By Henry Akubuiro
Former bureaucrat, prolific author and public intellectual, Dr. Bukar Usman, has weighed in on the IBB political legacy, which was a recent major talking point across Nigeria following the release of his long-awaited autobiography, A Journey in Service, early this year. In his over three decades as a public servant before his retirement, Usman worked with many Nigerian presidents, including General Ibrahim Babangida, who ruled from 1985-1993.
Sequel to his dissection of IBB’s memoir, A Journey in Service, Usman has taken another step to publish it as a book, which also include readers’ reactions to the earlier review and its Hausa translation for the reading delight of Hausa language users. Usman believes that, for an author”s message to get to a larger audience, it ought to break linguistic barriers. The book also contains photos of IBB in military fatigue and in traditional couture, as well as those of his late wife, Maryam Babangida, who has been rated one of the most vibrant First Ladies Nigeria has ever produced.
Thanks to his ingenuity, the author has transformed a “mere” review of A Journey in Service to a 140-page publication. There are very few authors in Nigeria with Usman’s inventiveness when it comes to diverse interests in book publication. He creates books out of nothing, which turns out to be something in scholarly estimation, like what he has done with this book. It is compelling to study how Usman does this with ease and expertise.
In this offering, Usman cleverly detaches himself as someone who has worked closely with IBB by focusing squarely on IBB’s A Journey in Service. A typical Nigerian in Usman’s shoes would have easily coloured his paragraphs with a sentimental reading, but not Usman. Thus, he not only does justice to the book but to his credibility as a public intellectual, who understands the weight of words as they interact with multiple facets.
Usman notes in the opening paragraph that the anticipation of IBB’s A Journey of Service stems from his “extraordinary antecedents, particularly the controversies surrounding is assumption of and exit from power, his laissez-faire economic policies, as well as other roles he was perceived to have played in the military and the in the political re-engineering of the country” (p 3).
Usman describes the 420-page book with thirteen chapters as a product of three decades of reflections. He is impressed with the book’s revelations about key events, including the annulment of the June 12, 1993 Presidential Election. “One testimony to his gallantry and bravery,” writes Usman, was his participation in the prosecution of the Nigerian civil war as a Major and Commander of 82 battalion in 1969. He was wounded in the war while it left a physical scar on him to this day. Another was leading troops to the Radio House in Lagos to flush out Major Bukar Suka Dimka and his soldiers who were in the process of overthrowing the government of General Murtala Mohammed in 1976” (p.5).
Beyond the issue of June 12, Usman inforns that the overriding value of IBB’s memoir is that it tells the story of a Nigerian leader who superintended over a period of unusual developments marked by unprecedented political and economic initiatives that, in varying degrees, reshaped the political and socio-economic landscape of this country. Echoing some of his achievements, Usman writes: “Babangida’s inventiveness included, among others, Option A4 (the grassroots-driven, open-ballot electoral system that made it almost impossible to rig); creation of additional 11 states and additional 288 local governments; restructuring of Nigerian Security Organisation (NS0), leading to the creation of State Security Service (SSS), National Intelligence Agency (NIA), and Defence intelligence Agency (DIA); deregulation of the economic sector and privitisation of public enterprises; deregulation of the broadcast industry, leading to establishment of private radio and television stations; and accelerated relocation of Nigeria’s seat of government from Lagos to Abuja” (p.13).
Usman, however, observes that the annulment of the presidential election of June 22, 1993 tends to overshadow, “some would say, unfairly, the positive affects of the aforesaid unprecedented initiatives of the Babangida administration” (p.13). His final words? The author opines that, whatever anyone’s view of Babangida, A Journey in Service invites all to read the motivating factors behind some of his leadership positions and actions.
Abudullahi Ganda Abubakar, one of the trades who reacted to Usman’s first review of IBB’s book published in many Nigerian dailies, says the author “has given us a guide tour of the IBB autobiography. It makes it easier for ond to context the book and its 13-chapter content” (p 14).
The Hausa translation of the book review occupied pages 19-34. Besides, Usman’s rich profile and over 50 book covers of his are showcased from book page 35-57. There are also online links to praise songs and interviews, video CDs, book promotion and donation efforts to hundreds of institutions of learning libraries, governments agencies, and multiple establishments. This is quite remarkable. It can’t be gainsaid, Nigeria needs more Bukar Usmans to rev up its dying reading culture.
