Buba Galadima, a former political ally of former President Muhammadu Buhari, in this encounter, laments that all those who are in power in the country are only concerned about themselves rather than the people.
He says we should forget the 2027 general elections because the votes would not count unless Nigerians rise up and demand an amendment to the Electoral Act.
He also cautions President Bola Tinubu to be wary of those around him, saying they may pull down his government, even as he bares his mind on the emergency rule in Rivers State, hunger in the land, among other issues.
Excerpts:
How would you assess your party APC after almost 10 years in office?
I’m no longer in APC. When Buhari was still in power, he set up a committee under Bola Tinubu, who is now the President, to remove my name from the Board of Trustees of APC and to remove my name from the National Caucus of APC because he said I talked too much, and that I looked at him in the eye and said my mind. When I saw that it was what the president (Buhari) liked that was going to happen, I just left the party for them. But let me tell you something, there is nothing anybody can do except one thing.
It is for us to come together and ensure that we get a proper Electoral Act that will ensure that everybody’s vote counts. That’s the only thing we can do. If we can’t do that one, then let’s forget it, because if Nigerians don’t come together, some people will continue to write the results of the election.
The way we are going presently, votes are not counting in Nigeria.
If we don’t amend the Electoral Act, the courts will continue to give everything to them, like they did in Edo. Somebody won an election, they gave the result to another person and the courts affirmed it. Look at what happened in Kano. Everybody knows that it’s the responsibility of the governor to approve the appointment of an Emir. He doesn’t appoint, he approves and gives suggestions. But somebody wants to install an Emir from Abuja, and nobody is talking. So, why should I waste my time talking?
Look at what is happening in Rivers. An unelected person will uproot an elected person. Look at what is happening in the Senate. An elected Senator will uproot an elected senator.
I say, whose fault is it now? It’s our fault. Nigerians allow them to have their way and if you are talking, and they catch you, they put you underground, like the one I tasted. Does poverty or hunger know a Yoruba man or an Igbo man or Hausa man? We are all in it. So, we have to remove certain sentiments and work for the good of the system, not for an individual.
We have to do that, we have to come together and fight for a better society, fight for a better system, where justice would prevail, irrespective of whatever.
If it affects the Igbo man, we all should shout that it’s not good. If it affects the Hausa man, we all should come around to say this. The point is that what happened to an Igbo man can happen to a Hausa man and a Yoruba man.
So, you are talking about our unity as a people…
That’s what I’m saying. Do we believe in that? Unless we believe that it’s okay. Some people were killed in Edo.
We must find out who did that. It doesn’t matter where they are. Human lives were wasted. Human lives are sacred and you can’t just waste lives like that. We should all talk about it and find the culprits and punish them, whether it affects you, whether it doesn’t affect you, you need to handle it. Look at Plateau State, people are being butchered. If we keep quiet or keep playing politics with human lives, it will keep spreading.
What do you think of what happened in Edo?
I wasn’t in the country, so I didn’t even know the details. I just saw the video while I was outside the country. But my point is that it doesn’t matter to whom it happened. When something bad is done to anybody, it is our responsibility to condemn it and seek justice. But when these people in power all over know that they can divide us by religion, by tribe, by section, by where you come from, by state, then, we are out. They will do what they want. Democracy was not built based on religion or tribe. It was built on certain principles which are sacrosanct.
But the opposition is not strong enough to tackle these issues…
How can the opposition be strong when they don’t have money to face the government? When all the money is in the control of those in power and not the people, not the country, how can they be strong? I went to the hospital outside the country and I almost shed tears. I went for treatment, for the evaluation of an operation done on me in October 2023. Hospitals in Nigeria are just graveyards; when you go there, you are waiting to be buried. You talked about the opposition; many are decamping to the APC.
Do you think that they are decamping because the APC is doing well? You and I don’t have money, but they have and it doesn’t satisfy them. They want to win and get more money. Have you seen what we are seeing? That they are strengthening the oppressors?
If they are in the office, even what they get is more than what your whole community can get. But they are still not satisfied.
They want to rush there to steal more. I just got back from a trip. I landed in Kano and drove to Abuja and I learned that during the Sallah, there was a fight between the Emir’s bodyguards and some people. And somebody died.
Now the Police are inviting the Emir. Do you think it is right to invite the Emir who was riding on a horseback, one kilometre away, to ask him what happened, and why somebody was killed during his procession? Nobody is talking. Can the IGP invite the Oba of Lagos when somebody is killed during an event where the Oba is present? But it is okay, it is Kano, let them go and kill themselves.
