Former Military President Ibrahim Babangida (IBB) is set to launch his long-awaited autobiography.
The memoir titled: ‘A Journey In Service’, will be released on February 20, 2025, at the event billed for the Congress Hall of Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja, reports Daily Trust.
The development is coming 32 years after IBB left office.
The regime of the former Head of State was dogged by the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) policy which sparked a nationwide riot among other economic regulations.
There was also the unresolved murder of late veteran journalist, Dele Giwa and the June 12 annulment among other controversial issues.
While in office, he was popular with the Monika “evil genius” and “Maradona”.
Explaining the nicknames, IBB said they were manufactured by the media because of his “deft political moves”.
“That’s the very good thing about the Nigerian media and Nigerian people, you have to anticipate them.
“If you anticipate them then you live well with them. They call me ‘evil genius’, I marvel at that. The contradiction, you can’t be evil and then a genius”
“The definition of Maradona I got from the media is because of deft political moves. That’s the way the media described it”, he had said.
He succumbed to pressure in August 1993 when he “stepped aside” for the late Ernest Shonekan as the chairman of the Interim Government.
Late General Sanni Abacha would, however, topple the government before he died in office in 1998.
Although IBB granted interviews to local and international media since leaving office, he has somehow found a way around some of these contentious issues that happened during his rule.
About seven years ago, he had expressed doubts about writing an autobiography, saying he was uncertain if Nigerians would “want to read about a dictator”.
He added that the public had a wrong impression of him, citing his role in the June 12 crisis, and some of the policies he unfurled between 1985 to 1993 as head of a junta.
