The Chairman
of the Reformed All Progressives Congress, Buba
Galadima, said President Muhammadu Buhari was against forming an
alliance with a former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, who had nominated
Prof. Yemi Osinbajo as Buhari’s running mate before the 2015 elections.
He also said
he blocked the Serving Overseer of the Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde
Bakare, from becoming the running mate of
Buhari during the build-up to the 2015 Presidential election.
Galadima
said this during an interview with ‘The Interview’, an Abuja-based monthly
magazine.
He, however,
said he was the one who insisted that he would not sign the correspondence to
the Independent National Electoral Commission unless Bakare’s name was removed.
Galadima
said, “Buhari was the one who was against the alliance with Tinubu and I don’t
want to say anything. Let Buhari deny what I have said. I was for it and I
organised it and I wrote a memo and even produced a candidate for the
Vice-Presidency, this same Osinbajo.
“We were a
committee of three: Osinbajo, Sule Hamma and me. Sule Hamma promoted the
alliance more than anybody else. It was Buhari that refused. Let him deny
before us and we will show him. Whenever you see him, ask him why Buba Galadima
said he wouldn’t sign INEC’s form with Tunde Bakare’s name.
“I don’t
want to say much. Buhari cannot challenge all these things we are saying.”
The R-APC
chairman said his disagreement with the President was based on principles and
not selfish interest.
He said it
was Buhari, who gave out his (Galadima’s) daughter in marriage, adding that his
grandson was named after the President.
Galadima
added, “There are no differences between Buhari and me. My daughter visits him
in the Villa. He gave out my daughter in marriage. Her first child was named
after him. What we are doing is on the basis of principles.”
The R-APC chairman
said he would not blame those around the President but only Buhari.
He said he
would not blame the Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, or Buhari’s nephew, Mamman
Daura, because the buck stops on the President’s table.
Galadima
added, “I don’t believe in any inner circle. The buck stops on Buhari’s table.
If Buhari says he doesn’t want to see Mamman Daura or Abba Kyari or any other
person, they will not spend two seconds in the Villa.
“So, if
there is any inadequacy or shortcoming, it should be that of the President, not
an aide. After all, they can only advise. They can’t force his hand. For
example, the Nigerian ambassador was in Israel and was said to have attended
the official opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem.
“And there was this huge outcry by all
Nigerians because this is counter to Nigeria’s policy on Israel. Buhari said he
would investigate. Now it has been three months. Where is the result of the
investigation?”
Buhari’s
undoing, he said, was responsible for the gale of defections that hit the
ruling All Progressives Congress.
But the
President Muhammadu Buhari 2019 Presidential Campaign Organisation has
dismissed the defection of some APC lawmakers and other members from the party,
saying it will not have any negative impact on Buhari’s re-election.
The group,
in a statement on Sunday by its spokesman, Festus Keyamo (SAN), said the
defection of the lawmakers and the Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, would
not harm the President’s re-election.
He stated
that even if two more governors, who were said to be planning to defect, left
the APC, it would not affect Buhari.
Keyamo
stated, “The President won with wide margin in the past in some states without
the support of majority of the politicians from those states who moved recently
to join the opposition party.
“Also, we
are all witnessing the significant gains Mr. President is making in several
places where he lost in the past, notably in the South-South and the
South-East.”
According to
him, 12 northern states of Jigawa,
Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Yobe and
Niger have 30 million registered voters.
He said that
these “are states the President had consistently won with considerable wide margin in past elections,
especially in 2011 and 2015.”
This, he
said, was achieved despite the fact that most of those states were being
controlled by political parties other than his own.
“In 2011,
when the President was in the Congress for Progressive Change, despite being
states with sitting opposition governors, National Assembly members, state
assembly members and local government chairmen, the President posted close to
11 million votes against all odds, defeating all his rivals in these 12 states.
“In 2015,
despite the majority of these states being in opposition after the merger that
formed the APC, the President posted close to 11 million votes again with the
PDP not scoring up to 20 per cent of the votes.
He recalled
that in Kano, during the 2011
presidential election, the President scored 1,624,543 votes as the CPC
candidate, while in 2015, he had 1,903,999
votes as the APC candidate.
Keyamo also
analysed the effect of defections in nine states Buhari lost in 2011, but won
in 2015. These, he said, included Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Kwara, Kogi,
Adamawa and Benue.
He stated,
“The five south-western states have registered voters strength of more than 14
million out of the about 20 million voters in these nine states. Today, those five states are being controlled by the
APC. Ekiti will join before the 2019 elections after the Governor-elect, Kayode Fayemi, is sworn in.
“All the
political gladiators in those south-western states that helped to tilt the
election in favour of the President in 2015 are still solidly with him and more
have joined. The entire defunct ACN structures that moved into APC are solidly
behind the President.”
Meanwhile,
some members of the House of Representatives on Sunday described as
“laughable,” the current moves by the APC to stop the Speaker, Mr. Yakubu
Dogara, from defecting to the PDP or any other party.
The
lawmakers spoke under the aegis of Parliamentary Democrats Group, dominated
largely by the PDP members and other opposition party members.
They spoke
after their meeting in Abuja. They expressed surprise that the APC suddenly
began to appreciate the worth of Dogara amid the gale of defections that hit it
since last week at the National Assembly.
In a
statement by its spokesperson, Mr. Timothy Golu, the group advised the APC not
to waste its time as the Speaker would leave whenever it pleased him to do so.
The group
also said Dogara would remain the Speaker upon defection as the APC alone did
not have the two-thirds majority (240 out 360 members) to remove the Speaker.
“It is a
futile one and a sheer waste of time. It is laughable that the APC is running
cap in hand, begging the Speaker to remain in a party that has for so long
failed to acknowledge his relevance and contribution to its existence…
“Nemesis has
now caught up with the party as the Speaker and other men of conscience have
decided to pitch their tents with a party that recognises that the collective
gain of Nigerians is greater than a few primordial interests.”
There were
indications over the weekend that the APC had initiated a reconciliation
meeting between Dogara and the Governor of Bauchi State, Mr Mohammed Abubakar,
to settle their local political dispute in the state.
The Speaker
is from Bauchi State. The APC’s alleged indifference to the disputes, which
weighed heavily against Dogara, was the main reason the Speaker sought to dump
the party.
However, the
ruling party was said to have intensified reconciliation moves since the
emergency of Adams Oshiomhole as the national chairman and the start of the
latest defections.
But, the PDG
urged Dogara to ignore the APC and defect to another party as soon as possible.
Comments