IBB @85: Compassion must not erase history

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Dear Datti Baba-Ahmed,

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Yesterday, at the National Peace Committee event, I met Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, Datti Baba-Ahmed’s elder brother and PRP chairman. I gently tapped him on the shoulder to say hello while he was standing with others. He immediately turned to me and, in the presence of his party’s presidential candidate, former Cross River State Governor, Donald Duke, declared that he was my “number one fan.”

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We laughed about it, but he reiterated that he wasn’t kidding. Donald Duke and I also exchanged a few words on the sidelines, including about something he has always enjoyed teasing me about. My advocacy for the legalisation of cannabis.

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Later, when all the presidential candidates gathered to sign the “Peace Accord,” Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed met me again. He handed me his business card and told me that no matter what I faced, I should never change my position on social justice. Earlier today, I messaged him to thank him for his kind words at yesterday’s meeting.

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He replied, again reassuring me of his admiration, and then asked whether I had read what his younger brother, Mallam Yusuf, had written in Daily Trust, excoriating me over my comments regarding former military dictator Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, on his 85th birthday.

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I hadn’t seen the piece. When I told Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed that I couldn’t find it online, he explained that it appeared in the print edition of Daily Trust. I have now read Datti’s response, and I can only pity him.

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Instead of confronting the historical record of Ibrahim Babangida’s dictatorship, Datti chose to deliver a sermon about “compassion,” while attacking me personally and attempting to whitewash a legacy that Nigerians have every right to interrogate.

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I have also been made to understand that Datti belongs to that class of Nigerians whose fortunes and opportunities were substantially shaped by the benevolence of the IBB-era establishment. I learned today he was an ex-military man and probably one of the military officers known as the “Babangida Boys.”

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Perhaps that explains some of the reverence.

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My own encounter with Datti was only once before now, ironically, also at a National Peace Committee event during the 2023 election cycle. I was seated in an area to deter the National Peace Committee’s attempt to separate those of us it did not consider “frontline candidates” from its preferred candidates. Datti confronted me, claiming I had no right to sit next to Peter Obi, his presidential candidate, because he was supposedly keeping the seat for him. I reminded Datti that, as a vice-presidential candidate, he had no superior claim to a seat designated for presidential candidates.

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Then All Progressives Congress candidate Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu arrived and sat next to me. What happened next was revealing. The same Datti Baba-Ahmed whose ticket was campaigning fiercely against Tinubu and the APC suddenly became extraordinarily deferential, “Uncle,” “Sir,” “Daddy,” all in practically the same breath; he practically knelt for Tinubu in my presence. I was stunned. After all the ferocious rhetoric surrounding the election, particularly from the Obidient movement against Tinubu and the APC, here was one of its principal candidates displaying an astonishingly servile attitude toward the very political adversary his supporters were being mobilised to defeat.

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When Mr Peter Obi eventually arrived, Datti was moved to the back while I retained my seat, which was where I belonged under the alphabetical seating arrangement.

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Interestingly, that same alphabetical principle I fought for was finally respected at yesterday’s event. But the spectacle did not end with Datti.

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When the event concluded, I watched Mr Peter Obi himself displaying similar deference toward Tinubu. I walked away, looked back at what was happening, and something became clearer to me: that is, beneath the public political warfare, Nigeria’s establishment politicians are often far more comfortable with one another than their followers are encouraged to believe.

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Their supporters fight bitterly online and sometimes in the streets. They insult, threaten, and destroy relationships, defending political figures who, behind the curtains, address one another as “Uncle,” “Daddy,” “Sir,” brother, and friend.

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That experience stayed with me, and it provides useful context for Datti’s latest lecture about how Nigerians should treat members of the old political and military establishment. The records are there.

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Now, let us deal with his arguments about General Ibrahim Babangida, history, compassion, and accountability.

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I have read Datti’s lengthy response to my comments about former military ruler Ibrahim Babangida. Datti devoted considerable space to insulting me, suggesting drugs, alcohol, prison, and even an ICU, while simultaneously delivering a sermon about compassion, morality, and human decency. The contradiction is difficult to miss.

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First, I did not attack Ibrahim Babangida because he is 85 years old. My criticism was about his record in power and what his decisions did to Nigeria. Age does not erase history; in fact, the world is replete with people facing punishment in old age for atrocities committed in their prime. Ill health does not confer political sainthood, and compassion for an elderly person does not require Nigerians to pretend that decisions made while that person wielded enormous power had no consequences.

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I wish no illness upon Ibrahim Babangida, but I will not participate in rewriting his record simply because he has grown old.

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Datti asks where Sowore will be at 85.

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I do not even know if I will make it to 85; Nigerian wicked leaders, including Babangida, have dealt heavy blows on my body and soul; however, wherever I am at 85, Nigerians will have every right to examine what I did with whatever power or influence I possessed. If I betray the democratic will of Nigerians, they should say so.

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If I impoverish people through disastrous policies, they should say so. If I violate their rights, they should say so. If I leave behind institutions weaker than I found them, history should record it. If I killed journalist Dele Giwa with a parcel bomb, I should be judged for it.

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If I am credibly implicated in crashing a plane full of junior army officers because I feared they might become ambitious and overthrow me, the public should interrogate and judge that record. That is accountability.

