Babangida, Obasanjo and a Lawless country

Adeola Aderounmu

Babangida marked his 70th Birthday recently with confessions of madness. His deputy during his reign of tyranny died on the same day he was celebrating his madness. Augustus Aikhomu passed away in Lagos after a protracted illness. I don’t know how many Nigerians are praying that the souls of wicked dictators should find peace.

Babangida (who enslaved Nigerians from 1985-1993) has been throwing jibes at Obasanjo about his misrule (1976-1978 and 1999-2007). Obasanjo has been replying with fire.

The bottom line is that Nigerians live in a country where madmen are in control.
Ordinarily these two men should be cooling off in Kirikiri maximum prison for the rest of their lives.

Both of them were former dictators and Obasanjo even ruled again as a civilian president.

Babangida stole more than 12 billion dollars that he still has in his private account. He has not been formally charged for stealing. He is alleged to have killed Dele Giwa with a letter bomb, a crime he is yet to answer for. Babangida did many terrible things including mass murder and spreading poverty throughout Nigeria. His regime gave corruption a brilliant face.

Babangida is yet to be charged for treason for cancelling the 1993 presidential elections.
Obasanjo’s sins range from the probable mastermind of Bola Ige’s death to the squandering of 16 billion naira Power Budget. He also destroyed the democratic processes in Nigeria in 1979 and 2007. On both occasions he ensured that the people’s votes are meaningless.

In Nigeria the Police are like zombies designed to oppress common people and petty thieves.

Nigerian military rulers and civilian dictators are above the law and the police are like their houseboys.

The police chiefs are where they are because the politicians installed them. So it is impossible for example to prosecute Obasanjo, Babangida or Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan who are also alleged to have stolen but are now the rulers.

So the two big fools can continue to trade words. It will inspire neither the police nor the judiciary because Nigerians live in a very rotten system where known cases of executive corruption and crimes are swept under the carpet. It doesn’t matter that Babangida and Obsanjo are exposing each other, no one will act. When Obasanjo and Atiku even went as far as publishing evidence of each other’s corruption on the front pages of National tabloids, nobody acted and nothing happen.

This new episode will not be different.

What a shame! What a country!