It may happen to me one day, or it may happen to my Emirate. The police planned to cause commotion in Kano so that they could declare a state of emergency.
That was what they wanted to do by banning the Durbar. They invited the Emir on a Tuesday before Sallah and if the Emir reported on Tuesday, they would have brought the other one from Mecca who went for the Lesser Hajj to come and plant him so that the commotion would start. That was what they planned to do.
Does the Federal Government have powers over the choice of traditional rulers?
Some people have powers over the Chief Justice of the Federation. Ganduje removed an Emir because he was the governor of Kano; if another person becomes the governor of Kano, doesn’t he have the right to remove the person that Ganduje also put there? He didn’t remove him because he committed any offence. He removed him because of politics. Now they want to force people to be killed.
They want to invite the Emir and enthrone another one by force. That is why they came to the Court of Appeal for the court to swallow its vomit. Even when they thought that what the Governor did was right, they said the implementation should wait until the Supreme Court makes a pronouncement.
Is that correct? Supreme Court? How many people? Is it not a decision of a few men under the influence of the government? I’m over 70; I speak the truth at all times. Inviting the Emir of Kano to a police station is wrong.
How can the government right the wrongs?
All these things are based on one issue, justice. Because if there is justice and there is a human feeling, everything will fall in place. Our leaders must be compassionate about the sufferings of the people.
Some people cannot afford to eat one meal per day. That should be their concern. But it looks like those who claimed we voted for them are only concerned about what they will get from governance rather than how much sacrifice they can make on behalf of the people. Governance in multi-ethnic and religious societies, communities like Nigeria, need 24-hour surveillance.
You have to make a real sacrifice for you to speak to all shades of opinion to find out exactly how things go and how they can work out. This is not obtainable now because all those in power are only concerned about themselves rather than about the people. That’s our problem.
Are we going to endure this till 2027?
Our issue is that we, as a nation, must sit down and define a minimum code of behaviour for all our leaders. Unless we do that, it will continue for eternity. That is why people like me, who are above 70, are almost giving up. There is this adage in Hausa that says when you are talking about the thief, also talk about those who try to catch the thief. We are all the same. Once somebody gets his minimum requirement for one day, he can forsake you.
So, they don’t even care about those who fight for them as long as they can get a stipend from those who oppress them. The people have not decided what they want from the leaders. If they decide to bring a change for the better, they could do that.
And the change for the better does not mean that you will support somebody from your religion, somebody from your tribe or somebody from where you come from. No! You make a universal minimum good for all the people. And you fight for it. Nobody, no military, no police, no judiciary can overturn the will of the people when we stand together. If we say that this is wrong and it must stop, it should stop.
We have two other arms of government apart from the executive, like the legislature and the judiciary. Those seem to be failing too..
Not that they seem to be failing. They have buckled to the executive. When these very arms of government work, everybody does their little bit. Our problem is multifaceted, and we have a division. I saw, just now, one foreigner berating the Middle Belt Forum on the position they released on the killings in Edo. The foreigner was damn right that what is wrong is wrong even if it was done against your enemy.
The Middle Belt Forum was happy that they did that to these people because they should remember that Deborah was killed in Sokoto. Was it these people who were killed in Edo that killed Deborah? We should have condemned Deborah’s issue as well as condemned this one in Edo. So, what kind of country or what kind of people do we have in Nigeria? And they said they are a regional bloc fighting for justice.
Justice means that even if an injustice is committed against your enemy, you fight for him. When you finish and obtain justice for him, you can continue your quarrel. So, we are the architects of our problems. I am getting fed up. I can’t see the Nigeria I dreamt of.
What is your take on what is happening in Rivers and the declaration of an emergency rule?
Is there any one single person except Nyesom Wike who supported what is happening in Rivers? No, I’m asking whether you know anybody.
There’s this video released by the Emir of Muri berating politicians in Taraba.
Yes, Abbas Tafida, the Emir of Muri. You need to listen to that one. When you listen to him, you now find out whether the politicians are okay. He said you sit down, all of you, and say you promulgate a law called your constitution to guide your conduct. And you had come together to form a political party because you all believe in one thing. Then, as idiots, when we quarrel, you go to another person who was not a participant in the formulation of the constitution to interpret the constitution for you.
