AFRICA'S GREATEST AND MOST VISIONARY LEADER.
"A very shrewd man, not the sort of person that could be easily understood, he's got a very placid face and always wears a smile. And there is the tendency for you to feel he is soft ball, but definitely, the man is as hard as nails".
General Joseph Momoh (Former Sierra Leonean President)
"Crisis or no crisis, his calmness leaves you with the belief that he is not troubled within"
Yussuf Mamman (Nigeria Former Ambassador to Spain)
"I like Babangida's personality," sense of honour and the sincerity in his ambition". "He is a sincere leader with commendable listening capacity".
Professor Wole Soyinka CFR (Nigeria's Nobel Laureate)
"IBB is a man who has his own image of the world and where Nigeria fits in. To that extent, having a discussion on foreign policy with him is almost a constant intellectual debate because he has a systematic mind, and doesn't see things in isolation".
Professor Bolaji Akinyemi (Ex-Nigeria Foreign Minister)
"IBB is like any other Minister, I tell you. He is very humble, very accessible and very friendly. He is ready to entertain, accommodate and tolerate criticisms. The only thing that matters to him is the national interest; not Hausa interest, not Yoruba interest, not Ibo interest and not his personal interest".
Chief Alex Akinyele (Ex-Nigeria Minister of Information)
"To me, one of his best attributes is that he is a good listener. He can sit for hours listening to a variety of things. I would hope that biographers, historians and psychologists would study this man in-depth because he intrigues me".
Professor Ojetunde Aboyade (Presidential Advisory Committee)
"And whatever I say about IBB and the military will be seen as praise-singing. Yet the thing I want to put on record is that this (Babangida) is a military president that has the knowledge and knows the needs of the military but is also aware that one thing the military and the populace have in common is food, roads, and the basic needs of the rural areas. Hence his emphasis on rural developments.
Larry Koinyan (Chairman, DFRRI)
"IBB possesses the knack for political games, astute knowledge of continental politics, and the rare wisdom of a Pandit Nehru. My analysis of the man is that he has become the greatest phenomenon in contemporary Nigerian politics and history. His vision of Nigeria of the future is convincing enough to persuade all cynics, critics, non-opinion holders, opinion leaders and the rest of us to come on the line and participate fully in the new order"
Chief Dayo Duyile (Director, Nigerian Institute of Journalism)
"IBB apart from being such an amiable person was a soldier's soldier. At times we just sit and wonder how a man can command so many people. It has never happened in the history of the Nigerian Army, even when he was COAS. He knows all the soldiers by their first names. He has not allowed himself to sit on a high horse. He still sees himself first as a soldier. I and many of my officer friends thought he would retire back into the army".
Dagogo Claude Wilcox (Ex-Director of Army Public Relations)
"Apart from his (Babangida's) charming nature, I've never seen him in the midst of difficulties. He has been able to bring the military together. The military consider him as a very outstanding father in the sense that he has been able to bring the leadership of the services and the police to have confidence in his government, and also, he has absolute control over the armed forces".
Promise Fingesi (Ex-Chief of Naval Staff)
"IBB had 99 per cent followership in the military, he was the kind of General whom I could follow into battle "blindfolded".
Abubakar Umar (Ex-Governor of Kaduna State)
"Within the rank and file of the Nigerian Army, General Babangida has stood out unique. The man is loved and on top of this, he is highly respected for his professionalism, militarily. There is no Nigerian, past officer, or leader, that you can point at today and say he paid greater attention to army welfare. Everybody was free with him. You always left him happier than you went in"
Mohammed Marwa (Ex-Lagos State Governor)
"IBB has taken up the issues raised by the feminist movement. The creation of National Commission for Women and Better Life Programme are meant to tap the human resources of about half the total population of our society".
Dr. (Mrs.) Doyin Abiola (Editor-in Chief of Concord)
"IBB is the stuff of the social scientist's nightmare. In frustration as much as in admiration, Nigerians have nicknamed him Maradona after the Argentine football star, Diego Maradona, who dazzled the world with his nimble footworks in the World Cup series in 1986".
Dan Agbese (Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Newswatch)
"The physical portrait looms large: a sturdy, steely, rather short man armed with a disarming smile. So easily, so often, the smile seemingly rehearsed, yet so natural and bewitching, is mistaken as the man... Yet Babangida's essence is not the smile, reassuring as it is, even if it is the image of him that most easily leaps into mind"
Okey Ndibe & Asikiwe Adione-Egom (African Guardian)
"It is difficult to say in just one word what kind of man Babangida is; he is gentle, affable, with a cherubic smile, and ...most unpredictable, Perhaps it is better to say that here is one intriguing man"
Yinka Guedon (This Week)
COURTESY: THE BABANGIDA YEARS BY GABRIEL UMODEN.