election ever conducted in this country and demanded an apology from him for annulling the election.

Apart from June 12, IBB also said he is conscious of the usual allegations against him, telling journalists that,”You would talk about June 12, you would talk about $12.4 billion, which ''I stole''; they would talk about Dele Giwa; they will always talk about the negative ones.”

Then, he said: “Anybody who is a follower of events in the country with a little common sense would know that the money that accrued to the Federal Government then in eight years was $12.4 billion, and not Gulf oil wind fall.

“Please get the issue correct because windfall is the money you never expected. So the money was the money that accrued to the Federal Government and the money was properly used to meet the demands of the government as at that time. Agreed, there was an interregnum period of Gulf war in Iran. So, there was an additional grant of $1.4 billion. So we did not indict the government of that time, so those issues are matters of opinion, the money should have been sent to the reserves, but I said no, as I don't like keeping money, because there are things I want to do with  them, so what do we do? And those projects were itemised, they are there, they are verifiable, you could see it, you could feel it.''

Meanwhile, while fielding questions at the Murtala Muhammed international Airport, Lagos, Babangida condemned the moves by some stalwarts of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) called PDP Reform Forum, to remove the party’s chairman, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, asking them to follow due process.

He also spoke against the action of the PDP National Working Committee, which suspended 19 senior stalwarts of the party who are members of the forum for their activities.

The former president said he did not believe in arbitrary removal of party executives, noting that if the party is sincere in what it wants to do, it must have to follow due process.

“The PDP as a party must work by the rules, for I hope that whatever happens among them (the members), they should allow due process to take place. I don’t believe in the changing of chairman for the sake of chairmanship, and taking members out just like that. Due process must be followed in the handling of issues; therefore if some executives were brought in by the national party convention, the only people who could remove them are the convention and not any other arrangement.”

He said as a ruling party, PDP must have to lead by example and should not take arbitrary action, insisting that the party should be democratic and liberal enough to allow views that may be contrary to popular expectations.

Source: www.thisdayonline.com