President Bola Tinubu will lead a star-studded cast of Nigeria’s top leaders, which include former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Muhammadu Buhari, Yakubu Gowon, Abdulsalami Abubakar, and Goodluck Jonathan to pay tributes to former military president, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) in Abuja on Thursday (today).
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The occasion is a book launch by the man generally, but not fondly, referred as ‘Maradona’ at the Congress Hall of the TransCorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja.
A former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, in particular, made a courtesy visit to IBB on Wednesday, ahead of the former president’s book launch.
The leading opposition figure took to social media to share news of his visit, stating, “On a courtesy visit to former military President Ibrahim Babangida ahead of his book launch tomorrow.”
The memoir, ‘A Journey in Service’ by Babangida will be released on Thursday, February 20 at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja.
The book marked 32 years since IBB left office.
The book launch will be held alongside a fundraiser for a presidential library.
The event would be chaired by Obasanjo, with President Tinubu as the special guest of honour.
The keynote address will be delivered by the former President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, while the autobiography will be reviewed by former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
Former Minister of Defence, Theophilus Danjuma and BUA Group Chairman, Abdul Samad Rabiu have been named as chief launchers.
Interestingly, Babangida had previously expressed doubts about Nigerians finding his book inspiring due to misconceptions about his leadership.
Specifically, he cited the June 12 crisis and policies implemented during his tenure from 1985 to 1993.
In an interview he granted eight years ago, he mentioned that people might not read his autobiography because of his perceived dictatorial past.
He said, “People may not read it (the autobiography) because it is coming from a dictator. A lot will say dictator, he cancelled June 12 and that will kill the book.
“If God spares my life, I will discuss about June 12 election because I still believe people don’t get what we were trying to put across. Nobody has ever sat down to say the two persons involved are friends, what went wrong? We tried to rationalise why we had to do what we did but nobody is prepared to listen to us.
“I have never seen anybody write anything on this to try to give people a different version altogether.”
With that, many Nigerians believe or hope that perhaps this time, the former military president will lay bare the truth about all that transpired and culminated in the annulment of the world acclaimed most peaceful and credible election ever conducted in the country.
