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IBB Set to Launch Long-awaited Memoir, ‘A Journey in Service’
Former Military President, Gen Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB), is set to launch his long-awaited autobiography.
Reports said the memoir titled: ‘A Journey In Service’, will be released on February 20, 2025, at the Congress Hall of Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja.
The development is coming 32 years after IBB left office.
The regime of the former Head of State was negatively shaped and defined by the adoption of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) policy, among other regulations, which sparked a nationwide riot by student union and other similar groups.
There was also the unresolved murder of the late journalist, Dele Giwa, and the June 12 annulment, among other controversial issues.
While in office, IBB was popular with the moniker “evil genius” and “Maradona”.
Explaining the nicknames, IBB said they were manufactured by the media because of his “deft political moves”.
“That’s the very good thing about the Nigerian media and Nigerian people. You have to anticipate them.
“If you anticipate them, then you live well with them. They call me ‘evil genius’, I marvel at that. The contradiction, you can’t be evil and then be a genius.”
“The definition of Maradona I got from the media is because of deft political moves. That’s the way the media described it”, he had said.
He succumbed to pressure in August 1993 when he “stepped aside” for the late Ernest Shonekan as the chairman of the Interim Government.
The late General Sanni Abacha would, however, topple the government in 1993 and would subsequently die in office in 1998.
Although IBB granted interviews to local and international media since leaving office, he has somehow found a way around some of these contentious issues that happened during his rule.
About seven years ago, he had expressed doubts about writing an autobiography, saying he was uncertain if Nigerians would “want to read about a dictator”.
He added that the public had a wrong impression of him, citing his role in the June 12 crisis, and some of the policies he unfurled between 1985 and 1993 as head of a junta.
However, he made a U-Turn and wrote the book.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will lead former Nigerian leaders and their counterparts in other parts of Africa to grace the much awaited autobiography.
According to an invite dispatched to dignitaries this week, the board of trustees of the IBB Presidential Library Foundation said the book launch will take place alongside fundraising for a Presidential Library.
The organisers said the event would be chaired by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, with President Bola Tinubu as the Special Guest of Honour.
The keynote address would be delivered by the former president of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, while former vice-president Yemi Osinbajo would review the autobiography.
Other guests billed to attend include ex-presidents Muhammadu Buhari, Yakubu Gowon, Abdulsalami Abubakar, and Goodluck Jonathan.
A former Minister of Defence Gen. Theophilus Danjuma and Chairman of BUA Group; Abdul Samad Rabiu, are named chief launchers.
President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he has told US negotiators “not to rush into a deal” with Iran, amid anticipation — and mounting criticism — of an agreement to end the war in the Middle East.
“The negotiations are proceeding in an orderly and constructive manner, and I have informed my representatives not to rush into a deal in that time is on our side,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.
“The Blockade will remain in full force and effect until an agreement is reached, certified, and signed.”
The United States has imposed a blockade of Iranian ports since April 13 after Tehran virtually halted traffic through the economically vital Strait of Hormuz in response to the US-Israeli attacks on Iran that began February 28.
“Both sides must take their time and get it right,” Trump wrote in the same Truth Social post, while slamming the 2015 nuclear deal that former president Barack Obama agreed with Iran.
“Our relationship with Iran is becoming a much more professional and productive one. They must understand, however, that they cannot develop or procure a Nuclear Weapon or Bomb,” Trump wrote.
While the White House has not released aspects of the deal, Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Saturday on state television that the two sides were nearing a “a memorandum of understanding, a kind of framework agreement composed of 14 clauses,” in “a trend toward rapprochement.”
Several voices, notably among Republican lawmakers close to Trump, expressed fears of an agreement favorable to Iran as supposed aspects of the deal that began to leak.
According to news outlet Axios, a possible agreement would extend the current ceasefire by 60 days, during which the Strait of Hormuz would be reopened, Iran would freely sell oil, and negotiations would be held on Iran’s nuclear program.
