Nigerians’ll Always Remember Your Services, Buhari Tells IBB At 79

Former military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (retd.) will turn 79 years old on Monday, August 17.

President Muhammadu Buhari, in a message to IBB, said Nigerians would always remember his services to the nation.

He sent felicitations to Babangida, saying that he joined “family, friends and associates to celebrate with the elder statesman.”

Presidential spokesman, Mr Femi Adesina, conveying the message on Sunday, wrote, “As the former military leader turns a new age, the President believes his services to the country will always be remembered.

“President Buhari prays that the Almighty God will continually strengthen Gen. Babangida, grant him good health and longer life.”

THE WHISTLER recalls that the story of Buhari and IBB is well-known to Nigerians and beyond.

The two served long years in the Nigerian military, holding various positions, aside from being civil war veterans.

But, Buhari and IBB are remembered more by the fact that Babangida cut short the tenure of Buhari’s military regime in an August 27, 1985 coup.

Buhari, who had earlier toppled the civilian administration of the late President Shehu Shagari in a 1983 coup, had hardly spent two years in office when Babangida struck.

As military President, he ruled till 1993 before he handed over power to an interim government headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan in his famous “step aside” decision.

In the years following the return of democratic rule in 1999, Buhari and IBB related more or less by trying to avoid each other.

Both, through those years, nursed the ambition of returning to power as civilian presidents, but it was Buhari who eventually actualised his own dream in 2015.

Along the years, the two powerful northern political figures were also said to have resolved to put the past behind them and forge ahead.