By Felix Offou and
Rafiu Ajakaye (Lagos)

The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) said his declaration for the Presidency evokes memories of how he used state power to repress dissenters.

It pledged not to sit and watch “Maradona” return to Aso Rock.

Yet Babangida found an ally in former Cross River State Governor, Clement Ebri.

He described him as “an intellectually endowed leader, a good listener, a team player, a humane personality” capable of evolving a greater Nigeria”.

It did not wash with CDHR leader, Shina Loremikan, who warned in a telephone interview that his comeback would be a setback to the society. He claimed that Babangida’s era witnessed the use of state power to murder people. “We remember how Dele Giwa and some others were killed.

The declaration, according to him, is an unwelcome development, pointing out that Major General Bansa was gruesomely murdered during his regime. “All the youths killed during an anti-June 12 rally would have been contributing to the development of the country.

“And if not for Babangida, Sanni Abacha would have retired into agriculture. But Babangida invited him and brought him to power. And see what Abacha did to Nigerians. The problems we are facing today are the fallouts of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) which was his policy”.

Pressing home his own point, nonetheless, Ebri said Babangida, like any Nigerian, has the right to contest any position and that his desire for the plumb post is no insult to Nigerians, as argued by Afenifere and Lagos lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi.

He expressed disappointment at Gani, whose “anti-Babangida statement was made out of personal hatred”, not from a legal view point.

His words: “Like every other Nigerian, Babangida has the constitutional right to vie for any other office in the land. My interpretation of his statement on 2007 Presidential election is that he is willing to throw his hat in the ring if eventually the contest is flagged off.

“How does this constitute an insult on Nigerians? The power to stop Babangida resides in the hands of the electorate and it is only they, through a free and fair election, who can determine whether or not his electoral quest is an insult.

“Gani and others who feel otherwise are free to oppose his candidature, but I know they can’t stop him because most Nigerians believe he can deliver them from their current bondage.

“Indeed, Gani’s NCP (National Conscience Party) is free to field a candidate to contest against Babangida rather than attempt to browbeat him into relegating his rights as a Nigerian citizen.

“With due respect, I would have expected that a lawyer and patriot of Gani’s standing would never allow sentiment to becloud constitutionality and due process in matters of this nature”.

Ebri insisted that Babangida’s preoccupations are to “to put Nigerians, particularly the obliterated middle class, back to work; guarantee food on the table and make this fast depreciating country run firmly on its feet again.

“Even in the fight against graft, Babangida will make it a collective battle, involving all Nigerians rather than a select few. For Babangida, fighting corruption should be a way of life rather than ‘spasms of condemnation’”.

Babangida said last Wednesday that he hopes to succeed President Olusegun Obasanjo, a few months after he had told journalists that he had no strength to do so.

The declaration has triggered different reactions, most dismissing him as lacking the moral right to rule Nigeria once more, his regime having quashed Hope 93 and allegedly killed government’s opponents.