Why I’m quitting politics - Buba Galadima Category: Cover stories Published on Saturday, 27 July 2013 06:01 Written by Abbas Jimoh Hits: 88 Engineer Buba Galadima 0 in Share Engineer Buba Galadima is the National Secretary of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and a close ally of the party’s leader retired General Muhammadu Buhari. The Yobe State-born politician explains why he is quitting politics. He also declared that he is the most honest Nigerian. Excerpts. Weekly Trust: You have been in politics for long. Why are you quitting at a time when your party the CPC is coming together with others to form the APC? Buba Galadima: I told you I am only quitting partisan politics. I am not holding offices, but this does not mean I will not be working from the background. I am in politics because of three reasons: one, because of my community I mean the larger community; two, because of my country; and three, because of my children. I thought I could make a contribution by partaking in holding a party position which I have been holding since 1979 till date. I was the National Youth Leader in 1979, I was the National Financial Secretary of the National Republican Convention (NRC). I was the pioneer promoter of the unregistered ANC, we started and funded the All Peoples Party (APP) and we also formed the CPC. So I have been in politics all my life, when I say active I cannot see myself taking positions in the party. But as long as those three issues exist, my people, country and children; I will keep interest in what happens in the country. Are you not quitting because you have not been given a role in the APC arrangement? I told you that life is dynamic; you make your own contribution, let another person take over from where you stopped. This is exactly what had happened. I want to stress a point, we were accused of so many things, what you said is one of them – that because I didn’t get interim position, this is why I turned a lukewarm attitude to the All Progressive Congress (APC), no. Our name has been written in gold that we are the pioneer promoters of the APC, because I was among the nine people who midwifed the merger of the APC. Before anybody’s name would be written, the national chairmen, national secretaries and national treasurers of the concerned parties were the ones who midwifed the merger. I wrote a memo a year ago on the issue of bringing the opposition parties together. It was that memo that metamorphosed into the merger, whether people accepted the reality or not. There is no person that can say I, Buba Galadima, had lobbied for any position. I have never done that, I will never do that. If I want anything in this world, I would rather rely on elections, but I don’t lobby, I don’t gossip, I don’t backbite or engage in sycophancy. Some accuse you of blocking people from reaching Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and that he (Buhari) has sidelined you due to the APC merger? This may be your opinion or the opinion of other people. The General [Buhari] lives in Kaduna, I live in Abuja. How could I have fended off people from seeing him? After all, even me, how many times do I see the General in a year? As the National Secretary of CPC, the party was once mired in controversy over missing certificate. What is the update on it? I thanked those who pioneered this party [CPC] namely Senator Rufai Hanga, Dr. Almajiri Geidam, Engr. Muttalib Badmus, I thank them. Though Hanga remains an expelled member of this party, however, his pioneering effort, whatever may be his fault, must be commended. He [Hanga] paid the money for our registration and donated the building which we are using. We looked at our archive in the national secretariat and discovered that our original certificate could not be located. We reported the matter to the police and the police called us and collected our statements and affirmed that the certificate is missing. They gave us time to look for it, but we could not find it. I now went and swore to an affidavit in the High Court that the certificate is missing and no one came to own up that he has the certificate, which means that after three months or more to say he was in possession of the certificate. It was after the affidavit that I wrote a letter to the INEC with my signature attaching our letter of missing certificate to the police, the police extract and the affidavit to INEC and issued a letter that our certificate was missing. Nobody came out to own up that he has the certificate. It means the certificate is missing. As far as INEC is concerned, we are in order. Apart from that, we are the ones who are recognized by INEC, you saw them during our convention, and they participated in our convention. If somebody is holding the certificate, of what use will the paper be? It is a common paper; can he take it to the market or will he put ‘akara’ inside or do what? The party had insisted that the certificate was in possession of Gen. Buhari after Senator Hanga said it has the original certificate... (Cuts in)...It means that somebody is having the certificate apart from the one we have, it means he has cloned the certificate and that is a criminal offense under the Nigerian law. Let the person now come out and say after we made that declaration that the certificate is with him, then we will now take up the matter and file a criminal offense against him. You were reportedly seen at Aso Rock Villa on the day of the 2011 presidential election. Did you go there? I also addressed this matter in this meeting, but the matter is simple. Can you tell the name of the person who saw me in the Villa? If I hear the name of the person, I will now identify him whether he is an opposition party man or Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) man? If he is a PDP man, that means he is also part of the PDP blackmail against me. If he is an opposition then I will now ask him what took him to the Villa and how much money was given. Did he collect money on our behalf and he did not give me my share? I would want to know because I did not get my share. The only person who can tell if I was in the Villa is Jonathan. You can ask him when we installed him as