Comment
The Contradictory Smiles
According to him, the last time he stumbled on a coup plot back in December 1983 he did what he had been led by his training and law of the land to think was expected of him; he went straight to his General Officer Commanding (GOC) and reported the treasonable plot to him. Instead of being congratulated, promoted or being featured in the honours list as he could reasonably expect, he was thrown into jail for two weeks.
The poor young man was not to know that his GOC, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari was part of the plot he had unwittingly stumbled upon and that explained why instead of congratulations he ended up in jail. When the December 31, 1983, coup did take place and all those who had sworn to defend the constitution were busy con- gratulating Gen Buhari and his friends, a baffled Maj Bamidele must have determined to be wiser in the future. It would not have been lost on him that right up to August 26, 1985, Gen Buhari was supposedly leading a government of the Nigerian Armed Forces and by the next day, the 'Nigerian Armed Forces' were announcing to the nation that they had taken over power.
Major Bamidele's plea that when he got wind of yet another coup plot, he decided to keep quiet because of his earlier experience might not have satisfied the military tribunal, but it certainly makes a lot of sense to those not conversant with military political intrigues. When is an officer being patriotic when he reports a coup plot to his superior officer and when does such a report earn him detention in the guard room?
If the Nigerian Armed Forces have accepted that coups are the only method by which government policy can be changed and "corruption, ineptitude and muddled goals" eradicated, then it would be asking too much of the members, for it would be impossible to define patriotism at any one time.
It is unlikely that Gen Babangida himself would think that he has made no mistakes since he came into power last August and there are some who would say that Gen Babangida himself has a proven track record of what he believes a self-respecting officer ought to do when he is uneasy about or displeased with the state of affairs in the country
There are, for example, a number of things that are at best baffling in the Babangida administration and might lead uncharitable people to think that this was a government that had no clear definition of its goals, or a government that is plagued by a lot of contradictions.
Everybody was happy when the President asked for a debate about whether the country ought to accept International Monetary Fund conditions as a means of revamping the economy; after all, one of the charges against the overthrown Buhari was that he clamped down on public debate and, anyway, there is nothing Nigerians are said to enjoy more than a debate.
At the end, or some would say, at the height of the debate, the President intervened dramatically and gave his verdict - no IMF Loan. He never did say that he had been persuaded by the arguments of the "anti-IMFers": for their antagonism to the loan had been based on what was called "IMF conditionalities". Having rejected the loan, however, the infamous "conditionalities" have been instituted by the President. Thus some people have wondered what the advantage is to Nigeria to reject the loan and accept the "conditionalities". It seems suspiciously to some as an extreme case of President Babangida's preposition to try to please all sides - those who favour the loan have got the "conditionalities", those who oppose it, well, the loan has been rejected. About the only people really that can truly claim to have 'won' are those who believe that IMF is synonymous with imperialism and therefore think that by rejecting the loan, Nigeria has retained her progressive credentials.
The President's attitude towards the Justice Uwaifo panel set up by him to review the cases of the detained/ released politicians is equally baffling. On the strength of the Uwailo recommendations many politicians who were released have had their freedom confirmed and others have been released. When the same panel recommended the release of ex-President Shagari and his ex-Vice President Ekwueme and portions of the press screamed their displeasure, a government statement said the government was not bound by the panel's recommendations.
A similar atmosphere hangs around the membership or non-membership of Nigeria in the Organisation of Islamic Conference. The amount of heat and dust generated by this incident gives the impression that, again the government was trying to please all sides and be all things to all men. Typically, the President calmed the storm by appointing a committee of enquiry and hopefully, by the time the recommendations are out, tempers might have cooled or the government can always issue a statement that they are not bound by the recommendations of the committee.
Through it all of course, the President smiles and nobody is ever likely to complain about the President's smiles; indeed that is most probably his strongest point with his people after the dour faced duo of Buhari and Idiagbon.
However, it is important to take care that the impression is not created of a government that is "muddling through" and shirks hard decisions. The measures that Buhari and Idiagbon tried to introduce could not succeed because the atmosphere was all wrong; the hatred, the vindictiveness and the constant badgering of the citizens to make them feel that they were under siege or they were all criminals.
The happy and relaxed atmosphere generated by President Babangida is most important if there is to be any regeneration and the economy is to pick up, but it is equally important that there is no question in anybody's mind about exactly who is in charge and what the goals of the nation are. At the end of the day one person will be held responsible and President Ibrahim Babangida surely knows more than most, just how fickle 'public opinion' can be.
The President is said by those who know him that behind the smiles is a man of steel and when we join in the calls for mercy for his former colleagues who have been sentenced to death, it is in the hope that he would not pick this incident to demonstrate the steel in him.