Are you well? That’s what the Emir of Muri said. Look, there is something wrong with us, but you, the mass media, you carry the greatest burden. You are divisive; you should sit down and agree never to mention religion, never to mention tribe and never to mention where somebody comes from. Talk of Nigeria and talk of justice for all and Nigeria will be different. But you are promoting these things by reminding people that they belong to a certain tribe, they belong to a certain religion, they belong to a certain section, they belong to this or belong to that. We can’t run a country like that. If we keep having emergency rule because of the way it is now, if they extend the emergency rule to Kano, that means Nigeria is finished. But I believe common sense may prevail because they should know that there are certain things they ought not to do. It’s not everything that suits you that can in the end benefit you.
Look at what is happening in the Senate. The Senate is not deliberating on what will benefit the people anymore. We left that issue several years ago. Everybody knows Godswill Akpabio. If you don’t know him, go and ask Victor Attah, who was his Governor when he was a Commissioner. I don’t need to tell you anything. You should know better.
Are you saying nobody knows where Nigeria is headed?
No, we are going somewhere. I may not be around when we get there but we are going somewhere. Something has got to reach its elastic limit before it breaks. It happened in Ghana one day. They became a saner society. It happened in Iran during Reza Pahlavi. They are sane people now. It happened in the Soviet Union. So, things must reach their elastic limit. All this useless power that you see, just wait one day. It’s just that we don’t have patience.
What happened in those places was a revolution…
I don’t want to mention the word revolution. Leave that word to Omoyele Sowore. He can educate you better on that.
Sowore?
Yes. He is my role model. He is a courageous young man just like Malema of South Africa. I wish there would be a free and fair election. If there is a free and fair election, Sowore can win the election and come to the National Assembly. Then he becomes a Malema, a conscience of the nation. But how can he, now under these circumstances? When he doesn’t have what to give, or maybe he has, but he doesn’t give.
There is this belief in many quarters that the North is not happy with Buhari, Tinubu or the APC. How true is it?
Well, you read them in the newspapers. You read them on social media. You will get their mood. Have you gone to see the social media on this invitation to Emir Sanusi to come and see the Inspector General of Police? Have you seen what people are doing in Kano now? The Nigeria of today is not the Nigeria of yesterday. People are becoming conscious and we are only appealing to them and educating them more about their rights. But at the appropriate time, when hardship brings them together, they can react in a manner that you cannot control. This is a prophecy that I am giving.
The people have only one way out, they must stand up for their rights. For the government, my advice is that they should not joke with the feelings of the people because they are in control; they feel nothing can happen to them and that could be foolishness.
If all of us come out, they will all run away including the IGP and the defence corps. They will run, tell them I said so. They have nothing, they have only one life. The gun which the police and military are carrying is something anyone can buy in the market now.
Can the IGP invite the Oba of Lagos on something that the Oba doesn’t know about? How can he? We know what happened. We know who did that. We know who met who to make that decision. The IGP was given an instruction and he was following an unlawful instruction. You should go and find out from General Theophilus Danjuma after the Gideon Orkar coup when he said the military is not obliged to carry out illegal orders. He should be reminded.
Why is the IGP so interested in Kano that some idiots would give him instructions to cause problems for Tinubu?
The IGP is being teleguided by the people that we know. It’s not Tinubu himself. They are working for a state of emergency in Kano. It will consume all of them, including himself. Let him remember Tafa Balogun. There is nothing in Nigeria that doesn’t have a history. I’ve never seen an IGP like this.
Could it be Ganduje who is doing this?
The IGP knows those who give him instructions. I don’t need to say it publicly, everybody should know.
How do we get out of this now, because it’s creating another problem?
My parents told me something, that anybody who is in power should be working for peace. No rich man wants a fire to break out. No peaceful man wants violence. That’s what my parents educated me on. And I think they are right. How can a rich man set fire to his house? If it’s not controlled, it can explode.
Look at what is happening in Rivers, the explosion of gas pipelines, and oil pipelines. If such a thing starts happening, Nigeria is finished. And who caused it? You know that those that the gods want to destroy, they first make mad. They don’t know that when they do what they did in Rivers, this will happen. And who is the loser? But I have only one thing to tell the President: he should be very careful with certain people around him. They are trying to destroy him and destroy his government.
Anybody who is his friend will pray for a peaceful Nigeria. It is only a loyal person to him that wants a peaceful Nigeria. The person causing the commotion in Rivers does not like Tinubu and his government.
