By Tahir Ibrahim Tahir Talban Bauchi.
Nigerians or perhaps Northerners, may not want to concede that the finest years of purposeful leadership ever experienced were the military years of leadership under Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. The democratic adventure since the beginning of the 4th Republic has been a mishmash of mixed fortunes. The lack of depth in leadership has seen to the plundering of resources, while insecurity has taken control of the front burner of all national discourse, spreading almost unabated, decimating the progress and development of the country. Projects and policies are truncated from one administration to the other, while also suffering from a lot of inadequacies in their implementation. Recent calls or clamors for a change in our style of governance have missed the point that our main problem hardly lies in the structure or type of government we run, but largely in our psyche and moral values. Today, government struggles to get its programmes and palliatives down to the grassroots, as every rung of the ladder of leadership is interested in sabotaging the process for selfish gain, depriving the masses of the dividends of democracy.
I take two simple examples of huge projects that were constructed under the IBB administration. Imagine if the FG is to embark on the construction of the third mainland bridge, and the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano expressway. How much would they be built with? How many years or successive governments would it take to complete them? How many articles and TV programs would fill our newswaves decrying the corruption plaguing the projects? How many variations would be made? How many national assembly public hearings would be held over the problems faced by the projects? These projects were done in record time under IBB. The 2nd Niger Bridge took all of the Jonathan admin and the PMB admin, from conception to completion. The repair and expansion of the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano expressway is proving to take 10 years to be completed. Today’s estimates say the project would be completed in 2025! Back in the IBB days, we had a robust national carrier, the Nigeria Airways. Today we have none, despite efforts to maintain one or push one of the local airlines to become one, it’s inefficiencies domestically and internationally are too numerous to contend with.
The IBB admin practically built Abuja. The entire central business district, and the Aso Villa were done under his admin. The Shiroro Hydro Electric Power Station and the Jibia Water Treatment Plant were constructed during his time. The 4 divisional headquarters of the Nigerian Army were built by him, including all the military barracks in Abuja. The school of Armor in Bauchi as well as the Nigerian Army Amphibious School in Calabar were all delivered during IBB’s time. The Nigerian Navy Dockyard and the Nigeria Dockyard Snake Island were built during his time as military head of state. The Aluminium Smelter Company Ikot Abase and the engineering works of the Ajaokuta Steel Plant were done by him. The Federal Mortgage Bank in Lagos and all its branches nationwide were constructed by IBB. The CBN headquarters, Security Printing and Minting Company headquarters, Abuja Airports Phase 1 and 2, Maitama General Hospital and the Aso Clinic were all completed under him. The DSS headquarters, the National Assembly Complex and the Nigeria Intelligence Agency Office were all constructed by IBB. NIPOST offices were also built across the country. The Asokoro, Kubwa and Abuja municipal water supply schemes were built under IBB. Other water works include the Gboko-Yadav and the 1004 water schemes. The Jabi and Asokoro districts were all built by Baba. All the states of the federation had Federal secretatriats, Assembly complexes and Judiciary complexes built for them. These are just a few of IBB’s projects in just 8 years. Lest we forget that IBB created Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Yobe, Katsina, Gombe, Jigawa, Delta and Osun states, and provided funding for the off-take and development of the states.
One could visibly see the inroads of projects like that of the Directorate of Foods Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI) that carved out roads in the rural areas for the ease of transportation of farm products. The steadfastness of the Federal Road Safery Corps (FRSC) and their professionalism under the leadership of Prof. Wole Soyinka was outstanding. The impact of Tai Solarin as the head of the Peoples Bank which granted soft loans and other forms of credit to the very poor to start their businesses was quite successful. The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) that steadily created jobs for the teeming youth population was also remarkable. The Better Life for Rural Women projects that sought the emancipation of women as partners in nation building has lasting legacies to date. IBB’s policies on privatisation like the Technical Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation, nurtured the growth of the private sector as partners in governance, building the super highway that has driven the sophistication of private enterprise in Nigeria.
There was a time Nigerians were bent on blaming IBB for the nation’s woes. Now we have experienced so many drivers of the economy after him and I am not so sure about the correctness of those in the blame game. We have actually fared and experienced better before and now we know better. There was so much precision in government policies and their implementation methods back then. Maybe Nigerians feared the Khaki and the double barrel more than present day democratic set-ups. There was more discipline in governance and government actors. Projects had clear implementation timeliness and quality. Sabotage was dealth with accordingly. There was more commitment to nation building by Nigerians as opposed to what obtains today. The IBB’s of our time commanded respect especially from those that served in their government. Today IBB’s Minna hilltop still serves as a political Mecca that all power seekers and power holders throng. He is not in power but he has enjoyed the third term of power that OBJ so craved for and worked assiduously to get the National Assembly’s backing for. IBB remains a leader, an enigma and a rallying point for the most influential Nigerians. I write to celebrate him and wish him a happy 83rd birthday. May your name continue to soar as we remember and cherish the legacies you have left behind.
