Former military dictator, Ibrahim Babangida, says Nigerians are shallow thinkers who are always quick to believe “wrong perceptions” about him. 

Mr Babagida made this assertion in an interview with Daily Trust when asked why he has not been visibly making input regarding national issues.

“The good thing about Nigerians, I happen to know them reasonably well. They assess you based on a wrong perception, most of the time,” Mr Babangida said. 

“If you say Babangida is a thief, the first thing a Nigerian will do is to believe it and he doesn’t care whether you are going to explain or something.

“He believes what somebody else said, he doesn’t have facts, he will not accept even your own explanation, his reason is if you say he is a thief, he says yes, yesterday I saw him in a Mercedes, I saw him in a good car therefore he is a thief. They have a shallow thinking all the time,” the former military dictator further explained. 

Mr Babangida who played a major role in the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, adjudged to be Nigeria’s freest and fairest, said President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime has maintained a distance from him because it does not want to be wrongly accused. 

“I know the Nigerian psyche, they will accuse the government for talking to me on anything and they wouldn’t like to be accused, so the best thing keep him at distance,” Mr Babangida said. 

Mr Babangida, who led a junta that ruled Nigeria from 1985 to 1993, has been blamed for internalising the culture of corruption in Nigerian polity.