A former Nigerian military President, Ibrahim Babangida, says he is convinced that there would not be any interference from the military again which may truncate the progress of democracy in the country.
Nigeria witnessed a lot of military incursions in its politics after independence, with men in uniform ruling the country more years than civilians until 1999. Babangida was one of the military men that led the country during that period, ruling for eight years from 1985 to 1993.
Speaking in an interview on Channels Television’s Inside Sources, the former military leader stated that military interference robbed Nigeria off true federalism, adding that the era of military dabbling into politics has come to an end because Nigerians have become more interested in becoming a truly democratic nation.
“I think that is (failure to achieve true federalism) one of the effects of the aberration that the military regime, it countered the democratic process.
“Such things happen, but I believe it will not happen again because Nigerians are becoming more interested in becoming a truly democratic nation in Africa and such thing, I don’t think it will happen,” Babangida said.
He, however, said that as a military leader, he freed the economy by allowing the private sector to be the hub of economy of the country.
Lending his voice on devolution of power, the former leader said that the time has come for Nigeria to give more powers to the states.
“I believe in restructuring, devolution of powers to the states to give the more powers and that means you are going to give them more resources to run their own affairs so that we run a federal government the way federation is run all over the world,” he said.
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