Ex-head of state, Ibrahim Babangida, says “inexperience” rather than
“incompetence” was the right word to describe former President Goodluck
Jonathan who lost his re-election bid in March.
Speaking with The Interview magazine in the December 2015 edition which
is currently on sale, Babangida said Jonathan “is a very pleasant
person” and said he believed the former president meant well for the
country.
Asked about the perception that Jonathan is a good person but was
“incompetent”, Babangida replied: “If you use inexperience, I will buy
that.”
He refused to disclose whom he really supported between Jonathan and
Muhammadu Buhari, who eventually won the election. Babangida overthrew
Buhari in a bloodless coup in 1985. Asked if he played a double game by
declaring support for both men when they visited him, Babangida said he
was “intelligent enough” to know that he had “only one vote”.
He denied that his life was saved by Sani Abacha, who was then the chief
of army staff, and also denied the reports that he hid in a bunker
while the coup plotters were looking for him.
“They obviously didn’t have a lot of experience,” Babangida recalled.
“It was during the fasting period. We were still in Dodan Barracks then.
My wife got up from sleep and said she had noticed very unusual
movement of troops from one end to the other. So she woke me up and said
I should look through the window. I found troops moving from one end to
the other.
“The next thing I heard was shooting going on. We tried to put a small party together. It was about 1:30am. Then the guards, the bodyguards said let’s check out of this place. I was a bit stubborn. I told them I was not leaving.
It didn’t occur to me that we had a bunker at Dodan Barracks. We had,
but it didn’t occur to me to use it. And so, they came. I said the only
thing I would concede to, I would evacuate my family. My wife had her
last born, who was just a few months old, with her. So they evacuated
them to a safe house. It was the house of one of the officers working
with me.
“So I remained with a few bodyguards. We decided to get out and move
around. We went to a safe house around Surulere. I had a bodyguard,
Omuah. We just moved in there. From there, we established communication.
I later established communication with Abacha, Raji Rasaki (who was
governor of Lagos then) and the other. They had mobilised their
troops.”
He said, "Abacha didn’t save my life in the Orkar coup. We worked together to crush Orkar’s coup."
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