2nd August, 2010
Flag off the presidential campaign of Nigeriaâ€
He no longer has the monopoly of guns to ride rough shod over the people. It is the same people he trampled upon as military dictator that will determine his fate even before the 2011 presidential race kicks off.
The Ibadan rally couldnâ€
Babangida will continue to run from pillar to post in his quest to return to power but will fail in the end because he cannot pull the wool over the eyes of enlightened Nigerians who know how he introduced the structural adjustment promamme and devalued the naira, obnoxious policies that contributed immensely to the economic downturn we are experiencing in our country today. He also truncated the democracy he is trying to be an apostle of. When he was in power between 27 August, 1985 and 26 August, 1993, he shut down many media houses and jailed journalists whose reports were critical of his administration. It was during his inglorious regime that the Editor-In-Chief of Newswatch magazine, Dele Giwa was killed through a parcel bomb on Sunday, 19 October, 1986.
If he is not suffering from delusion of grandeur, what makes him think Nigerians, especially the people of the South-west he is now courting, will line up behind him instead of other credible candidates who will vie for the same exalted post? IBB is deceiving himself that he can sweep under the carpet the annulment of June 12, 1993 presidential election won by Moshood Abiola. The cancellation of the result of that free and fair election triggered a chain of tragic events which Nigerians and relatives of those who died are still smarting from. To many, the wound IBB inflicted on them when he was in power is yet to heal.
There is so much resentment against IBB that those who are goading him to contest donâ€