Senate President Dr. Bukola Saraki has described former military President General Ibrahim Babangida as one issue that continues to define Nigerian politics 23 years after leaving office.
Saraki, in a statement yesterday by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu, said Babangida’s contributions to the nation’s socio-economic development remained legendary and obvious across the landscape.
“From the political engineering his administration introduced, which encouraged young people, particularly, professionals; those in the private sector and Nigerians in the diaspora to join politics, to the two-party system which sought to eliminate ethnicity in politics and encourage manageable political platforms with national spread, the foot-prints of General Babangida remain visible everywhere.”
He added that Babangida, who clocked 75 on Wednesday, will be remembered by history as the one, whose administration helped to realise the dreams of the Murtala/Obasanjo regime in moving the nation’s capital to Abuja.