Babangida’s second “step aside’
By ABBAH MICHAEL

THE Babangida regime which came to power on 21st August, 1985 and terminated exactly eight years after is one regime whose memory may linger in the minds of Nigerians and perhaps many non-Nigerians, for several years to come. A one time Commander of the Armoured Corps and member of the Supreme Military Council in the Murtala/Obasanjo administration and Chief of Army Staff in the Buhari regime, General Babangida has been the only military head of state to assume the title of president. Under him, the Supreme Military Council also became known as the Armed forces Ruling Council (AFRC).
The nomenclature of the Federal Executive council (FEC) was however left unchanged although it has reshuffled several times. It was also the first and only regime to have dissolved the highest policy-making body, the AFRC.
After the inauguration of the first set of cabinet members in September, 1985, reshuffling of the National Council of State (NCS) comprising all the state military governors took place in the following dates - 26th August, 1986, 15 December, 1987, 21st July, 1988, December 1989 and 30th August 1990. During the last reshuffle, the post of the Chief of General Staff was changed to Vice President and Admiral Augustus Aikhomu was appointed to the post and retired from the military. Civilian deputy governors were also appointed for the states. The federal executive council under Babangida consisting of federal ministers also experienced frequent changes which led to the removal of Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe as chief of General Staff and his replacement by the former Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral A. Aikhomu who later became the Vice President and the appointment of new service chiefs for the Army, Navy and Airforce.
The domestic policies of the Babangida administration revolved around four main issues namely, the economic programme and related policies, the creation of additional states and local governments, civil service reform and the political transition programme. A major aspect of the economic reform programme introduced by the administration was the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), foreign exchange earner, agriculture, cotton and palm oil were major sources of external revenue. The virtual neglect of this sector resulted in structural distortion in the national economy and this precipitated several attempts aimed at restructuring the economy.
Nigerian Enterprises Promotion Decrees, designed to encourage more positive Nigerian participation in the economy was one such measure. Meanwhile, the 1991 oil glut, coupled with the reduction of the country’s production on quota to 1.3 from 2.1 million barrels per day resulted in a drop in oil earning. The closure of private jetties establishment of an anti-smuggling task force, reduction of Basic Travelling Allowance (BTA) as well as the change of currency with a view to checking illegal trafficking by the Buhari government were additional measures.
The Structural Adjustment Programme was introduced in 1986 as an alternative to the IMF loan and its attendant conditionalities such as the devaluation of the Naira and reduction/removal of oil subsidy. A primary objective of the programme was to diversify the productive base of the Nigerian.
It was also conceived to arrest the problem of wasteful importation of consumer items and encourage the growth of the private sector. Consequently, the government introduced import duty rebates on raw materials used in processing export product in order to generate external revenue. In order to allow for greater government savings, a reduction of oil subsidy was effected.
Under SAP, agriculture also received a boost with the establishment of the National Agricultural Land Development Authority . Related measures innovated by SAP includes privatisation and commercialization of government-owned companies and parastatals. The essence of such measures was to make such outfits more autonomous and efficient since efficiency is the key to survival of private enterprises.
Other SAP-related measures included the establishment of the Directorate of Food, Roads and rural Infrastructure (DFFRI) aimed at improving the general quality of live of the rural people using rural resources and the National directorate of Employment (NDE) aimed at providing various forms of employment through the Youths and Vocational Skills, Development Agriculture programme, job creation, loan guarantee scheme, special public works programme, small scale industries and graduate employment programmes.
The Mass Mobilization for Economic Recovery, Self-Reliance and Social Justice (MAMSER), the Peoples Bank, Mass Transit programme as well as the Better Life Programme were additional innovations associated in one way or the other with SAP. MAMSER as a task of mobilisation was the psychological weapon of the SAP.
The coercive element of WAI as introduced by the Buhari regime was replaced with the National Orientation Programme (NOM). The philosophy behind setting up the Peoples Bank was to provide banking services, particularly loans for the less privileged people at the grassroots, while the Better Life Programme )BLP) was geared towards uplifting the socio-economic status of women, particularly rural women, through participation in profitable small-scale business activities. A National commission for women was also established.
It is apt to say that the Structural Adjustment Programme was conceived with very noble intentions but its impact had been noticeably severe on the citizenry. Although DFRRI, People’s Bank and Mass Transit Programme were put in place to alleviate the suffering resulting from SAP, the average Nigerian was not particularly impressed about the programme, because the conditions imposed by it became too severe, resulting in the lowering of the living standard of majority of Nigerians.