president of Nigeria through the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) if from that day till now he has set his eyes on me. These are political blackmail; they do not bother me. I even heard more than that last Sunday. I went to a friend’s house in Kaduna and he said I took N300million from this, he mentioned the names, I watched him, he mentioned them when I asked him the issue of candidature and swore by the Quran. Nobody in Nigeria born of a woman will say he has given one naira for candidature. I want to see that person and I say that the only candidature who I influenced personally was our candidate, Ahmed Yusuf, in Taraba State. Even that one, it was because I initiated it and the party accepted his candidature and between me and him, not even a glass of water exchanged hands. And if there is anybody alive, let the person who says he gave me money come out and say where he gave me, under what circumstance and for what, whether I have carried out that responsibility or not. If you are looking for honest Nigerians and you are looking for one – and I hope you will publish it – when you get me, you need not go any further. I will tell you the reasons. I was virtually everything that any Nigerian could be in terms of looking for money. At less than 30, I was in charge of school building committee in Rivers of Nigeria in 1975 and I managed funds by the Federal Government N300 million of that time, equivalent to $500 million US dollars. Myself and one Oyinbo man, I do not want to tell you why they brought an Oyinbo man and Hausa man to take charge of schools building committee in Rivers State. When a Rivers or Bayelsa man challenges me I will tell him. From there I left to become Area Engineer in Maiduguri. I was supervising and managing all construction projects in and outside Maiduguri; electrical, mechanical, civil and building works where under me from there I became Maiduguri Town Engineer. I was the first person to start dualisation of roads in northern Nigeria as Maiduguri Town Engineer. I was receiving grants from the Federal and state governments. Not only that, I was director of many companies including the Delta Steel Company, the ever largest single industry in Nigeria then for two years and I was also a Director of the Ajaokuta Steel Company for two years and at the time I was the director, no money was being spent on Ajaokuta. I was a director of two banks; I was a director of an insurance company. In addition to so many companies I have been chairman and director, I was also Director General of the National Maritime Authority (NMA), the money spinning organisation of government in this country. I was not found wanting, I was investigated eight times by the Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo government. Christopher Kolade is alive, he gave a report, he told Obasanjo that I should be reinstated, because if in Nigeria you can find three honest people like me, Nigeria could have reached the skies. I was investigated by the National Assembly, I was not found wanting. Those who knew me since 1959 when I entered primary school till date know I have not changed. I have dined with the highest and the lowest men. Politics is about public relations, I am not praising myself, I do not need to, but I think I have got plenty of public relations to accommodate both the high and the low. My house is opened 24 hours of the day. I cannot fight for my children, I have seven children, all graduates some of them with two masters but no job. I was interrogated and detained 37 times from 2002 to date. I was tried for treason and I was put underground because of party politics. This project that you see, don’t you think it is about time for me to rest and think about my life? I am above 60; what else do I need? On my house, if after 38 years of graduation I still live in boys’ quarters of two bedrooms with my family, then it means that there might be something wrong with me. Either I am a clever thief that is stealing and accumulating and not using it or that I have not got the money. I told the people that I built my house in 1988 when I came to the Constituent Assembly and I have been in Abuja since then. If you are looking for an honest man, it is me. All those claiming to be honest can only be like me and not better than me; and quote me I can say this anywhere, with what I have done in my political life and my life as a whole. What do you say to the allegation that the PDP compensated you by allowing your daughter to emerge as the CPC councillor in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC)? Maybe that is correct and that is why they took her to court now trying to retrieve the mandate from her. If it is the PDP that gave her the position as a ‘dash’, they should withdraw the case or give me money to fund her lawyers since they told you that. I am begging, because I do not have money to pay for her court case and up till now she has not received a kobo salary as I talk to you. If I tell you what the girl did you will shed tears, an ASP police woman was beaten up by those who wanted to snatch the ballot box when she wanted to stop them. You said you are going for business, but you claim also that you do not have money? I told you I was in Abuja since 1988, I bought lands that I sell to educate my children. And I thanked some ministers in Abuja, there were certain lands that I bought, because I could not build, they revoked and gave their children. I have properties in Abuja, some were demolished by some ministers, but I have not gone to court. I left them to God. And they see me I laugh with them as friends. What they do not know and what a lot of Nigerians do not know is that you need two things: time and patience. Once you have tthem, you are at peace with yourself. Let me assure those who have vested this hardship on my sweats, in case you do not know, am still a contractor. I have been a contractor since Shagari days. I bought small lands, but I did not have money to develop them, this is why my house is still a two- bedroom flat.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Jul 2013 08:53:05 +0000
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