Ibrahim Babangida, Nigeria’s former military President’s soft side came to the fore on Friday as he fought back tears while speaking about his late wife, Mrs. Maryam Babangida who died in December 2009.
The General is human and he betrayed emotions as the discussion touched on Maryam Babangida, his late wife and Nigeria’s most ever flamboyant First Lady.
Gen. Babangida spoke in his hilltop residence in Minna during an interview with Ngozi Alaegbu, a correspondent of Arise TV and was broadcast Friday morning.
A teary-eyed Babangida narrated how he came from the war front to marry the then Maryam Okongwu, “who I have known before then” all because the then head of state, Gen. Yakubu Gowon also got married at the thick of the war.
The retired Army General reminisced that he was wounded in Uzokwuli, in present-day Abia State around 1969 during the war but was lucky to be flown to Lagos the same day for treatment.
According to him, I was in the hospital and the first thing that struck me was I could have been dead and wouldn’t be a married man like my Commander-Chief so I made up my mind that the moment I get out of this hospital bed, I will marry.
When asked why he has not remarried since the death of his wife, Gen. Babangida jokingly retorted “the women, they don’t like my face”
Thereafter, Ngozi Alaegbu never got IBB back into the rhythm of the interview as his mood changed and was no more his ebullient self.
