I have no regret on my actions in government says IBB but wants politicians to unite against Boko Haram

Former Head of State, Gen Ibrahim Ba­bangida yesterday, stressed the need for Nigerians to unite in the fight against the Boko Haram sect ravaging some Northern parts of the country.

He cautioned that to win the war against the dreaded sect, the Boko Haram insurgency must be viewed as a Nigerian problem and not that of any part of the country or religious group.
Speaking on “Straight Talk” with Kadira on Channels Tele­vision, he said that just like they did during the civil war, Nigeri­ans must unite against the Boko Haram sect.
His words: “People must believe that this is affecting Ni­geria generally and not any part of the country or religion. The civil war which we remember, the whole country was mobil­ised against secession. There was a lot of unity among Nige­rian people.
“There was unity against secession and I think that we must accept that this problem is a Nigerian problem, and Nige­rians must find a solution to this problem. All hands must be on deck to fight the phenomenon. “Leadership is important here. What the leaders do and say matters a lot. Nigerians have to mobilise against Boko Haram and that would make them win the war”.
On the effectiveness of the Army in the fight against Boko Haram, he expressed surprise over the situation.
He said: “We should be ask­ing the question, is it the same Army that has performed ex­ceptionally well in Congo, Tanzania, United Nations op­erations and all other operations that we participated in”.
Gen Babangida also justified his actions in office including the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election.
“Leadership is all about tak­ing responsibility for everything either good or bad and so far, as far as I am concerned, I take full responsibility of all the actions I took as at that time.
“It is only a fact that history will one day come and appor­tion various blames to various actors in the whole saga. There are lots of people in this country who supported what we did at the time. We discussed exten­sively about the security situa­tion and we were worried about putting up a government that would not last long”.
He said the security prob­lem then was really dicey and the only people who could tell what could happen were those of them in government.
“By our profession, we knew that the nation was becoming more frustrated and once this type of frustration exist in a so­ciety, it provides a very fertile ground for a coup d’état. In the end, it turned out that we specu­lated rightly.
“It couldn’t have been a plan, but it was thought of. There was much talk on the media that the worst civilian government was better than the ‘contraption’ that was in place. Nigerians said those sorts of things and it gave confidence to whoever wanted to take over government,” he said.