Nigeria: 2011 - in Defence of Babangida

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Of the five top seeds - to borrow a lawn tennis metaphor - in next year's presidential contest, namely, President Goodluck Jonathan (it's pretty obvious from the man's equivocations that he will contest), former military rulers, Generals Muhammadu Buhari and Ibrahim Babangida, the National Security Adviser, General Aliyu Mohammed, and former vice-president, Atiku Abubakar, none has drawn as much flak from the country's commentariat as Babangida.

His chief crime seems to be his annulment of the June12, 1993, presidential election whose putative winner was the business baron and newspaper publisher, Chief M.K.O. Abiola. His other alleged crimes include claims that he made corruption the guiding principle of his state policy and that his regime murdered Mr. Dele Giwa, the great columnist and a founding editor and publisher of Newswatch, who was killed in his Lagos residence in 1985 through the novelty of a parcel bomb. The list goes on and on.

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