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General Ibrahim Babangida
Since August 27, 1993 that the self-styled military President of Nigeria, Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, stepped down, he has not really been in the public like the his senior army counterpart, General Olusegun Obasanjo.

An Award-winning film producer, Obi Emelonye announced his plans on producing a biographical movie on General Babangida which is alleged to be to titled ‘Badamasi’.
The Pre-production of the film is scheduled to commence from next month, March and will run till June, 2017. Emelonye has produced popular movies such as “ Last Flight to Abuja”, “ Oxford Gardens”, “The Mirror Boy” and “Onye Ozi”.
While addressing the press earlier this week about the project, Emelonye said, “Badamasi” is a story of love, war, politics, violence, diplomacy, coups, corruption and governance laced with heavy dose of Machiavellian intrigue.
Emelonye said, “The time has come for Nigerians to start telling their stories. This journey started in 2012 when I watched Mandela. As I watched it, I felt proud as an African. As Nigerians, we have several historical figures who haven’t been immortalized on the big and small screens for the world to see.”
According to Emelonye, the project is to indirectly bring out some history of the rise of an ophan to a great military leader, define some controversial moments during his rule and some other military rulers; ranging from the civil war to several coups and a touch of the June 12 saga.
“For so long, so many of these issues surrounding the IBB years have been shrouded in mystery and hearsay, remaining eventually unresolved. This has not been helped by the noble silence of the man himself since stepping aside from the highest office in the land. In a series of no-holds-bar interviews, IBB spoke, for the first time about these controversies. 

The result is some shocking perspectives and revelations that make this film a must watch for every Nigerian and indeed, every African.”
Through this film, Nigerians will get to know a lot of unresolved, schemings and game of chess behind this great military leader that was also known as ‘Maradonna’ by the masses.
Emelonye however admitted said that he’s aware of the controversy the movie will generate when it touches the cinema screen on October 1, 2017.
According to the him, the film will unearth many of the ‘darkest’ events in the life of Babangida, including the ‘ June 12 saga’, the infamous ‘Gideon Okar coup’ among other burning issues that set IBB apart from other African leaders.
Emelonye defines the project as “the most important film of his career so far”  and approaches the project with a sense of responsibility, objectivity and artistic wholeheartedness.
“ When I want to embark on his film, I looked at the story of General Yakubu Gown, Olusegun Obasanjo, President Mohammed Buhari and General Ibrahim Babangida. At the end, I settled for Babangida because his story is highly inspiring and still has historical relevance. This was in 2013, I know that a lot of things happened during IBB’s reign as Nigerian military leader which are still in the public domain till date. When I met him, I told him I’m making a film on a man called Badamosi, almost critical, almost objective about the man. And he replied; “May be, it’s time for me to speak,” Emelonye said.

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