Babangida also threatened to drag the elder statesman to court any time such erroneous allegation was again made against his person.
In a statement by his media consultant, Kashim Afegbua, Babangida said the remarks by Clark were misdirected, since he had long announced his retirement from active politics, wondering what interest he (Babangida) would be serving by encouraging acts of terrorism in Nigeria.
“We are ashamed to state here that rather than coming up with plausible and efficacious solution[s] to insecurity in the country, what the self-acclaimed elder statesman came up with was buck-passing, such odium and rancid outburst, to the extent of trying to accuse General Babangida of the Boko Haram menace. We view this misguided and senseless statement in very bad taste and we take very strong exceptions to his drooling and implied conclusion,” the statement said.
Babangida denied ever having anything to do with Boko Haram, as a former head of state and a war hero, while accusing Clark of failing to give the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan good counsel on how to effectively tackle security challenges in Nigeria.
The former president stressed that he had done much to mitigate the security problems facing Nigeria with several suggestions, and hence did not deserve being linked in any way with Boko Haram activities.
“Former president, General Ibrahim Babangida, has no hands in the present challenges facing President Jonathan and the insecurity in the country. In fact, it is IBB’s belief that some of the problems were inherited by the present administration.
“IBB has since left the political turf for the younger generation of Nigerians. He has said repeatedly that he will no longer be an applicant in the political industry in Nigeria until Allah calls him home. Rather than crucify IBB for nothing, Chief Clark should blame the corruption in the system and several incompetences and inadequacies of the present system.
“Instead of buck-passing and playing the blame game, we expect Edwin Clark to advise the government of the day to do more of consultation with former presidents, opinion moulders and leaders of thoughts across the country with the aim of getting lasting and integrated solutions to our problems,” the statement read.
The statement added that “having invested so much in the unity and stability of the country, to the extent of fighting in the civil war to keep the country together, it is out of place for anyone, least of all an old man of Edwin Clark’s nomenclature, to input directly or indirectly that IBB should prove his innocence on the Boko Haram menace.
“We were expecting Chief Clark to use the opportunity of his forum to advance solutions to the insecurity situation in the country, with particular reference to the Boko Haram crisis. General Babangida has offered several approaches and methodologies to addressing the precarious situation both in public and private, and had stated without equivocation that dialogue would serve as a better tool than this militant approach, which is not yielding appropriate result.”
The statement also asked President Jonathan to use some of the Muslim clerics in the North as middlemen to reach the members of Boko Haram and appealed for calm and understanding, in the interest of the unity and stability of the system.
Reacting, however, Chief Clark, said IBB overreacted on his earlier statements on Boko Haram. Clark said as an elder statesman, he was of the view that Babangida and other northern leaders were in a better position to unravel the challenges posed by terrorist activities in that part of the country.
He said no Nigerian leader would conclude that the act of terrorism was only a northern problem, stressing, however, that the solution first lies in the hands of northern leaders who, he said, were supposed to take the bull by the horn, while providing a roadmap for the government on how to end the challenge.
Clark, who reacted through his legal adviser, Mr Kayode Ajulo, insisted that IBB and others like him should come together and take steps in addressing what he described as a mind boggling challenge.
The rest of Nigeria, according to Clark, was on the same page with the North on the challenges of Boko Haram, and had desired an immediate solution, the clue of which, he said, could easily be offered by the North.
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