Alhaji Buba Galadima is a stalwart of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP). In this interview, he speaks on the possibility of a one-party state, early campaign for the 2027 general election and the recent listing of 14 political parties by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), among other issues. ANAYO EZUGWU writes
What are your thoughts on political scene generally; the cross-carpeting, the question of the possibility of a one-party state and the issue of campaign before time?
I had in the last six months complained severally about the INEC’s inability to call political players to order, and I came to realize painfully too, that they are not in a position to do that because those who pay the piper dictate the tune.
This issue of early campaign being allowed by INEC was started by the government of the day, and it suggests that INEC cannot be an empire in a political environment as we have today. They don’t have the courage to even say, please, we have not yet allowed politicians to start campaigning.
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, 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 wouldn’t have danced to the drum being beaten by the APC.
Now, you can see some of them started with Social Democratic Party (SDP) and I warned 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. This is exactly the trap they fell into. So, they were decimated in t
Nigerians are saying that the government is overstepping its bounds, using the security agencies and the judiciary
The SDP. They moved to the African Democratic Congress (ADC). They are still 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 retired judge of the Court of Appeal, 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 recent local government elections in Rivers State and the byelections 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 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 an APC House member that died, and we scored 16,000 votes against APC’s 5,000.
Incidentally, that is the stronghold of the APC and where ex-Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, Senator Barau Jibrin and Abba Bichi come from. That’s their senatorial district. 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 told our innocent 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 or pulling booths, where those results were generated from?
Immediately they came, even the commissioner of Police and the director of Department of State Services (DSS) in Kano, said at the venue that there was a peaceful, free and fair election. But when they came to Kano, they said there was violence, so they are cancelling this election in one of the local governments, and they declared the former result, which was nullified by the court.
So, as far as we are concerned, 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 polling units for an inconclusive election in Kaura-Namoda of Zamfara State. Over 30,000 soldiers were drafted to Zamfara for elections in five polling booths. People were beaten up and maimed by the military.
Later, they wrote the results for themselves and announced. When this byelection was going on that day in Kaura-Namoda, bandits were beheading people in Shinkaf, which is adjacent to Kaura-Namoda and 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 the peoples’ votes can count?
This government is not ready to organise free and fair elections. Their antics and how they’re destabilising the parties suggest that they don’t want opposition at all in the forthcoming elections.
But I want to assure them that there will be opposition. And if they don’t change their style of governance, they will lose the election.
You said NNPP prioritizes ideology over political convenience. What’s the ideology of your party as some have said that NNPP is a local player?
First, how many registered voters do we have in Kano? Six to seven million, and now we are over eight million. With what figure did President Bola Tinubu won the 2023 election?
So, it means that if Kano people could come out, all of them, and vote as registered, the man who controls Kano could be president. That is one. Two, I want to say that the media 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? But Kwankaso can beat his chest and say, look, come rain, come shine. If there is a free and fair election, I can deliver my own state.
So, he is the generalissimo of Nigerian politics, because he is the only one that if there is a free and fair election, will deliver the most populous 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 plus to win the presidency.
What do you make of the African Democratic Congress (ADC)?
It’s a conglomeration of politicians, who are known to the Nigerian electorate. Whether they are bad or good, we all know them.
Do they stand a chance of beating or unseating President Tinubu in the 2027 elections?
Well, I would have wished all of us come together to save the country. All of us in Nigeria know who and who can be combined to win the election but the question is: Are we ready to do that? I’ve already told you my view, meaning that I would have wanted an alliance of everybody, but not based on selfishness.
Alliance should not be about you are close to me or I’m close to you. When we come together bring people up and present them as candidates, they can dislodge the government. If there is such a combination; before 9.am on election day, people should be packing out of their offices.
You said Peter Obi should grab NNPP’s offer and that the best South-East can get is a vice president. What informed that position?
I have been in this business since 1959. If from my school years, I had monitored political developments, and joined partisan politics in 1978, it means I have made a life investment.
So, somebody cannot 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, today in this country, those who were active in the Second Republic, I think there are only about two of us or three, who 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.
I was in the Constituent Assembly in 1987, Constitutional Conference of 1994, and National Conference of 2014. So, we fashioned this constitution. In every detail of it, I made a contribution. I wasn’t a bench warmer, people knew my view. It is like, when you tell me that you want to amend the constitution, and bring state police, I feel like killing myself because I can’t afford to stomach it. Those who will do it, they can do it, but they will be the first victims.
All I’m struggling to tell you is that we should have the best Nigerian as leader irrespective of where he comes from, even if he comes from the smallest tribe, Gwoza Local Government Area in Borno State that has 80 different linguistic tribes. So, if you are talking of tribe and ethnic nationalities, all of them hold dear to their enclaves and by the time we go around Gwoza, resurrection would have taken place.
It’s because people are not knowledgeable that we don’t know each other. I was on record, when I said that the easiest way we can forget about this chauvinism of a south easterner becoming president is for him to be a vice president and to be supported by a sitting government to be president. You don’t know Obi, he’s my friend.
Both ADC and PDP in particular are wooing Obi and former President Goodluck Jonathan because of the question of South. What do you make of that move and the recent meeting between Obi and Jonathan?
That’s a welcome development. I’m one of those who believe 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.
This government is not ready to organise free and fair elections. Their antics and how they’re destabilising the parties suggest that they don’t want opposition at all in the forthcoming elections
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 that should be there?
The nation needs to know and those ignorant people must know. In Niger Republic, they have over 300 political parties until recently when they were proscribed by the military. Look, maybe, my major concern could be my council or constituency.
I can have a party just to win elections and promote some issues in a local government area. Why do we have to have national parties? In India, Narendra Modi started from one state like the media denigrating Kwankwaso with only one state.
No, we’re not denigrating him. He recently met with the President…
No. He didn’t go to see the President. Kwankwaso never saw Tinubu after their meeting in 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. They say this in order to bring him down. They say Kwankwaso is working for Tinubu.
How can you work for somebody who declared you an enemy? Do you know what they are doing to us in Kano? Every day, they want to destabilise us. Even religious gatherings; the Inspector General of Police will stop them because it is Kano; 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 their members and doing what they call media trial. What do you make of that accusation?
It is not the opposition because all Nigerians are saying that the government is overstepping its bounds, using the security agencies and the judiciary. You see, a lot of Nigerians don’t even know why we fashioned this presidential system, which has three layers – the judiciary, the legislature and the executive. Our thinking is that when the three arms of government are on their own, everybody will guard their integrity and province.
Do you know the kind of money they are receiving and they are still borrowing. In fact, your grandchildren will be sitting here when some white people will come and say, look, I have bought all of you in Nigeria. What has the military got to do with elections? Let the Chief of Defence Staff or the Chief of Army Staff, explain reasons for deploying soldiers in a by-election. 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 one of the questions they ask me was: What are you doing? I said I’m in school. They asked: Which level? I said 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, 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 being questioned by the DSS over his tweet and he 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. 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 the money they are collecting now to share during the election, people will take their pension and gratuity and do otherwise. . I’m giving them free consultancy.
