Nigeria: Babangida's Regime

5 October 2006
opinion

HE re-shaped and re-ordered our political landscape from a multi-party system into a two-party system. The parties were the Social Democratic Party and National Republic Convention. For the first time in the history of our politics, no ethnic group, section or region could lay claim to any of the political structures. It is imperative to mention that for the first time also in the history of this country and in Africa, an election was considered by political analysts to be free and fair. For the first time, Nigerians voted conscientiously irrespective of religion, but the election was annulled.

It is a hard nut to crack but as a long distance for students of those in the corridors of power, let me try to explain. Firstly, the reason it took the General such a long time to respond to the annulment is that as a leader, one has to be concerned about the problem of semantics. Each word has a denotative meaning...its explicit and recognized sense and connotative meaning...its suggestive sense. And so, he does not want to be taken out of context. When one is a leader of the national house, he asserts himself based on national interest. But as a citizen of the national house, one asserts himself/herself based on the individualistic interest. The annulment was an implicit but often explicit belief that one section of the country was denied to rule but today, we know it is not true.

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