IBB’S MEMOIR ANOTHER LAYER OF LIES TO HIDE TRUTH, FAILURE – OGUN STUDENTS
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The National Association of Ogun State Students (NAOSS) has slammed the former Nigerian Head of State, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (rtd) for admitting that late Bashorun M.K.O Abiodun won the June 12, 1993 presidential election, over 31 years after.
The student body equally condemned the accolades being showered on Babangida by some Nigerians and the donation of N16b during the official launch of his memoir, ‘A Journey in Service’, last week in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja.
NAOSS in a statement signed on Monday by its national president, Kehinde Thomas, in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, described the admittance of the late Head of State that the business mogul, Chief M.K.O.Abiola, won the annulled presidential poll over three decades after as “not only an act of cowardice but confessing to the obvious”.
Thomas, who expressed disappointment at the retired General for blaming the late Head of State, General Sanni Abacha for single-handedly annulling the freest and fairest presidential election in the annal of the country, wondered why it took Babangida many years to come out clean on the matter.
According to him, taking responsibility for plunging Nigeria into a dark era and the shedding of blood of innocent Nigerians who protested the annulment, does not atone for the sins and injustice committed by the military junta of IBB.
Thomas stressed that General Babangida (rtd) as the head of government then should have towed the path of honour by standing against the injustice perpetrated against the person of late M.K.O Abiola and the entire people of southwest Nigeria, rather than pulling wools over the faces of Nigerians.
He pointed out that the memoir was nothing, but another layer of lies to cover the truth and failure to address some issues being shrouded in darkness.
While declaring that Ogun State students under the auspice of NAOSS will not buy into the “latter-day confession of a Maradona”, said other atrocities carried out under the nose of the former military Head of State should have also been acknowledged by him.
Thomas, however, berated Nigerians who donated huge amounts of money and poured encomium on IBB during the launch of the memoir, saying the actions betrayed the sacrifice and the supreme price paid by the winner of the June 12, 1993, presidential poll.
The NAOSS national president further faulted the memoir as it failed to shed any light on the gruesome murder of a renowned investigative journalist, Dele Giwa, among other alleged state-sponsored crimes under the leadership of IBB.
“As students who are indigenes of Ogun State under the umbrella of NAOSS, we want to express our disappointment and deep resentment to the accolades that greeted the launch of the memoir of the late military Head of State, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (rtd). That IBB acknowledged that an illustrious son of our dear state, late Bashorun M.K.O Abiola, won the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election, does not absolve him of the wrong and injustice meted out to the winner and the entire southwest.
“One wonders what kept an acclaimed combatant soldier, military tank specialist and a General, for over three decades before he came to take responsibility for what happened back then. Why did he just come out to blame the late General Sanni Abacha for standing stoutly against the declaration of Abiola as winner of the poll? He had an ample opportunity to set the record straight while Abacha was still alive. His confession now reeks of nothing by cowardice.
“To us, that memoir did not shed light on any grey issues, rather, it confirmed what people have come to know over the years. Apart from the issue of June 12, 1993, why did IBB fail to tell us who murdered Dele Giwa, an investigative journalist who was killed with a letter bomb? What of other atrocities carried out by his foot soldiers?
“However, it is appalling and disheartening to see that the book launch grossed nothing less than N16b, while some prominent Nigerians eulogized and poured encomium on IBB at the event. Such actions, no doubt, betrayed the sacrifice and the supreme price paid by that great Nigerian and proud son of Ogun. We are very sure that the late M.K.O Abiola will be turning in his grave if he could see that IBB, who was a harbinger of the darkest era in the annal of Nigeria, is today being celebrated as a hero”. NAOSS concluded in the statement.
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