Democracy has come to stay – Babangida disowns post endorsing military rule

Former Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida, has reiterated his commitment to democratic rule, saying “military intervention in Nigeria’s politics is long gone”.

Reacting in a statement to a post on X, where he purportedly endorsed the virtues of military rule over democratic governance, the former head of state urged Nigerians to see the country beyond its challenges and embrace democratic rule.

The statement from his media office signed by Mahmud Abdullahi, reads: “Our attention has been drawn to a post on a parody account on X, formerly known as Twitter, which carries the handle, @General_Ibbro, in which former President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, GCFR, was supposed to have endorsed the virtues of military rule over democratic governance.

“This dubious account carries our principal’s picture and name and the coat of arms of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for added effect but it does not belong to him nor does the former President sanction any post appearing there.

“In the past and more famously during the presidential elections last year, it posted a blatant falsehood that the former President had endorsed a particular presidential candidate and his party, thereby causing public confusion and some embarrassment to the Elder Statesman.

“We have just learnt that it has posted a similarly fake statement where the former President was supposed to have said that Nigeria has the best years under military, democracy made things worst.

“We want to state unequivocally that neither the Twitter or X account which is essentially a parody or pretend account, nor the statement made therein ever belonged to the retired General.

“For the avoidance of doubt, General Babangida (rtd) believes that Nigeria’s democracy is resilient and has come to stay and that we must do everything we can to safeguard the process.

“As a nation, we are currently facing a number of challenges but the former president has always expressed the view that we will eventually overcome these challenges and come out a stronger, more progressive nation. The solution to our problems, as he had said previously, is ‘more’ democracy, not less.

“General Babangida truly believes that the era of military intervention in Nigeria’s politics is long gone and he has said how proud he is that the Nigerian military has stood firmly behind multiple democratic governments in this country since 1999, thus giving us the longest run of civilian administration since independence.

“The user of this unfortunate parody account, which we gather was traditionally supposed to be an account that imitates or at least mirrors the sentiments of the original Twitter or X account that it copies, has serially chosen to use the account to undermine democracy and spread stories capable of causing animosity.

“Sadly, there seems very little we can do to make the overseers of X or Twitter remove or sanction this tiresome account, so we are again obliged to advise the general public to ignore any post from this account that purportedly claims to represent my opinion.”

The statement advised media practitioners and social media users to be more discerning in future and make the necessary efforts to get confirmation before sharing messages attributed to former president Babangida on X or any social media platform.