Alhaji Buba Galadima, a businessman and politician, is a former political associate of President Muhammadu Buhari. In this television interview monitored by AKINWUNMI KING, the former National Secretary of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), condemned the Federal Government’s clampdown on promoters of #EndSARS. He also spoke on the clamour for the zoning of presidency to the South East in 2023, saying he would never support such an idea. Excerpts:
What is your assessment of the state of the nation within the context of the #EndSARS protest, how all of that has been handled and the way forward with regards to security reforms, restructuring the country and delivering better service to the people?
As far as I am concerned, the #EndSARS protest has been an eye opener and even if there is nothing, there was one big achievement that after all, this government can quickly address people’s feelings and urgently too. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have expected this government to say a word over what has happened. After all, they are human and their invincibility has been broken into pieces, their pride and arrogance had been defeated by these young men. And I commend the young men for starting this #EndSARS protest even though their primary goal of disbanding the SARS unit of the police has not been achieved, because it was only a change of name, all the personnel are there intact. There is no psychological reorientation to address issues really raised by these young men. Of course, thank God that the government responded out of fear and they are jittery running from pole to pole across the country. And for the first time, this government has sent its ministers to their various states of origin to address the people, this we never had. So now, what does it mean? It means that if Nigerians stand up for what they believe in and it is genuine, not out of primordial sentiment but just patriotism to address good governance, and that this government and any other government must respond appropriately. And I want to quickly add that what to do is for all of us in this country to stand up and ask for genuine proper electoral reform so that the votes of the people will count, such that the views of the people will count, that the needs of our teeming population should be addressed by whatever government that is in place.
What do you make of the government’s decision to intimidate and harass some of the #EndSARS promoters by arresting them, blocking their bank accounts and preventing them from travelling?
What the government has done in that regard is not right. The government has no such right, they have no such power to block bona fide Nigerians from travelling out of Nigeria. They have no power to block their accounts, block their accounts for what? What have they done? These young men were peacefully protesting actions or acts or omissions or commissions of government. Why did you, after persuading them, or after agents of government allegedly attacked and killed them as rumours had it all over the country, followed them with this draconian disposition of blocking their accounts and stopping them from traveling? That is not constitutional, the government should please… and I am sending this message to Mr. President, whether he knows or he doesn’t know, let him be shown or told what I am saying, his people have no right to do what they are doing. They should desist and unlock the bank accounts of these young men, allow them to carry on with their normal activities as Nigerians. You cannot harass them because we are in a democracy, we are not in a military regime where the senior officer will tell you that ‘do you see that fire there?’ Then you will say, ‘yes sir’. The senior office will then say, ‘go and jump into that fire and die’, then you will salute and say ‘yes sir’ and you will go and fall in the fire and die. This is democracy and everything must be placed on the table. After all, those in authority are our servants; they are not our masters; they should take a cue from what we have told them to do; that is why we voted for them. They cannot lord it over Nigerians.
With the recent development, a lot of people have renewed the call for restructuring and state policing. What is your take on this?
You see, I am a believer in restructuring but I don’t know the correct definition of this restructuring that people are clamouring for. Bringing state police and native authority police is because we have young men who have not experienced those periods in life. There is a reason why native authority police or state police were disbanded. I want to tell you and let the nation know that the emirs and chiefs that had native authority police are more humane than our present governors. If some of you make the mistake of having state police, let me tell you that this will be the end of democracy in Nigeria. Because people like me or you may never have the privilege to visit our states if we have a different political opinion with the governors of our states. Even without state police, they use the federal police to intimidate, to harass, to maim and lock up opponents. If now these people are under their control, only God would save us. But we need to think it deeply, there are a lot of things we can do really to ameliorate the situation. You can’t go from Abuja to Kaduna now… in the last one week, people are being kidnapped, people are being sold like rams in the market. They kidnap you and sell you to another agent, you go from three to four hands before you get released, and if you cannot raise money, you are shot. Look, this government promised security and we believed them because the man at the helms of affair had been a General Officer Commanding; he had been a governor of a state; he was a minister; he had been a military head of state and now a civilian head of state, he has all it takes to do what is right and bring about the end of insecurity in our land. Without security, we cannot progress; we cannot develop; we cannot move forward. These are the issues and the issues are not sentiments that when one thing happens, we rush to say we should restructure. Can somebody tell me what this restructuring is? I have got my own definition and if there is a conference, I will say that definition and it will be accepted, not in the manner and way some certain people address this issue.