The top Republican senator overseeing defense policy, Roger Wicker, said that agreeing to a “rumored 60-day ceasefire” with Iran would mean, “everything accomplished by Operation Epic Fury would be for naught!”
Fellow Republican senators Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham also voiced opposition to Iran soon gaining benefits such as the ability to sell its oil freely.
“If the result of all that is to be an Iranian regime — still run by Islamists who chant ‘death to America’ — now receiving billions of dollars, being able to enrich uranium & develop nuclear weapons, and having effective control over the Strait of Hormuz, then that outcome would be a disastrous mistake,” Cruz, a Republican from Texas, wrote on X.
Thom Tillis, a Republican senator from North Carolina, said the deal “doesn’t make sense to me.”
“We were told about 11 weeks ago by (Secretary of Defense Pete) Hegseth and the Department of Defense that they had obliterated Iran’s defenses, and it was just a matter of time before we had the nuclear material. Now we’re talking about a posture where we may accept the nuclear material remaining in Iran. How does that make sense at all?” Tillis said on CNN’s “State of the Union” morning program.
AFP
Adebayo Adelabu, one of the aspirants for the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket in Oyo State, has alleged irregularities in the party’s governorship primary election held on Thursday.
Adelabu, who expressed dissatisfaction over the conduct of the exercise, stated that the primary was characterized by misconduct ranging from disenfranchisement of his supporters in some wards and the commencement of election process earlier than scheduled.
Speaking after the conclusion of the primary election at IMG School, Ward 9, Ibadan South-East Local Government Area, the immediate past Minister of Power alleged that the process was neither free, fair nor credible.
He said: “Before our people started getting to their various wards, they have already conducted the election and they wrote the figures they want as results.
“In some wards, our people were prevented from voting. They were intimidated. They were chased away violently. And in some wards, voting did not take place at all.
“All this kind of misconduct is not good at this stage of our democracy in Nigeria, and something has to be done about it.”
Adelabu, therefore, vowed to come up with serious petitions against all the irregularities not just in Ibadan, but across all the five geopolitical zones in Oyo State.
“Also, conduct of many party executives is uncalled for, a lot of people bought forms and they were cleared. And they decided to conduct affirmation of a particular candidate in some wards.
“There was nothing like consensus arrangement. It was just a figment of their weird imagination. The instruction we got from Abuja was that we should all carry out free, fair, and transparent direct primary election where every aspirant will be given a level playing ground and the election will be conducted peacefully.
“Where did they get the idea of consensus candidates? And this is what happened in a lot of the wards. And it didn’t go down well with us. “We don’t want that. We are going to assess the gravity of this gross misconduct and the potential impact on the overall result of this election.
“I will put a petition forward to the appropriate authorities so that it can be deeply investigated and there must be consequences to this. The people who perpetrated this misconduct must be identified and punished. And the aspirants involved also need to be suspended because this is not good for us.
“Democracy is the government of the people by the people and for the people where nobody should be disenfranchised. Once you are a party member, you should have that freedom, that authority to pick an aspirant of your choice as the flag bearer of the party.
“This is Ibadan, this is Oyo State and this the centre of politics in the southwest. And we should be able to lay good examples and the process should produce a candidate that won transparently, freely and fairly,” he said.
Meanwhile, at Ward 9, Ibadan South-East Local Government, Adelabu, polled 430 to defeat his closest rival, Senator Sharafadeen Alli, who had 3 votes.
Al Nassr captain, Cristiano Ronaldo, has finally won the Saudi Pro League title.
They were confirmed champions on Thursday, thanks to a 4-2 drubbing of relegation battlers, Damac.
The title race had gone down to the final day after Al-Nassr dramatically dropped points against Al-Hilal the previous week.
Jorge Jesus’ side knew there could be no mistakes against a Damac side fighting for survival at the other end of the table.
Ronaldo was on the scoresheet, as his brace helped Al Nassr secure the title ahead of rivals Al Hilal.
