Babangida and Kalu
Senator Orji Uzor Kalu has listed some positives in the book recently released by former military president, Ibrahim Babangida (IBB) titled A Journey in Service: An Autobiography of Ibrahim Babangida’.
Kalu said it was unfair for Nigerians berate Babangida for making some claims in the book including owning up to the victory of MKO Abiola in the 1993 presidential election, 32 years after the election which his government annulled.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday, Uzor Kalu, who represents Abia North in the Senate, said one of the positives of the book was the bursting of the myth and lie that the 1966 coup was an Igbo coup.
Against long-existing narrative, IBB said in the book that it was never an Igbo coup, stressing that an Igbo soldier was even the person who thwarted the bloody coup and saved the lives of key leaders and soldiers in the country at that time.
The Senator praised Babangida for boldly coming out with the truth some people had been hiding for decades.
“On the Babangida’s book, I think Nigerians are very unfair to Babangida because he came out on his own,” the former Abia State governor said on the programme.
“When I say the story is not complete, I wanted President Babangida to write more of the stories because the stories have not finished. There is more to the story, there are officers who told Babangida you cannot hand over to this man,” he said.
Senator Kalu said that Babangida came out on his own to say what many people have not dared to say for a long time.
Kalu noted that Babangida in his book disclosed that the 1966 coup was not an Igbo coup, “a sin” which he said people have held against the Igbos for many years.
Kalu said that there is a need for Babangida to write a second book which will contain roles that other top military officers played in the June 1993 election fallout.
According to him, Babangida himself was in danger at the time considering the way he left power.
“More military people that were there should talk about this. There should be a second part of the book because if you mention only one name or two, it is not complete,” he said.
“They should go the whole hog and tell Nigerians the truth. Babangida should write a second book, I know that Babangida was in danger throughout those periods. If you remember the way he left power, you will know something was wrong.”
The June 12, 1993, presidential election was between Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and his main challenger Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention (NRC). Its annulment resulted in the death of many Nigerians who tried to flee from the crisis that trailed the annulment.
On the ongoing crisis in the Senate over alleged sexual harassment of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan by President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, Kalu refrained from passing comment, insisting that matters that happened within the Senate should be discussed in the Senate, not on television.
He also said since there had been litigation on both sides, it would amount to disrespect of the judiciary to comment on a matter before it, adding, “I have a lot of respect for the judiciary.”
