The family of Major Gen. Mamman Vatsa, who was executed over the 1985 controversial coup by the regime of former military dictator, General Ibrahim Babangida, has asked Nigerians to relax, saying Babangida is preparing himself for disgrace.
The family said that he would be disgraced out of the 2007 presidential race.
A younger brother to the late general, Mr. Jonathan Vatsa, in a telephone interview with our correspondent on Friday, claimed that there was no way he could rule the country again after his uneventful eight years in office.
He said that the family was startled by Babangidas bid to return to power when the dust of his misrule had not settled, 16 years after he was forced out of office by Nigerians.
Babangida, accompanied by his aides, was at the Peoples Democratic Party secretariat on Wednesday, to obtain the party‘s presidential nomination form.
This development elicited anger from many well meaning Nigerians, who were wondering whether the gains recorded in the last seven years by President Olusegun Obasanjo, would not amount to a waste if Babangida should succeed him in 2007.
But Vatsa said, ”I would call on Nigerians not to panic over Babangida‘s, ambition; it will fail. He is a joker and I can tell you that he will be disgraced out of the race. In fact, he is a dreamer and I can tell you that he is far from the seat.
”The blood of many Nigerians, who paid the supreme price for the enthronement of democracy which Babangida tried to subvert, will not allow him to get there.
Vatsa said that if the event of Wednesday had happened in April, he would have thought that it was April fool. ”But now that it happened in November, maybe he is trying to introduce November Fool because there is nothing evil he is not capable of doing,” he said.
Vatsa added that it would be difficult for the former army general to even win the PDP primaries.
He warned the leadership of the party not to toil with the idea of fielding the retired general as its candidate, adding that if the mistake was made, then the party could as well forget winning the election.
”Nigeria of today is a sophisticated one; IBB and his supporters would be leaving in an illusion if they think that they could manipulate Nigerians again,” he said.
He reminded the general that no well meaning Nigerian would be ready to gamble with an IBB presidency taking into consideration all the bad things done by his regime in the past.
He warned President Olusegun Obasanjo not to allow Babangida to succeed him.
Vatsa said that the unfolding drama would enable Nigerians to know whether there was a pact between Obasanjo and Babangida which was not known to them before.
He said, ”Unless there is a pact between the two of them, which I doubt seriously, there is no way Obasanjo would hand over to Babangida. And if there was any pact, this is the time for Nigerians to know.”
He said since his family raised the issue of the ‘unlawful killing of Vatsa, Babangida had not raised, the matter with the family.
