Buba Galadima, speaks with JOHN ALECHENU of Punch News about the crisis in the party, the Buhari presidency and political intrigues ahead of the 2023 general elections.
When he was asked by Punch reporter that "By the time Buhari leaves in 2023, where do you see Nigeria"?
In pieces! That is the imagination of everybody! We are already in pieces; it is just that we have not disintegrated. It is difficult to divide Nigeria, not because it cannot be divided, but because of our own internal contradictions.
If you say the South-West should form a country, of their own, I want to assure you that Lagos will object, Ekiti people will object. They will never go back to Ibadan. If you say let those who were part of the old Eastern Region go back, I want to assure you that the ordinary Efik man, the Oron, Ibibio, Anang, Kalabari, Ekwere, Ijaw man will never accept to go back as citizens of Biafra, the ordinary Ebonyi man will never agree to be part of an Eastern Region that will take them back to Enugu. These are our internal contradictions. How do you now define the North-Central?
If you say we should form a country of the North-East, I will not go, I will take my people of Bade out, because we don’t belong. These are internal contradictions we can’t sort out. That is why we are better off remaining as Nigerians to make this country work. Let’s look for leaders who can do the job.
He was further asked, "why do you think Buhari is unable to lead both his party and the country"?
Your guess is as good as mine. I am personally shocked that the General has failed woefully below my expectations. I had expected him to do better than this even though on a second thought what had happened will always happen because he started this project with people who made sacrifices, defied exclusion, defied deprivation, defied all worldly things given to them to be with him because they believed that when he got there he would have something to offer Nigeria.
All those people were sidelined. He cut the umbilical cord and brought in his enemies. Ninety percent of those that are with him today are people who had worked against us, locked us up; people who did all the bad things in life against us including putting us on trial for treason.
Now, they are the same people calling the shots. They have no idea about why Buhari is in government or should be in government.
So, they had no plan, no vision. All those who had the vision and had the capacity to drive it were cut off, they went with the vision, he was left blank. Don’t ever betray trust in your life. There are always consequences. You can never get things right when you betray trust.
He was also asked, "People thought that because of his WAI programme when he was the Head of State in 1983, he would be able to lead".
Was he the one who drove WAI? I hope you remember the late General Tunde Idiagbon? Buhari succeeded in the Petroleum Trust Fund, was he the one who succeeded?
Do you remember the Sali Hidjjo of Afri-Projects?
Even his political structure, did you know why he succeeded? The Buhari Organisation? Did you hear about people like Sule Hamma? So, any place that you thought that Buhari succeeded just look below, there are people who called the shots, who knew why he was there.
In this case, he brought in his enemies and they tell him lies and the issue is that he can never succeed in this government unless he does one thing- monitoring and evaluation of any assignment he has given any human being; even if it is his wife, he must monitor and evaluate her performance.
It is not enough to say you know what to do because you are a Professor of History, go and write history. No, you have to follow him. Have you done this? Why haven’t you done this?
Culled From Punch News
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