The long-awaited memoir of former Military President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB), entitled A Journey in Service, is set for public presentation on February 20, 2025.
The memoir, coming nearly 32 years after IBB left office and after he had expressed doubts about writing one, is expected to shed light on the events of the IBB years (1985-1993), particularly the endless transition programmes that earned him the sobriquet Maradona and the controversies surrounding the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election.
Other contentious issues that are expected to feature in the memoir include the adoption of the IMF-recommended Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), which sparked nationwide protests by student union and other similar groups, and the unresolved murder of journalist Dele Giwa, through a parcel bomb.
The book presentation, scheduled to hold at the Congress Hall of Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja, will take place simultaneously with fundraising for a presidential library, the board of trustees of the IBB Presidential Library said in an invite dispatched to dignitaries earlier this week.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is expected to lead former Nigerian leaders and their counterparts in other parts of Africa to grace the occasion, Daily Trust reports.
The event will be chaired by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, while President Tinubu will be the special guest of honour, the organisers said.
Ghana’s former President Nana Akufo-Addo will give the keynote address, while Nigeria’s former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will be the book reviewer.
A former Minister of Defence, Theophilus Danjuma, and Chairman of BUA Group, Abdul Samad Rabiu, will be the chief launchers.
Other guests expected at the event include former Presidents Muhammadu Buhari, Yakubu Gowon, Abdulsalami Abubakar, and Goodluck Jonathan.
