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Former Nigerian Military Leader To Run For Presidency

   Chinedu Offor | Washington DC 12 April 2010

   Acting  Nigerian  president Goodluck Jonathan is in Washington for the
   nuclear  security  summit  and  a  meeting  with U.S. president Barack
   Obama.  But while heâs been away from home, someone else has expressed
   interest in being his partyâs next presidential candidate.

   Ibrahim  Babangida, a powerful northern army general who ruled Nigeria
   for  eight  years,  says  in  next  yearâs  elections  he  will be the
   candidate for the ruling Peopleâs Democratic Party â which is also Mr.
   Jonathanâs party.

   Anti-corruption  watchdog Transparency International gave low marks to
   General  Babandidaâs administration. But his supporters say the agency
   was influenced by opponents of the government.

   The  time  when Babangida was in power, beginning in 1985, âwas a very
   bad   period   for   the   country   in   terms  of  transparency  and
   accountability,   says   Osita  Nnanami  Ogbu,  secretary  general  of
   Transparency Internationalâs Nigeria chapter.

   âAll  sorts  of  crimes that were not known in the past emerged, so it
   was a bad period.â

   Ogbu  says the facts do not back up the defense by General Babangidaâs
   supporters  that  the  country  witnessed  tremendous growth under his
   watch.

   âPrior  to his administration, even though military regimes in Nigeria
   were  dictatorial, it used to be a group leadership -- that is to say,
   you  have the Supreme Military Council appointing somebody as the head
   of  state and controlling that head of state.  When Babangida came to
   power,  he  put himself over and above Supreme Military Council and it
   became an era of one-man rule.â

   What  General  Babangidaâs  supporters  referred  to  as  his economic
   success  did  not  change  the  lives  of  most  Nigerians, said Ogbu,
   especially the poor.

   Babangida  introduced  of the Structural Adjustment Program as his key
   economic  policy and never took into consideration the position of the
   poor,  says  Ogbu.  He says under that program the poor became poorer
   and the rich became richer.

   But Nigerian government officials say the country made modest economic
   gains during the period.

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