'IBRAHIM BABANGIDA THINKS BLACKBERRY IS A FRUIT' - NASIR EL RUFAI

“President Babangida and General Buhari should just disappear. They should give way to a new set of people with new ideas. Young people preferably. Obama is 48 and Cameron is 43 for God’s sake. So, why are we recycling leaders that ruled this country very well or very badly 25 years ago? I was 25 years old when Buhari and Babangida were Heads of State and I am now 50 and they still want to be Head of State. I don’t understand that. I don’t understand that at all and I call on the young people of Nigeria to take their future into their hands and ensure that in the next election, they vote for a new generation of leaders.

I think that we will not make progress until we break the link from the past and just move on. 70 per cent of Nigerians are below the age of 40.Many of these young people, the next generation, as they are called, are on internet services such as Facebook and twitter, using Blackberry and if you ask any of these people running for presidency, they will think that Blackberry is a fruit. So, we have to move away from there and stop thinking that this leadership thing is all about us or all about individuals. We must put the future of the country at heart and give way to a new generation of leadership.” Icheoku says, this particular mallam is very impressive!

DO NOT VOTE FOR BABANGIDA

Whatever you do; whatever you think; whoever you vote for; that person must not be Babangida!

http://meniru.blogspot.com/2010/09/babangidas-love-for-igbo-people-is-not.html

It is unfounded and unsupported by evidence and/or precedents; and therefore an attempt by a conman to throw a fast-ball at the Igbo people of Nigeria. Icheoku says that MKO Abiola's rule number one of surviving the double-faced Janus, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida is to remember the mantra, 'with a friend like IBB no one needs an enemy." So Igbo people of Nigeria should beware of Babangida's unsolicited offer of love to them, as it is a poisoned chalice from which any that drinks does not live to tell the story. Igbo people therefore are again advised not to accept Babangida's Trojan gift of sudden affection as it is not needed, not now; as Ndigbo have since learnt to survive on their own and can survive without Babangida's tainted love.

Moreso, Babangida's sudden offer of friendship appears very sinister, it is not genuine nor real; but merely perfunctory, coyly orchestrated and deployed at this time as a tool-subterfuge to cajole Igbo people into providing him with the much needed ladder with which to climb into Aso Rock seat of power. That Babangida will discard them as soon as their use is no longer needed, immediately following his swearing in, is stating the obvious since his antedents speaks volume. Please Ndigbo, Icheoku implores you not to short-change yourselves or in any event, short-sell yourselves to the self acclaimed beast of Minna, Ibrahim Babangida. He is not worth a friendship of the Igbo people and his former friends including the former NSA Gusua know him as a betrayer.Icheoku calls on the Igbo nation to reject Babangida and tell him that the days of northerners using Igbo people as beautiful brides, with which to win presidential elections is since long gone. That the present attempt by Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida to once again, surreptitiously woe Igbo people will not succeed as Igbo people are now politically smarter, wiser and much more savvy than before and will only seriously consider a political alliance with a truthful and trustworthy political suitor; and Babangida is not such a desirable suitor nor is he possessed of these qualities.

Icheoku is talking about the recent visit by the resident evil of Nigeria, Ibrahim Babangida to the Enugu residence of Odumegwu Ojukwu, the peoples' warlord; where he solicited and conferred with Ojukwu on the matter of Igbo support/votes for his candidacy during the coming 2011 elections. According to the reports, Babangida told Ojukwu to convey to his Igbo people that he, Babangida, 'loves them.' In his own exact words, Babangida said to Ojukwu, "tell your people that "I love them!"Icheoku retorts, please Igbo people do not mind the Islamic conman from Minna, who has conned Nigerians including Igbo people before with an unending political transition which resulted in the annulled election of June 12th, 1993. Further Icheoku reiterates that Ibrahim Babangida does not love the Igbo people, never did and not in the future; since one cannot teach an old dog new tricks and Babangida is one heck of such old bull-mastiff. A great saying has it that for you to understand the trajectory of an arrow, you must apprise yourself of the boomerang that fired it as well as the archery prowess of the firer that pulled the boomerang. Tell Icheoku where you have been and we shall tell you your intended destination, and so it is that all precedents considered, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida is no friend of the Igbos and does not love them.

