2011: NOTHING CAN STOP MY PRESIDENTIAL AMBITION – IBB

Former military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, has declared that nothing can stop him from contesting the 2011 presidential election.

Babangida made this declaration recently at his Minna Hill Top residence when a coalition of concerned and enlightened Nigerians residing within and outside Nigeria, known as The Diaspora Group, came on a fact-finding mission to get his personal confirmation if he would indeed run for the post of president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2011.

The former military president assured the group that his contesting the forthcoming presidential election was a foregone conclusion, adding that he had made up his mind to throw his hat into the ring and as such nothing could stop him from doing that.

Speaking while declaring their unwavering support to the former president for the 2011 presidential election, the National Coordinator of the group, Barr.Alec Utieyin-Scott, maintained that only a Babangida's presidency could guarantee sustainable governance for Nigeria at this stage of the nation's democracy.

According to Scott, 'Nigeria's political trajectory is similar to that of the United States of America where the first president, George Washington was also a military-turned civillian. It is on record that other military turned civilians have become presidents. Examples include President Dwight Eisenhower of the United States of America, President Charles De-Gaul of France and the Head of the KGB-turned civilian president Vladimir Putin of Russia. In Africa, we also have President Jerry Rawlings of Ghana among others.'

Contributing, another leader of the group, Mr. Isah Saulawa Abdullahi, said their endorsement of Babangida for president in 2011 was not only function of his being one of Nigeria's former military heads of state but a function of his leadership qualities, performance and dexterity that reshaped, rebuilt and redirected a seemingly stumbling Nigeria into the path of stability, unity and progressive growth during his eight-year rule.

A chieftain of the Diaspora Group based in Spain, Mr. Godwin Dumuje, enjoined Nigerians to take critical look into IBB's administration and discover the justification for his choice as candidate for president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2011.