Babangida discloses why military will never interfere in Nigerian politics again

A former Nigerian military President, Ibrahim Babangida, popularly referred to as IBB, has expressed unwavering conviction that the days of military interference in the Nigerian democratic journey have come to a permanent end.

The erstwhile leader, popularly called Maradona during his reign, declared this during an interview on Channels Television’s Inside Sources.

Though he lamented that repeated military interregnum has robbed the country of true federalism, Babaginda stressed that the era of khaki men dabbling into politics has come to an end because Nigerians have fully embraced the idea of a democratic nation.

Since gaining independence in 1960, the West African nation has witnessed several military incursions in its politics, leading to the termination of three republics. Babangida, one of the military men who led the country, ruled for eight years from 1985 to 1993.

However, since 1999 till the present day, Nigeria has enjoyed uninterrupted democracy.

“I think that is (failure to achieve true federalism) one of the effects of the aberration that the military regime, it countered the democratic process.

“Such things happen, but I believe it will not happen again because Nigerians are becoming more interested in becoming a truly democratic nation in Africa and such thing, I don’t think it will happen,” Babangida said during the interview.

The former military ruler, however, said he liberalised the economy during his time by allowing the private sector to be the hub of the country's economy.

He also added his voice to the ongoing argument on whether Nigeria needs devolution of powers and the growing call for restructuring. The retired general aligned himself with the proponents of the change, saying that the time had come for Nigeria to give more powers to the states.

“I believe in restructuring, devolution of powers to the states to give the more powers and that means you are going to give them more resources to run their own affairs so that we run a federal government the way federation is run all over the world,” he said.