So what does a person do to a conman but to put it to his face that you are aware of his game and that you won't bite his bait. To Babangida, Igbo people say to you, take back your love and stuff it in your you know what - rear end; as it is worthless since you kill your friends and have killed Mamman Vasta, your best friend and best man during your wedding. According to MKO Abiola, Babangida's friendship or professed love is tantamount to making a pact with the devil as he will always turn around and get you.

Icheoku says, the recent 'love of the Igbos' expressed by Babangida is a empty air not supported by any evidence, both factual and imagined. First Babangida fiercely fought on the side of the Nigerian armed forces, ganged up against a fledgling Biafran side which was merely looking to survive a pogrom followed by a genocide of great proportion. Not only did Babangida and his vicious Nigerian side led by the genocidal Yakubu Gowon tried to annihilate Igbo people by shooting defenceless women and children but they also went ahead to levy an economic embargo on the people of Igboland which nearly completed the genocidal work which their bullets and bombs couldn't finish. As a result millions of Igbo people's lives were drastically wiped out during the Biafra war; yet this toothy-fairy from Sharia Niger State is now claiming love for the Igbo people? Please tell Icheoku that Babangida had just finished a joint, prelude to making this statement in buffoonery as it falls flat on its face amidst known precedents. Secondly, Babangida said he "loves Igbo people", yet nothing was done by his ravaging beast of the Nigerian army to carry through their promised three Rs of reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction that forty years after the brutal civil war, ravages of the war still dots the landscape of Igbo South Eastern people of Nigeria.

Now lets fast-forward to December 1983 when Babangida, Abacha, Gusua and Buhari conspired and overthrew a democratically elected President Shehu Shagari's government with an Igbo man vice president, Alex Ekwueme. To so many people, the December 31, 1983 coup was to arrest the rot that had permeated and spreading throughout the country's body-fabric during the civilian leadership. But presently available information indicates otherwise as that gang of terrorists and religious zealots were only trying to preempt Alex Ekwueme's shoeing in as president after Shehu Shagari. Continuing, the story has it that Babangida and his fellow coup-plotters were on a mission for Arewa nation to secure and hold as well as maintain a northern stranglehold on power in Nigeria and not to allow anybody take it. Essentially, the coup, by extension, was against Igbo people's ascendancy to power in Nigeria; they had to struck to prevent an Igbo man from ruling "their" Nigeria? Yet this coup plotter claims he loves Igbo people?

As head of state the first order of business for Babangida was to humiliate Ebitu Ukiwe, a chief of general staff out of office. Babangida relegated Ukiwe to the background and acquiesced to a conspired change of order of hierarchy during parades in deference to Army Chief of Staff, Sani Abacha. But Ebitu Ukiwe instead of suffering further unnecessary humiliation, resigned his commission from the navy. Icheoku queries, did Babangida suffer a temporary amnesia not to remember that Ebitu Ukiwe is a beloved son of Igboland as he scurried to the Ikemba to profess his bridegroom's love for the bride? As head of State, Babangida did not appoint any Igbo man as member of his security council; yet he professes undying love for the Igbos! As head of State, Babangida did not construct a second bridge over the River Niger, fully aware of the particular need of the bridge which serves as a major thoroughfare for the ever upward mobile and commercial Igbo people; so where was this love then? As head of State, Babangida did not rehabilitate the only power station in Igboland - Oji River power station; yet he proclaims his love for the Igbos? As head of State, Babangida did not build any industry in Igbo land yet he loves Igbo people? As head of State, Babangida created states but instead of using the opportunity to equalize the number of states in the South East to be at par with other regions/zones, maintained that lopsidedness started with his crusading then Nigerian army; so where was his love then? As head of State, Babangida failed and/or refused to build any international airport in Igbo land or even upgrade the premier Enugu airport into one while he built three in the north, so where was this love then?