What is your own definition of restructuring?
My own definition is very simple, let Nigerians sit down and look at the present and yesterday, was it good enough for us? If it is not good for us, what can we do to make Nigeria better? It is not sentiment and we have a lot and a host of it. How do we put food on the table for every Nigerian? How do we secure every Nigerian to go to the farm without inhibition to do his farming and make a living? How can we make it possible for a Nigerian to travel from one point to another to either visit a relative or do his business without being harassed on the road by kidnappers or hoodlums? How can the son of Mr. Nobody get employment in the civil service?
I was coming from Kaduna the day before yesterday when I went for this condolence and I met a young man who told me that his father was a General Manager in the NNPC and he went to Nile University and got first class in Petroleum Engineering. And for five years, he had no job, he went to do an examination for the local content council which could not even hold first class. But the sons of Mr. Somebody who got third class are getting employment all over. This is the kind of Nigeria that we must address.
There was an issue in the news last week in which some prominent Nigerians mull a Southern presidential candidate come 2023 and this according to them is for the purpose of unity and stability. What do you have to say to this?
I read the news and I saw the names of those prominent Nigerians involved, but the most important is: Why do we do things just reacting or making a reflex over an issue that is just on the surface or surfacing? We are in a democracy and everybody is free to say his mind and put forward his opinion on issues. I have a standing view for the last 42 years, from 1978 till date on the issue of zoning and I have attended various constitutional conferences in 1987, 1994, 2014, and my views are not hidden. If we are discussing democracy and we are always quick to say that we should do as they do in Europe; we shall do as they do in America, even though I will now take out America because they are becoming another Cameroon in the making politically. If not, how can you say in a democracy that you have to fix leadership? I can vote for any southerner any day if that person has the kind of views or opinions or foresight as I would want. After all, there is a president now from the northern part of the country who is supposed to be a Muslim like myself. And I ask, what has he done to northerners or my religion? I can’t travel from here to Abuja. The day before yesterday, I left Abuja to go and condole the families of Alhaji Balarabe Musa, I ended up not visiting the house because I found out at 5.30 that the train will leave at 6 o’clock. I was seeing the house but I couldn’t enter and I had to come back. And yesterday, I had to come back to Lagos and traveled by air. These are the kinds of situations that we find. If anybody can provide me security, economic prosperity, build roads, infrastructure, take my children to school, provide health services, why do I have to look for another Abubakar or Muhammed, or whoever? The issue is good governance. Let all of us Nigerians come out and address the issue of good governance as they have done in Malaysia. What is the basic minimum that our communities need that our country needs, let’s agree on all those issues and whoever we put forward as our choice must work by what we have designed to make Nigeria look like in the four years that he’s going to be in power. We will start things that we can never dismantle. Just like when you increase fuel price, the price of commodities go up and they will never come down. We have started with two protectorates, three regions, four regions, 12 states, 19 states, 21 states, 30 states, 36 states plus Abuja, yet Nigerians are clamouring for more states, there will be no end to this. If you say you are zoning the presidency to the north, next time people will say it should be zoned to regions in the north. Later they will say let it be zoned to the states, they will say let it be zoned to the local governments. In fact, Nigerians will soon ask for the zoning of the presidency to wards. We as Nigerians must agree that this is what we want, we should agree on what will work for Nigeria, not for tribe or religion, not for ethnicity or where somebody comes from. If you zone the presidency to any place on clamour, then it means that man is going to be there for only his people. Is that what we want? We are crying of deprivation, nepotism that is being visited on Nigerians by this government. Now, we still want to go and bring people based on tribe, region or ethnicity, where is it going to end?