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Hold on Babangida, thank you IBB – Part 3

By Innocent Oparadike
20 July 2016   |   3:01 am
He asked, the then Military Governor of Kaduna State, Col. Abubakar Umar to look into the allegations. The governor dutifully invited me and after hearing me out went to Dodan Barracks to report back.
Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida

Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida

Continued from yesterday

He asked, the then Military Governor of Kaduna State, Col. Abubakar Umar to look into the allegations. The governor dutifully invited me and after hearing me out went to Dodan Barracks to report back.

What was my defence? I owned up to visiting Ukiwe. And I asked the general what kind of friend he would consider me if as soldiers are wont to do, he is removed and out of fear for my job, I refuse to visit him to cheer him up. I am told he understood that impulse to stand by a friend or mentor in distress. On another occasion, the Marafan Sokoto, Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi accused Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki then General Secretary of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs of running a one man show and issuing self-serving orders in the name of an ailing Sultan.

The New Nigerian ran the story, the subject of a press conference and the Editor earned the wrath of the man who later became Sultan in controversial circumstances, Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki. He asked General Babangida to remove me because I was putting a wedge between Northerners. The General reportedly told him to do some soul searching because an outsider can only put a wedge, where there is a crack.

After the Kafanchan riots and the crisis it generated, when for one month I couldn’t sleep in my quarters and had to send my family down south, because the then Police Commissioner considered me an infidel who didn’t deserve police protection, General Babangida through his Press Secretary, Duro Onabule facilitated a holiday abroad.

Unfortunately, it seemed I paid him back with ingratitude when the paper I edited accused the wife of going on Hajj with an entourage of 100. That was one set-up I couldn’t “cleverly side-step” to quote the publisher of the defunct Hotline, Alhaji Hassan Kontagora, who said that when I cleverly sidestepped all previous traps, including people offering me financial assistance with the plain clothes police ready to pounce, they hit on a plan that was foolproof.

The Hajj story was covered by our Kano Editor, who always covered Hajj. So one is bound to believe the story. Two, not being a Moslem, it would not occur to me to query why the First Lady was travelling with such a large entourage and without her husband. Three, they were in luck. I was attending a book launch in Lagos. I left Kaduna with first flight meaning to return with the last. In effect, I did not edit the paper that day. I was picked up at 10.30p.m. at the Kaduna airport, kept overnight in Kaduna secret police office and returned to Lagos and detention under Decree 2, the next day.

When shown the offending news and denial by Dodan Barracks, I smuggled out an apology which I signed as Editor. Unfortunately, the man in charge of our Lagos office into whose hands, the apology was entrusted sat on it and instead published an annoying, “we stand by our story, Editor”. I am told that when the First Lady saw the piece, she cried out and said what did I do to this young man. That heartfelt cry still haunts me, especially as I had no opportunity to explain to her what transpired before she transited.

Part of that conspiracy was to keep me in detention for a specific period, after which, according to the New Nigerian Editorial Policy, another Editor will be appointed. They underrated my wife, Lady Esther Oparadike. She flew to Lagos, went to The Guardian and saw Nduka Irabor, who interviewed her for his hot-selling paper Guardian Express, “Editor Missing”, was the screaming headline that got the world media, principally the BBC, to ask questions that embarrassed and woke up the Federal Government.

Admiral Aikhomu denied signing the order. It seems somebody cloned his signature or used a proforma copy. From 15 Awolowo Road, I was taken to House Arrest in Victoria Island to buy time. There again, my wife got the media to know that contrary to the information that I had been released, I was yet to return home.

I was finally released, went back to work, on borrowed time, offered my resignation to Admiral Aikhomu, was turned down. A month later, I was redeployed to the Federal Ministry of Information which had no room for me. I was then given a choice, of government parastatals, I settled for MAMSER.

GRATITUDE is a dish better served cold, all of 31 years. Get well Sir. I have been dreaming of how I would storm your hilltop mansion in Minna, with dance troupes, traditional rulers from my area and friends for you frankly did something that pleasantly surprised me and amazed many. You wanted to build a bridge, by first appointing Commodore Ukiwe as your deputy and with his support, giving me one in a lifetime chance to help you unite our people.

I wish that courageous experiment had succeeded. The odds were great.

Preconceptions and misconceptions were too hard to clear. Let me now publicly say thank you Generals Babangida, Wushishi, Gusau and Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe. Thank you Prof. George Obiozor, for coming to take me out on bail one of the occasions I was a guest of the NSO at 15 Awolowo Road, Ikoyi. Posthumous thanks to Ochiagba Dikenafi, Chief Collins Obih, who alerted Prof. Obiozor
to my plight.

Thanks to all the beautiful souls that were my colleagues in the New Nigerian, especially my erstwhile Deputy, Mallam Adamu Adamu, Hon. Minister of Education. And without mincing words, thank you to my amazing wife and mother of my wonderful children.

Concluded.

Oparadike is former Editor of New Nigerian Newspaper

4 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    Inno,your professionalism remains incontrovertible, however you should have taken the advice of MKO and remained in lagos.Most of your contemporaries from Concord are now with Sun newspapers,including double Chief,and I still could not understand how you managed to survive For even two days as editor/editor in Chief of NNN,when even Benue indigenes could not hold fort.I recollect Bilikisu Yusuf,the first northern female editor in chief,but my memory fails me here if she was with NNN or Triumph,Kano

  • Author’s gravatar

    why you dey thank people like say you wan travel…abi you collect money from dasuki?

  • Author’s gravatar

    I did start this story from episode one, however what was i able to grab within the 2& 3 episode? It remains undoubtedly clear that the North’s religious and ethical bigotry has been long entrenched in their dealings with other tribes in Nigeria. Rather than abating, it has added impetus.

  • Author’s gravatar

    Your anecdotal story does nothing to detract from the fact that Gbadamosi Babangida is the most useless SOB ever to rule this sorry country.