As head of State, Babangida took a once secular Nigeria, dead in the middle of the night, into the membership of Organization of Islamic Conference(OIC) and forgot that Igbo people, 40 million of them strong, are majority Christians with a few animist religionists; yet he choose to rather forcibly Islamize the Igbo people he supposedly loves and against their will? As head of State, Babangida was nearly toppled by Gideon Orkar and company; in the process so many people were executed and few forced to commit suicide rather than be taken alive. To date Babangida has not told Nigeria how or what led to the death by suicide of Chief Ugochukwu, the Abalilkiti of Umunze and proprietor of then Ugo Foam; yet Babangida loves Igbo people? When Babangida was forced to step aside, he did not appoint a person from 'the people he loves' as interim head of government of Nigeria; instead he looked West to make his choice and imposed Ernest Shonekan on Nigeria. So where was this love then? Again in 1999 when an Igbo man Alex Ekwueme was almost clinching the PDP presidential ticket, Babangida again rose to thwart this Igbo man'e effort, preferring instead to hand the ticket and by extension the presidency over to Obasanjo; yet he loves the Igbo people? Icheoku asks where was this love then?

Babangida is again running for presidential election in 2011 and who did he appoint as his campaign director, a person not from his "beloved" Igbo people? Dokpesi is not an Igbo-sounding name nor has he ever made pretensions as to his allegiance to the people of the SOuth East; yet Babangida ignored his loved Igbo people and made his 'enemy' his director? Icheoku says that report had it that Babangida had planned to marshall his campaign through the Yoruba Western States of Ogun or Oyo, with Gbenga Daniel as his point man; but when the Yorubas conspired to confront him over June 12th and to remind his that MKO Abiola was one of their own, Babangida ran for cover scared-stiff because of previously abstracted promises. He made a u-turn and where did he run to but the East for political salvation. He took his private plane airborne and landed in Enugu to visit with the peoples General Odumegwu Ojukwu, where he condescendingly mouthed the word, "tell your people "I love them!"

Icheoku says, this Babangida is so full of it and thinks that an aged Maradona, at 70, can out-dribble all Igbo intelligence put together and prevent them from seeing through the fog of his desperation. Not this time Babangida, as your sins have finally caught up with you and are yelling for the holding of you accountable; if only President Jonathan has some balls, may be your silence would have long ago been secured as a trade-off for your freedom. The other good news however is that Ojukwu does not speak for the entire Igbo nation as the republicanism of the Igbo man continues to be alive and well. So irrespective of whatever promises Babangida might have extracted from Ojukwu on behalf of Ndigbo, the Igbo people will do the right thing at the right time and shall reject Babangida for his numerous infra-digs against Nigeria and for this attempt to pull a wool over their eyes by alleging his "unfounded love for the Igbo people."

Concluding, Icheoku emphasis that Igbo people know who their true and genuine friends are and that fortunately enough, Mallam Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, the evil-genius, is not one of them. That he conscripted into a war-marriage a beautiful Igbo gem, Maryam, during his plundering days as a Colonel in then Nigerian Army waging an atrocious war against Biafra alone, does not make him a beloved son-inlaw of Ndigbo. At best it qualifies him as an adopted son-inlaw of Ndigbo but nothing more; needless to say a friend, as no sane person craves such a murderous friendship of a man known to have stabbed his numerous friends in their backs. Once again, Icheoku reminds Ndigbo that MKO Abiola warned Nigerians to beware of Babangida, stating that 'with a friend like IBB, no one needs an enemy'. So my dear Igbo people of South East Nigeria you must be fully advised of this Abiola's espoused time-tested truism about the person of the crazed-out toothy monster of Minna, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida and deal with him with a ten-foot totem pole, if at all. Babangida does not love the Igbo people and at best could pass for a green snake in a green grass waiting to strike! Reject Babangida's love; reject his candidacy, reject his presidency, never again Babangida!