One significant achievement of the Babangida administration has to do with the creation of additional states in 1987 and 1991 respectively which brings the total number of state structure to 30.
Although there have been criticisms against the proliferation of states on economic and other grounds, the creation of more states was informed and influenced by persistent and vigorous demands by opinion leaders and interest groups and as such, the General is believed to have yielded to these pressure, in addition to that every Nigerian have a sense of belonging, especially the minority ethnic groups. Also additional local governments were created bringing the number of local government councils in the country to 589.
Also, a national census was conducted sequel to the establishment of National Population commission which put the 1991 head count at 88.5 million.
The idea of building a new federal capital had always generated a lot of interest which was initiated by the Gowon regime, but it never materialized.
However, the Murtala government revisited the issue and set up the Akinola Aguda panel that eventually recommended Abuja as the new capital. Progress in that direction was slowed down during Obasanjo regime which was probably more concerned with returning the country to civil rule. The Shagari regime gave some impetus to the building of the new capital but contracts awarded for construction became a topic for public debates.
The Babangida administration continued with the Abuja project that eventually moved the federal capital from Lagos to Abuja on the 12th of December, 1991.
The political transition programme instituted by the Babangida administration in 1987 remains perhaps the most talked about issue in the history of the administration.
In 1989, the Babangida administration came up with the grassroots party system which introduced a two-party system, commonly called the National Republican Convention (NRC) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and nutured their growth. Following the local government election on party basis conducted in the same year (1991), arrangement for the legislative gubernatorial and later the presidential election were made. A strange feature of the political process was the introduction of primary election in both the gubernatorial and presidential elections. However, while the open ballot was used in the gubernatorial elections, what became known as the Option Secret System was conceived for the presidential elections.
During the presidential elections, the staggered primaries from the political parties proceeding SDP and NRC were cleared by the National Election commission (NEC) and allowed to contest, which saw General Shehu Musa Yar’adua (rtd), Adamu Chiroma and Umoru Shinkafi emerging as presidential candidates.
Allegations of irregularities however resulted in the cancellation of the primaries and a second primary election was organized. General Yar’adua still retained his position while Shinkafi and Adamu Chiroma were to go for a run off election to determine a clear winner, folowing similar report of similar irregularities. The second primary election was also cancelled and all the twenty-three (23) presidential candidates disqualified by government. Sequel to the disqualification of the 23 presidential candidates, fresh arrangement were made for yet another presidential election. This time, the system of producing candidates was a combination of primary election and ward to state level and a national convention.
It was at the national convention of the NRC and SDP which were held at Port-Harcourt and Jos respectively that Bashir Othman Tofa of NRC and Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola of SDP emerged as respective presidential candidates of their parties. During this period, a nationwide televised presidential debate was also organised for the first time in Nigeria’s political history. The presidential election took place on 12th June, 1995. This election, the civil society believed was and is still the most credibly organised election in Nigeria’s political history. By the time the result of the states were officially released by the National Electoral Commission (NEC), Moshood Abiola of SDP was in the lead. But the election was however, annulled by he Babangida government before a winner could emerge on the strength of a litigation by the Association for Better Nigeria and security report on the conducts of the primaries and the election itself. The subsequent chain of events resulted in a serious political impasse.
It was under this circumstances that General Babangida later handed over power to an Interim National Government with Chief Ernest Shonekan as Head of Government.
Since then, the General who is generally seen as a tactician and regarded as generous has neither participated in any open active politics until Nigeria fully returned to democratic governance in 1999. He contributed positively by ensuring the successful formation of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) within which he recently opted to return as a civilian president. His action not to contest reminds Nigerians of his stepping aside theory of 1993. After procuring the PDP presidential candidate form, he voluntarily stepped down for Governor Yar’adua and General Aliyu Gusau, erstwhile Chief of Army Staff during his regime. This action is seen by many as a noble one, but it is important to note that many supporters of the gap-footed General were very much disappointed by his action. In a reaction to this recently, General Babangida apologised to all his admirers and teeming supporters urging them to remain loyal to whoever that becomes the president in the next presidential election. He also cancelled a supposed international press conference.
It is not clear what the General has in mind, but many are optimistic that he was contribute towards ensuring a better democratic culture, e specially in ensuring a stable and better economy for all Nigerians.

MICHAEL is on internship with Sunday Triumph.