Nigeria, Feb. 22 -- Nigeria's former military president, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB), admitted that one of his biggest mistakes in office was failing to retire Sani Abacha from the army. Mr Abacha was the chief of defence staff who seized power less than three months after Mr Babangida "stepped aside".

The retired army general said although he and Abacha were good friends, it was clear that Abacha was also a "complex character" that mobilised negative opinions against him within the military.

"I was alarmed to discover that he and a handful of others mobilised negative opinions against me within the military, portraying me as the problem," Mr Babangida wrote in his autobiography titled "A Journey in Service".

In the book, Mr Baban...