Olusegun Obasanjo was the former Nigerian military Head of State from 1976 to 1979 and the former President of Nigeria also from 1999 to 2007, while Ibrahim Babangida was the former Nigerian military Head of State from 1985 to 1993. These two men or personalities have both continued to dominate the entire life of the Nigerian nation directly and indirectly for decades like two giant colossuses. Why are these two men so important and very relevant to Nigeria today? What do these two men have in common? What major roles have they played or continued to play in the shaping of the destiny of Nigeria to date? Are these two men a blessing in all reality to Nigeria or a major curse to the Nigeria's existence? Will the Nigeria's future generations, history and posterity judge these two men gloriously by putting them on the positive side of history or not?
These two men have so many things in common in their leadership in Nigeria. These two men have also separately and at the different times in Nigeria implemented various policies, took official and personal decisions that have shaped the direction of this nation greatly. Below are the ways in which these two men dominated and changed Nigeria from good to bad in government and outside the government for the last few decades to date.
(i). Obasanjo and Babangida have both ruled Nigerian nation for about 20 years out of the Nigeria's entire 53 years as an independent nation. Their various tenures in leadership at various times in the life of this nation have translated into about 40% of the Nigeria's present age.
(ii). Both men ruled Nigeria during the nation's major oil booms. Obasanjo's tenure from 1999 to 2007 saw the price of a barrel of crude oil hitting over $100 plus as a result of the then America's war of occupation in Iraq. On the other, Babangida ruled Nigeria during the first America's war that pushed Iraqi out of her occupation of the Kuwait's oil fields and Babangida also enjoyed a massive oil revenue, including the unaccounted extra oil revenue that is known as the $12.4 billion oil windfall . Both men have nothing on their personal records and legacies in Nigeria today to show for these huge oil revenues after leaving their positions as the Nigeria's leaders.
(iii). Both men were the pioneers of the 3rd and the 4th democratic dispensations in Nigeria. Both men also destroyed these democratic dispensations that they oversaw under their own watches. Babangida wasted billions of the Nigerian Naira on his deceptive transition program and then annulled the best presidential election in the history of this nation that was regarded globally as the most transparent, freest and fairest election which was won by the late Chief MKO Abiola on June 12, 1993. Obasanjo in the 4th democratic dispensation institutionalized massive electoral frauds, political thuggery, state murders, removal of public elected officials without the due process of the law in place, the violations of major court orders and the mammoth mismanagement of $16 billion due to corruption that was meant for the provision of electricity for Nigerians without more kilowatts of electricity to show for this during our young democracy from 1999 to 2007.
(iv). Both men forcefully imposed their subordinates on the Nigerian nation after they both failed in their attempts to rule Nigeria for life and both men have continued to rule Nigeria indirectly from Ota farm and Minna Hilltop mansion respectively after both men had already left the Nigeria's seat of power. Babangida imposed the government of the national unity headed by Ernest Shonekan on Nigeria, set it up to fail woefully and then diabolically put the late General Sanni Abacha in that shady arrangement for an imminent take over from Shonekan which eventually happened in less than 90 days of this imposed government on Nigeria. Obasanjo on the other hand failed in his secret political agenda for a 3rd term at the presidency of Nigeria and then he intentionally imposed the sickly Umoru Musa Yar'Adua on Nigeria who later died in office and now the weak and the mediocre President Jonathan Goodluck on Nigeria who is Obasanjo's programmed computer machine in power.
(v). Both men left Nigeria in the worse shape than the way Nigeria was handed over to them. Babangida destroyed the Nigeria's economy, the value and the purchasing power of the Nigerian Naira, put the nation in huge foreign debt, increased mass poverty with his SAP/IMF loans, Babangida then destroyed the middle class, universities and civil service. He also institutionalized the culture of the official corruption as a standard way of life for doing business in Nigeria, Nigerians saw the first letter bomb that killed the journalist Dele Giwa and also saw so many state sponsored murders of the perceived government enemies in Nigeria at that time.
Obasanjo like Babangida cannot singlehandedly point to how he had made the life of over 160 million ordinary Nigerians better between 1999 and 2007 when he was in power in terms of job creation, the provision of modern educational systems, qualitative and affordable health care, adequate social services, payment of living wages to the Nigerian workers instead of poverty wages, the modernization of Nigeria's dilapidating national infrastructures, the improvement of the security of life and the properties of the ordinary Nigerians as well as the stamping out of massive official corruption and the mismanagement of Nigeria's oil wealth.
As Nigeria continues to face a very bleak future as a failing state, Obasanjo and Babangida will continue to directly influence the direction of this country through their armies of loyalists, beneficiaries, political sycophants and gullible followers from all the Nigeria's ethnic nationalities, religious faiths and cultural groups who see these two men as the Nigeria's saviors, messiahs, national patriots, nationalists, small gods, political godfathers and their own personal heroes or mentors.
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