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Datti lectures me about compassion while speculating about alcohol, drugs, prison, and ICU. He wrote that perhaps alcohol or drugs would destroy me; politics might confine me to prison; or people might restrict me to an ICU.

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Then, almost in the same breath, he preached about humanity. Apparently, his compassion extends to powerful former rulers but disappears when dealing with political opponents. I have already experienced prisons and detention because of my political beliefs and activism. Datti does not need to fantasise about them for me.

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Then he describes Babangida as a “revered former Nigerian leader.” Revered by whom?

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Datti is entitled to revere him. Millions of Nigerians are equally entitled to remember his disastrous rule differently. History is not determined by the affection of political elites.

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Babangida himself has now acknowledged that MKO Abiola won the June 12, 1993 presidential election and has accepted responsibility for decisions taken under his watch. So what exactly is immoral about Nigerians remembering the consequences of that history?

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Datti invokes Babangida’s supposed role in “managing” Nigeria’s political crises.

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This is precisely the elite rewriting of history that I reject. A ruler cannot create or deepen political crises and then demand eternal gratitude for “managing” them. The June 12 election was not some minor administrative disagreement. Nigerians voted. MKO Abiola won. The democratic process was cruelly truncated for selfish reasons. Babangida himself now admits Abiola won. That is not my imagination. That is history.

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Datti also speaks about Babangida’s “support for democracy.” Democracy means respecting citizens’ votes and their right to choose their leaders. You cannot annul Nigerians’ expressed democratic choice and then have your admirers demand that history remember you principally as a defender of democracy. The most elementary democratic principle is that when citizens vote freely, their votes must count.

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Datti mentioned that I criticised him in 2023 for calling Tinubu “Uncle.” Yes, I did, and I stand by the principle behind that criticism.

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The fact that today you no longer stand with the toxic and fraudulently packaged political expression and company you kept in 2023 only reinforces my view about the deceptive nature of establishment politics. Nigeria’s political establishment has spent decades turning public affairs into a family reunion.

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“Uncle,” “Daddy,” “Leader,” “Baba,” “Your Excellency.” This culture of excessive deference to powerful people is one reason accountability remains so difficult. A President is a public servant, not my uncle.

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A former military ruler is a historical figure whose record must be interrogated, not a family patriarch before whom citizens must kneel or genuflect.

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You want me to worship before the altar of your fallen god. I will not.

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Respect is earned; accountability is mandatory.

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Datti says courtesy does not mean surrender. Fine. But neither does criticism mean cruelty. I wish I could separate respect for Babangida’s humanity from condemnation of his political record, but IBB’s record leaves me with little humanity to celebrate. A man whose regime executed his close friend, Mamman Vatsa, after a coup trial cannot simply have that history erased by the passage of time.

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What I will not do is confuse respect for old age with surrendering historical truth.

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Datti says political disagreement should not make us lose our humanity. I agree. So apply that principle universally. Apply it to the poor. Apply it to protesters. Apply it to political prisoners. Apply it to workers whose livelihoods have been destroyed by bad government.

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Apply it to young Nigerians whose futures have been repeatedly squandered by leaders celebrated at elite birthday parties. Humanity cannot become a doctrine reserved for powerful men when they become old.

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Mallam Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed says people like me seeking to rule Nigeria are “the real danger.”

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No, Datti.

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The danger to Nigeria is not citizens who refuse to worship former wicked rulers. The danger is a political culture nurtured by your types that repeatedly rehabilitates failure, protects privilege, and demands silence from anyone who refuses to participate.

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The danger is historical amnesia. The danger is treating powerful people as untouchable while ordinary Nigerians bear the consequences of their decisions.

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My politics has never been about hatred of individuals. It is about systems. It is about accountability. It is about institutions that work for all citizens regardless of class or social status. It is about refusing to accept that Nigeria must permanently rotate between the same political families, military-era power brokers, their protégés and their associates. I don’t care whether the person responsible is 35, 55 or 85. If you exercised public power, your record belongs to the public.

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Finally, Datti, you are free to respect Ibrahim Babangida.
nYou are free to call Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu “Uncle.”n

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You are free to admire whichever members of Nigeria’s ruling establishment you choose. But don’t demand that the rest of us surrender our memory in order to demonstrate compassion.

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We remember.

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We remember June 12. We remember Dele Giwa. We remember military officers executed over alleged coup plots.
nWe remember political detainees sent to rot in prison.n

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We remember the killings.

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We remember the controversy surrounding the looting of $12 billion from the 1990 Gulf War oil windfall. We remember the Structural Adjustment Programme and the economic devastation Nigerians associate with it.

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We remember the corruption. We remember the deception.

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We remember the self-styled “evil genius” and the political and economic legacy his years in power left behind.

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We remember the endless transition programme.

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We remember what military dictatorship did to Nigeria.
nAnd we will continue to interrogate the records of those who exercised enormous power over our country.n

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Growing old is a privilege. It is not immunity from history.
nNigeria must stop worshipping its rulers and start holding them accountable.n

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That is not hatred.

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That is how a serious country learns from its past and builds a different future.

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#RevolutionNow

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