By Joy Anigbogu
Copyright independent
Buba Galadima is a member of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP). In this interview, he speaks on the issue of one-party state, early campaigns, why the All Progressives Congress (APC) led government is not ready to organise a credible election. He also speaks on the rumour about the successor of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), listing of 14 political parties of the Commission, among other issues. JOY ANIGBOGU brings the excerpts:
What is your thoughts on the political scene generally, the cross-carpeting, the question of the possibility of one-party state, the issue of campaigns before time, and INEC punishing defaulters or saying we don’t have the power based on the constitution, to punish defaulters when they default concerning the 150 days period for election?
I had, in the last six months, complained severally about the Independent national Electoral Commission’s (INEC) inability to call political players to order, and I came to realise painfully, too, that they are not in a position to do that because those who pay the piper dictates the tune. This issue of campaigning before being allowed by INEC was started by the government of the today, and this suggests that INEC cannot be an empire in a political environment as we have today. If they don’t have the lever to even say, please, don’t, we have not yet allowed politicians to start, but I also want to say that the wisdom by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to start campaign early is because they wanted to see their opponents such that they will, through time, before time, cut them into pieces, and I saw some of my friends in the opposition just fall into the trap because they are not seasoned politicians. They are opportunists in politics. If they had known, or if they are politicians, they couldn’t have danced to the drum being beaten by the APC. Now you can see some of them started with Social Democratic Party (SDP). I was here on this platform to warn them that no opposition politician in his right senses will start a marathon race against a sitting government because by the time it is time for you to say go you are already tired and exhausted. And this is exactly the trap they fell into. So they were decimated in the SDP. They moved to the ADC. They are still shouting, shouting. It’s not yet time, and they will get exhausted. They will be dismembered. Especially come November, there are rumours all over the place that this government is nominating a just retired Court of Appeal judge who is known for notoriety to be the chairman of INEC. I wish it is not true because if that man becomes the chairman of INEC, be rest assured that this government is inviting a civil war in this country.
In the last elections, past local government elections in Rivers State and the by-elections just held, APC dwarfed all the parties. Would you say this is a sign of things to come in 2027?
No, they didn’t dwarf anybody. They didn’t win a single one. They announced themselves as winners. At least I have one example to give. In Kano, there were two by-elections, and all the by-elections were to fill a position created either by death or inconclusive election against the APC, and we took all. In Mogwai, Shanono, federal constituency, it was APC House Member that died, and we scored 16,000 against APC’s 5,000. Incidentally, that is the stronghold of the APC where Abdullahi Ganduje comes from, where Senator Barau Jibrin comes from, where Abba Bichi comes from. That’s their senatorial district, and in the other senatorial district, we went to fill the inconclusive election. The NNPP scored 5,700 plus votes, while the APC scored only 265. That shows the growing popularity of the NNPP. However, they asked innocent our party men, to say that they will not announce the results until they come to the INEC headquarters in Kano. Which electoral law says that you cannot announce the results in the constituency where, or pulling booth where, those results were generated? Immediately they came, even the commissioner of police and the director of SSS in Kano, at that venue, said there was a peaceful, free, and peaceful election. But when they came to Kano, they said that, look, that there was violence, so we are cancelling this election in one of the local governments, and they declared the former result, which was nullified by court. So as far as we are concerned, of course, they have INEC in their pocket. They can nullify the results, but the whole world knew that we won. And let me give you another example. There were five pulling units for an inconclusive election in Kaura-Namoda of Zamfara State. Over 30,000 soldiers were drafted to Zamfara for five units pulling booths election, 30,000. And people were beaten up and people were maimed by the military, and sacked. And they wrote the results for themselves and announced. When this election was going on that day in Kaura-Namoda, bandits were beheading people in adjacent to local government of Shinkafi, just near Kaura-Namoda. But there were no soldiers to attend to the masses that were being slaughtered.
How does the nation begin to guard against such instances, so that votes of the people can count?
This government is not ready to organize a free and fair election. From their antics and how they’re destabilizing the parties? That suggests that they don’t want an opposition at all during the election. But I want to assure them that there will be opposition. And if they don’t change their style of governance, they will lose this election.
You say NNPP prioritises ideology over political convenience. What’s the ideology of your party and some have said that NNPP is a local player?
First, how many registered voters in Kano? Six, seven million and now we are over eight million. With what figure did President Ahmed Bola Tinubu win the election with? So it means that if Kano people could come out, all of them to vote as registered, the man from Kano could have become president. The man who controls Kano could be president. And this is one. Two, I want to ask you, you press men always say, oh, Rabiu Kwankwaso is a local champion. He is only in Kano. Let’s accept that as the basis of this argument. Can you mention one politician in the whole of Nigeria, including the president, who can deliver his state? Yes, he can beat table and say, look, come rain, come shine. If there is a free and fair election, I can deliver my own state. Mention one. So, Kwankwaso is the generalissimo of Nigerian politics, because he is the only one that come rain, come shine. If there is a free and fair election, he will deliver the most popular state in Nigeria. So, I have established one fact, that if every Nigerian politician, including myself, can even deliver without question his local government, you only need 300 of them plus to win presidency.
What do you make of the African Democratic Congress (ADC)?
It’s a conglomeration of politicians that are known to Nigerian electorate. Whether they are bad or good, we all know them.
Do they stand a chance of beating or unseating Tinubu in the next election, 2027?
Well, I could have wished all of us could come together to save the country. All of them, all of us in Nigeria know who and who can be combined to win the election. Are we ready to do that? I’ve already told you my view, meaning that I could have wanted an alliance of everybody, but based on not selfishness, that you are close to me or I’m close to you, but look so and so, when we bring them up and put them together and couple them together, they can dislodge this government. And there is such a combination. Before 9 o’clock, people should be packing out of their offices on the day of election.
