There are moments in history when a man’s presence at a table speaks louder than a thousand words. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s appearance, laughter, and camaraderie at the book launch of General Ibrahim Gbadamosi Babangida (IBB) was not just a political miscalculation; it was a dagger in the heart of history, a betrayal of struggle, and an insult to the collective memory of a nation that has suffered under the weight of military tyranny.
For those of us who marched in the streets, who endured exile, imprisonment, and personal sacrifices to break the chains of dictatorship, the scene of Tinubu—himself once a victim of military persecution—grinning in the presence of the architect of June 12’s annulment was an infuriating display of hypocrisy. Here stood the same Tinubu, who had once been forced into exile by Abacha’s junta, now toasting with a man whose actions led to the assassination of democracy’s symbol, Chief MKO Abiola. How did we get here? What justification can be given for this betrayal of the struggle that catapulted Tinubu into the corridors of power?
Martin Luther King Jr. once warned us never to dine at the table of our oppressors, never to make peace with the architects of our suffering. Yet, here was Tinubu, not just eating, but feasting at the altar of betrayal. The same Babangida who annulled June 12, the same Babangida who plunged Nigeria into one of its darkest chapters, the same Babangida who, through his reckless ambition, engineered a cycle of instability that still haunts the nation to this day.
What were his advisers thinking? Did no one whisper in his ear the weight of this decision? Did no one caution him against the optics, against the insult this would represent to the countless activists, student leaders, journalists, and patriots who lost their lives fighting against military oppression? This was not just a gaffe—it was a deep moral and political failure. It was a desecration of the very ideals upon which Tinubu built his political ascendancy.
If Nigeria is to heal, if the wounds inflicted by military juntas are to be reconciled with truth and justice, then the last thing a sitting president should do is engage in this kind of revisionist theater. Babangida does not deserve a book launch; he deserves a legal reckoning. He deserves to stand before the Nigerian people and answer, not through self-aggrandizing memoirs, but through the court of law. He must account for the deaths, the disappearances, the betrayals.
Tinubu should have used this moment not to share laughter but to set up a national panel to investigate the atrocities of past military regimes. A truth and justice commission that holds Babangida, Abacha’s remnants, Obasanjo, Gowon, and all others accountable for their crimes against the Nigerian people. The absence of such a reckoning is why history continues to repeat itself, why the ghosts of military rule still dictate the course of democracy in Nigeria.
This is a moment of national disgrace, one that reveals the dangerous amnesia afflicting our political class. It is a slap in the face of those of us who gave everything—our youth, our careers, our safety—to resist military oppression. To see Tinubu, who once embodied that resistance, now engage in such a grotesque display of historical blindness is nothing short of tragic.
The Nigerian people deserve an apology. Not a political one, not a crafted statement, but a genuine, unfiltered acknowledgment of this grave misstep. Tinubu owes it to history, to posterity, to the spirits of those who fought and died for democracy. He must understand that power is transient, but history is permanent. He must remember that there are names etched in the annals of time—not just for what they built, but for what they destroyed.
If Tinubu fails to correct this course, if he continues to dine with those who orchestrated Nigeria’s darkest days, then he risks becoming indistinguishable from them. He risks turning into the very thing he once opposed. And history will not be kind to him.
By : Jide Adesina
1stafrika.com
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February, 2025
