His Excellency, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (rtd) is a former military head of state. IBB as he is fondly called, in this interview with Search FM, a Campus Radio, spoke on a wide range of issues- his childhood, military activities and the civil war. correspondent, Priscilla Dennis monitored the interview.
Well, I think it’s…I was first born here in Minna. I can’t predict where you (students) were in 1941, but it was in 1941 in the month of August. I also started and finished my primary school education here in Minna and then went to Bida where I finished secondary school before joining the Army and received military training at the Nigerian Military Training College in Kaduna, Military Academy in India and so many other military institutions.
I started here in Minna in 1950, by then it used to be called Gwari Federation Elementary School, and then later it became elementary school.
From there, I proceeded to senior primary school and on the completion of primary school education, I went to Bida Provincial Secondary School, where I spent six years before joining the Military Training College in Kaduna.
Well, maybe to understand the background, in about that period there was a deliberate government policy. The government of Northern Nigeria at that time, there were not a lot of people from the North who were in the military. So, it took a deliberate policy to go around and invite the younger generation from secondary schools, [government colleges] to come and join the military and that’s what started our career in the military.
It’s not a very nice experience I must say. First of all, you had people you went to school with, people you trained with, people who were your friends, suddenly as a result of the war, you find yourselves facing each other on opposite sides. It was not very comfortable but then, we had to do it. The purpose was to unite the country to keep it one not to break it. So that’s the uniquely sad aspect of a civil war and I pray, it never happens again