Living in the shadow of the IBB years

I recently came across a statement by the highly respected former Inspector General of Police, M.D. Yusuf about General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, popularly known as IBB. ‘I think Babangida was even worse than Abacha’ he said. ‘Babangida went all out to corrupt society. Abacha was intimidating people with fear. With him gone now, you can recover. But this corruption remains, and it is very corrosive to society’.

It is difficult to begin to measure the extent of this corrosion that Yusuf talks about but the evidences are all around us that IBB deeply impacted Nigeria in a way that she is yet to recover from. Sometimes I think it was diabolic (and perhaps that is why he was called the evil genius) that one man could so transform the way of life of a whole people.

Here is how my wife put it in an article she wrote two years ago; ‘The seeds of this lawlessness were heavily sown during the 1985 - 1993 administration. Nigerians were sold the ideology that money was everything. Money and material wealth became the peoples’ god even to the grassroots level. Material wealth quickly became the obsession and mammon the god to be served. The inevitable consequence was the destruction of the moral fabric of Nigeria with the mentality that money was all that mattered and must be obtained by any possible means legitimate or illegitimate. This became a passion with flames that burnt like wild fire. And many Nigerian minds caught quickly this evil fire which became a national plague. Many bought this ideology with free gifts - big and small, favours for allegiance, even up to vessels of oil as presents to sell for personal gains. Nigeria was bestowed a legacy, that of corruption, greed and lawlessness and many have been doped and hooked on it till today. This is Nigeria’s malady and greatest challenge.’

Of course before IBB there was bribery and corruption. It was there but it was frowned upon. What IBB did was to institutionalise it and give us what Patrick Johnstone, author of Operation World calls ‘the culture of greed and corruption’. Before IBB people had to hid to take bribes. But following IBB it became normal for everyone to demand that you ‘settle’ them.

IBB taught us the culture of ‘settlement’. And Nigerians after going through nine years of his leadership imbibed the belief that ‘settlement’ is normal. I recall my astonishment one day in a bus when the passengers instead of challenging the policeman who was demanding to be ‘settled’, were mad with the driver for not quickly ‘settling’ him. For us it has become a way of life.

I stand to be corrected but I cannot help seeing the emergence of the nuisance of the area boys and their blatant way of demanding to be settled as having its root in this culture. There has always been touts but the IBB regime created area boys that no longer operated in the dark but feel that they have the right to be settled.

IBB taught every Nigeria that they had the right to demand to be settled as he went about settling everybody. Bribery and corruption was no longer something to be ashamed of.

Even the religious life of the nation has not been spared from this corrosion. The international community marvels at how a nation so religious can be so corrupt. But the truth is that much of the religion of Nigeria has been corrupted by this same disease. If you recall in the seventies and very early eighties, those that were called ‘church people’ or ‘SUs’ used to stand out because no matter what you had against them, you couldn’t deny that they were straight. Now everybody claims to be ‘born-again’ yet the society is not seeing much rebirth. Their major pursuit is how to use religion to better their lot. I saw a Christian poster recently proclaiming ‘Settle me, O God!’ Even the so-called Christians have imbibed the mentality that they ought to be settled. Materialism is the undoing of the Church today. What we have is people seeking to use God instead of seeking to be used of God. ‘Beware of covetousness’ Jesus warned, ‘for the life of a man does not constitute in the abundance of the things that he possesses’ Covetousness is not only a cancer to spiritual pursuit, it is also idolatry. ‘You can’t serve God and Mammon’.

Given, Nigerians have a hunger for the things of God but covetousness is poisoning whatever spiritual life there is. Yet I believe the gospel of Jesus can transform a nation and bring true development. History tells us that in the 18th century, it was the effect of the transformation wrought by preachers like John Wesley and William Booth that spared Britain from something similar to the French revolution of that time. And this brought the social reforms that facilitated the rapid development of that society. I thank God that there is still a remnant of truly born-again followers of Jesus even here in Nigeria. But the vast majority of Nigeria’s religious life is tarnished by this corrosion.

And to date the nation has not recovered from this mental corruption. I applaud the anti-corruption work of EFCC but the corrosion has eaten much deeper than we can imagine. Obviously this mentality must change before people can change their actions because the love of money is the root of all evil. This is the root of the Nigerian problem. It would take exemplary leadership with transparent and impeachable integrity to lead the way in undoing the ills of the IBB years. Something close to what Lee Kuan Yew did for Singapore. Only a man without any skeleton in his own cupboard can afford to confront the sacred cows and in so doing show everybody that we must change. Only a leader not seeking personal gain can truly deal with this social disease that is crippling our development. I am praying for such a leader. I have high hopes for this great country. God has vested interest in Nigeria. He would not let her die.