A former Nigerian military President, Ibrahim Babangida, has explained why the military will not interfere in the Nigerian politics again.
Babangida spoke in an interview with Channels Television on Friday.
The former military leader stated that military interference robbed Nigeria off true federalism, adding that the era of military dabbling into politics has come to an end because Nigerians have become more interested in becoming a truly democratic nation.
He said, “I think that is (failure to achieve true federalism) one of the effects of the aberration that the military regime, it countered the democratic process.
“Such things happen, but I believe it will not happen again because Nigerians are becoming more interested in becoming a truly democratic nation in Africa and such thing, I don’t think it will happen,” Babangida added.
He, however, said that as a military leader, he freed the economy by allowing the private sector to be the hub of economy of the country.
Meanwhile, Babangida said the time has come for Nigeria give more powers to the states.
He said, “I believe in restructuring, devolution of powers to the states to give the more powers and that means you are going to give them more resources to run their own affairs so that we run a federal government the way federation is run all over the world”.
On the mass immigration of Nigerians to other countries causing a lot of brain drain, the former military leader suggested how the Nigerian government could end the trend.
According to him, creating an enabling environment that can motivate the citizens to enjoy working for their country the way they enjoy working for other countries.
He noted that this will see Nigerians choose to remain in their country rather than going to look for greener pastures elsewhere.
