L
LequteMan
Guest
The Chief of Army Staff during the Sani Abacha Regime, Lt.- Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi has revealed that ex President Olusegun Obasanjo promised to handover power to Ibrahim Babangida after his tenure in 2003.
In his new book ‘Vindication of a General’, he said that former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd.), who was in charge at the time, ex-Minister of Defence, Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (retd.); and a former National Security Adviser, Gen. Aliyu Gusau, drew up the plan that brought Obasanjo back to power as a civilian president in 1999.
“Unknown to me, Gen. (Abdulsalami) Abubakar had already committed himself to Generals Babangida, T.Y.Danjuma and Aliyu Gusau on General Obasanjo’s coming in to take over from him. A proposal I totally objected to, which I told Generals Abubakar, TY Danjuma and Aliyu Gusau in very clear terms. My stand did not go (down) well with the generals and General Abubakar started feeling unsafe.
“He (Abdulsalami) was supported by some northern generals, who believed one of them would take over from Obasanjo after one term of four years. It was alleged that Obasanjo had promised Gen. Babangida that he would succeed him.”
“This was not done because they liked Obasanjo, but because of the ambition of General Babangida to return as president after Obasanjo’s tenure.
“I believe that they saw Obasanjo as a political novice they would manipulate. They never thought they would meet a different Obasanjo from the one they had known in 1979.”
In his new book ‘Vindication of a General’, he said that former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd.), who was in charge at the time, ex-Minister of Defence, Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (retd.); and a former National Security Adviser, Gen. Aliyu Gusau, drew up the plan that brought Obasanjo back to power as a civilian president in 1999.
“Unknown to me, Gen. (Abdulsalami) Abubakar had already committed himself to Generals Babangida, T.Y.Danjuma and Aliyu Gusau on General Obasanjo’s coming in to take over from him. A proposal I totally objected to, which I told Generals Abubakar, TY Danjuma and Aliyu Gusau in very clear terms. My stand did not go (down) well with the generals and General Abubakar started feeling unsafe.
“He (Abdulsalami) was supported by some northern generals, who believed one of them would take over from Obasanjo after one term of four years. It was alleged that Obasanjo had promised Gen. Babangida that he would succeed him.”
“This was not done because they liked Obasanjo, but because of the ambition of General Babangida to return as president after Obasanjo’s tenure.
“I believe that they saw Obasanjo as a political novice they would manipulate. They never thought they would meet a different Obasanjo from the one they had known in 1979.”
