I was Editor of the Vanguard Newspapers in 1985 when General Ibrahim Babangida, popularly known as IBB, became the nation’s Head of State. The goodwill that attended his succession was indescribable, in part because of the harsh rule of his predecessor, but in the main because of his own persona. At the time, I often met people from all works of life interceding for him. Whether they were people I met in my professional or my social engagements, the refrain was the same. The Press should please give their man a chance. He had friends in likely and unlikely places. Even my boss, Uncle Sam, reminded me at the time that IBB was his friend – something he hardly ever did, so as not to taint the judgement of his Editors. IBB was seen as affable, charming, confident and yes, very cerebral. I remember a lecture he gave when he was the Chief of Army Staff where he x-rayed the nations socio/economic problems. It was so spot on and so well delivered, that people looked at him, and by extension, the administration he represented, in a different light. It was with hindsight, the policy statement of a Crown Prince who knew where his destiny lay. I confess to being charmed when I had the privilege of a private audience with him in his Dodan Barracks office within months of his ‘Presidency’. At the end of our odd one-hour meeting, I raised the issue of his tremendous goodwill among the elite. He flashed his toothy smile and said ‘Oh, I have been around a long time’.

Yes, he has been around a long time and from the caliber of the people who attended his book launch, he is not going away anytime soon except by the way of all mortals. A retired Colonel who served under him in the military sent a footage of the launch to me and my comment was ‘it shows his relevance’. Many people don’t want to agree with that statement from the comments I read in the media but it is the truth. Very few people out of power, anywhere in the world, could have that level of high powered individuals for a mere book launch. But it was more than a book launch. It was a statement from a man who understands the levers of power in Nigeria and has controlled those levers in a manner nobody else has done. For good or ill, he has had a say in who rules Nigeria in the past forty-five years at least. That almost everybody who desires a political or even military elevation goes to him for a tacit endorsement says a lot about a man who is virtually holed up in his Minna home. IBB is physically challenged and doesn’t have the restless energy of General Obasanjo. But what he lacks in mobility he makes up in intellectual acuity. With the attendance at that book launch, he reminded the doubting Thomases of who is in charge of Nigeria. Such was the caliber of attendance that the question in future might be ‘Where were you when IBB launched his autobiography’. And with the amount he raised so effortlessly in just a couple of hours, he made his drawing power known. What the attendance and the amount raised signified however, was reverence, not for a frail, old man, but for the Capone of the Nigerian mafia. IBB is an enigma. My theory is that he has remained so relevant for this long because he understands the Nigerian people well, not just the elite, but also the populace. He is at home with the deceit, the intrigues, the greed that run through the veins of an average Nigerian. He has probably anticipated the backlash he is currently receiving. He knows some of them are genuine and deserved. He knows many of them are self-serving and hypocritical. He has been around too long in the Nigerian socio/political fibre not to understand the many hues that make up the country.

I am not going to talk about the book itself here because it is not a definitive book on June 12 for me. There seems to be too many gaps, too many lapses in memory in the book from a man who was not only privy to intelligence reports, but was also an active participant. However, many of us, like him, have also been around for a while. We were witnesses to June 12 with the deadly game that started before and continued long after. How it disrupted careers and homes and turned responsible people into fugitives. We had a ringside view of OIC and the religious distrust that followed it which we are still to live down. We remembered the time the worth of our naira fell in dollar terms due to a currency devaluation which almost wiped off the middle class. We knew about experiments in corn bread and corn beer and the U turn that choked the windpipes of breweries and bakeries. In Dele Giwa, some of us suffered the painful loss of a colleague who was also a friend. Yes, that book launch brought many things back. It was a chance to look at the mirror to see the events that shaped the present and the scars that won’t go away. It was also a rare chance to see all the principal actors in one hall.

And they came, the movers and shakers of Nigeria, including his former bosses, to pay homage to Nigeria’s number one Kingmaker. In that hall, on that day, were people who shaped the past of Nigeria, are shaping the present of Nigeria and will shape the future of Nigeria. Present in the hall were the heroes and villains of Nigeria. A mischievous thought occurred to me, as it sometimes does unfortunately, when I see top personalities of a country assemble under one roof. What would happen if a bomb descended on the hall and somehow wiped off everybody in the building? Would Nigeria in this case, be better off, or would it descend into chaos and break into splinters? Your guess is as good as mine. But before you give an emotive answer, you should realise that inside the building were people who fought to hold the country together, inside the building were those who are still holding the country together – assuming the country is still worth being held together, inside the building were those supporting the economy of the country. At the same time, inside the hall were those who have bled the country and stifled its growth. No doubt that some of the country’s achievers were in the building just as some of the dregs of our society. No doubt that some patriots were there just as the country’s worst traitors were in attendance. In other words, that hall, on that day, contained the good, the bad and the ugly. All that the country has become and all that the country is likely to become were there assembled. Again, would you still want them all wiped off? Your answer would be a reflection of how you see Nigeria: its present, it potential and its future. It would also be a perception of your stake in the Nigerian commonwealth.

•Muyiwa Adetiba is a veteran journalist and publisher. He can be reached via titbits2012@yahoo.com