Former military President, Gen Ibrahim Babangida, says Nigeria failed to maximise its oil boom years due to what he described as a nationwide “profligacy” and “conspicuous consumption” that undermined the economy’s long-term development.
He also justified the spending of the $12.4bn oil windfall by his government.
In excerpts from his autobiography, ‘A Journey of Service,’ launched on February 20, 2025, Babangida argued that while the “meteoric” revenue from crude oil under then-Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, funded massive infrastructure expansions, policies such as the Indigenisation Decree of 1972 inadvertently “provided windfall gains” for a handful of influential individuals at the expense of non-oil sectors.
Babangida’s 400-page account said exuberant oil wealth shaped government spending, fuelled public corruption and generated economic twists that still haunt the country today.
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