You said Peter Obi should grab NNPP’s offer and that the best South-East can get is a VP. Why do you say that?
I have been in this business since 1959. If from school, primary school one, I had been monitored, secondary school, university, and joined partisan politics in 1978, it means I have made a life investment. So somebody will just sit in the comfort of his bedroom and dictate to me what I should do or teach me what politics is about. I’m telling you that today in this country those who were active in the Second Republic, I think there are only about two of us or three that are still there. Why do you want to bring words out of my mouth? Let me tell you something. In the first place, I don’t believe in North and South politics. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) can do it. Even NNPP can do it. But I don’t believe in it. And I had been in Constituent Assembly 1987, Constitutional Conference 1994, and Jonathan’s National Conference 2014. So we fashioned this constitution. In every detail of it, I had a contribution. I wasn’t a bench warmer. People knew my view, like you tell me that you want to amend the constitution, and you want to bring state police. I feel like killing myself because I can’t afford to stomach it. And those who will do it, they can do it, but they will be the first victims. So all I’m struggling to tell you is that the best Nigerian, irrespective of where he comes from, even if he comes from the smallest tribe, Goza local government in Borno State has got 80 different linguistic tribes, one local government. So if you are talking of tribe, and, for example, you want to give it ethnic nationalities, all of them, everybody holds dear to his enclave. By the time we go around Goza, resurrection could have taken place. So it’s because people are not knowledgeable. We don’t know each other. And I was on record to say that the easiest way when we forget about this chauvinism, for a Southeasterner to become president, the easiest, I’m not saying that he cannot become, but the easiest way is for him to be a vice president and supported by a sitting government to be president. You don’t know Obi. He’s my friend.
Both ADC and PDP particularly are wooing Obi and Jonathan because of the question of South. What do you make of that wooing for Jonathan and Obi and then the recent meeting between Obi and Jonathan?
That’s a welcome development. I’m the one who believes in unity. If they can put their heads together and bring out one person, you can see how the whole country will fall in line because it is a political strategy to get us out of this hardship.
Now, the INEC just listed 14 more political parties going for physical verification making it about 32. What do you make of that listing?
Let me tell you something. It’s because we are not politicians. It’s because we don’t have exposure around the world. Why should anybody dictate to me how many political parties would be there? I’m coming because the nation needs to know and those ignorant people must know. In Niger Republic here, they have over 300 political parties until recently when they were proscribed by the military. Look, maybe my major concern would be my council constituency. I can have a party just to win elections and promote those issues in a local government council. Why do we have to have national parties? Why? For what? You know India? Modi started from one state like you press denigrating Kwankwaso, only one state.
No, we’re not denigrating. He met recently with the president…?
No. He didn’t go to see the president. Kwankwaso never saw Tinubu after Paris when he was forming his government. I have to take permission to come here and talk because we decided to keep quiet. I say he didn’t. And you saw the exuberance displayed by one of his people. You know what happened to him? He was dismissed from the party and expelled, one of us in the NNPP who was hobnobbing without our permission. So, Kwankwaso never met the President and they say this in order to bring him down. Oh, Kwankwaso is working for Tinubu. How can you work for somebody who declares you an enemy? Do you know what they are doing to us in Kano? Every day they want to destabilize us. Even religious gathering, the Inspector General of Police will stop it because it is Kano because we don’t belong to their school of thought.
So, he never met with the president?
Give me the time. Check the video. It was two and a half years back.
The opposition is accusing the government of using state apparatus to harass its members and doing what they call media trial. What do you make of that accusation from the opposition?
It’s not the opposition because all Nigerians are saying that the government is overstepping their bounds, using the security agencies, using the judiciary. Look, let me tell you something. You see, a lot of Nigerians don’t even know why we fashioned this presidential system. And there are three layers. The judiciary, the legislature and the executive, our thinking is that when the legislature is on their own, and when the judiciary is on their own, and the executive, everybody will guard his integrity and province. You are a journalist. You answer me. Why don’t you carry your microphone down here now and ask, do you know the kind of money they’re receiving? They’re borrowing, in fact, your grandchildren will be sitting here when some Oyibo people will come and say, look, I have bought all of you in Nigeria. What has military got to do with an election? Let the Chief of Defence Staff, Christopher Musa, come and tell us why he deployed military in a by-election or the Chief of Staff. We are not afraid of them. They are human beings like us. Anybody who has no job can pick up a gun and become a military man. What’s there? In 1967 I went to Zaria Depot to join the military. And in the questions they did to me, they asked me, what am I doing? I say I’m in school. Which level? I say secondary school. They chased me out. I left Zaria and went to Ibadan. I didn’t know that they wanted me to go to school. So what is there? Why can’t they guard their honour and dignity by being neutral? Why should they be fighting on behalf of one transient individual? That’s what the Inspector General of Police is doing. Let him challenge me in court. I saw Omoyele Sowore, and DSS questioned him over his tweet and said he will not withdraw it. Who told them that there is any Nigerian law that can stand if I label you, that somebody will take responsibility and sue you or arrest you? If the man he labelled feels so, let him go to court.
Some people said that the permutations now are different from what it was in 2015 when the opposition defeated the incumbent. And so 2015 is likely to be repeated in 2027. Do you agree with that?
As far as I’m concerned, even those in the APC government will work against it when the time comes and I want the President to put his ears on the ground. Anybody that gets money they are collecting now to share during election, people will take their pension and gratuity and do otherwise. I’m giving them free consultancy.
