Election Riggers Should Be Shot-Buba Galadima  Interview
Mon Aug 8,2011

Engr. Buba Galadima, the national secretary of the opposition Congress for Progressive Change[CPC], is regarded as the stormy petrel of contemporary politics in Nigeria.in a no -holds- barred interview with National Accord’s  assistant editor[in charge of politics], Chuks Ehirim,Galadima did not hide his disdain for election riggers in the country. His suggestion? they should be shot.  He spoke on other issues of national interest, including the boko haram saga, pointing out that the sect members were used to rig election for former governor Ali Modu Sherrif in 2003. As a way of solving the problem, the CPC chief said all those who had a hand the killing of Boko Haram members should be dragged to the International Court of Justice,Hague, to be tried for massacre. Excerpts:

Q We want to know the reason your party, Congress for Progressive Change[CPC], soon after the last April elections, seems to have gone into crises, that up to the level where some of your members were calling  for the removal of the present national leadership. Why is this happening now?

Well, the trouble in my mind,  is very simple; As the saying goes, failure has no mother or father. I want to say with clear certainty that most of the calls for the removal of the national executive committee or  the leadership of the party, is simply prompted by those who do not want  the CPC  to survive and they have ascribed so many things to us. They have insinuated that we were the cause of post- election violence  in some parts of the country. They have even tried to insinuate that the current  national tragedy running across some states in the North, where the handiwork of the opposition. And when they say opposition, they mean CPC.It is also  a known fact that the party was ab initio infiltrated by agents of deception;  by agents of  government; simply say by agents of the PDP  in other to weaken it.  That they were not able to do, either before or during the election   until after the elections, so they had to use falsehood in many forms, to get what they want.  

There were high hopes among the leaders and followers of CPC that it was going to form  governments, both at the state and national levels. After the elections, this did not happen and some people  attributed it to imposition of some candidates. Others maintained that it was due to the manner the elections were rigged. You as the national secretary of the party, what do you think were the cause of the CPC failure at the polls?

This is democracy. People should be allowed to hold onto their   own views. But  we owe it a duty  to ourselves, to  the  country and to our supporters, to explain the facts of the matter. As you know CPC became the only threat to the status quo,  not only to PDP but to anybody who is  on the side of injustice, CPC seems  to have been his waterloo because they believe,  especially the elite,   that when CPC forms government, it will not be business as usual and that the common man will never be shortchanged because of principles we stand for . Therefore, the government of the day, that is the PDP government, was so threatened to their bone marrow, therefore they have to use all manner of campaign of calumny and all manner of blackmail, they tried to compartmentalize  the country in terms of religious persuasion, in-terms of where you come from .  When they found  out that that would  not take them anywhere, they devised a strategy of winning the election by first announcing that when people vote, they should leave their polling booths. I do not know what they were afraid of, why the  people should leave their polling booths before the results were announced. But

 when they couldn’t get away with that, they now strategized to see how they could cripple the CPC and  that is why we said that the violence that erupted was in fact the handwork of the PDP  itself.  And because they wanted to use that to declare  state of the emergency so that they could declare curfews in most of the states where they rigged elections and  killed

our people in thousands across the country. In some states they killed more than 20,000 of our activists and party leaders , agents across the entire northern region  in order to  to cripple the party.  After having done that, they arrested so many others and lucked them up in prison cells and police stations, in dehumanizing conditions and a lot of people died in detention too. After that, they had to bring in the military, the soldiers, the security, the police, to maim and  to kill, in certain cases, to make sure that the results were written in favour of the PDP.

It was not that CPC could not win the Presidency nor is it because it could not win  governorship positions about 14 15 governors in the north but it was because the party was crippled by the use of state apparatus that the PDP deployed in connivance, active connivance  and support of the INEC.As you know,  in some states INEC took the entire electoral materials and handed them over to Governors, to  arrange the elections  and write result for themselves. This was the situation where the party found itself.  There is no known history where the leadership of a political party  will go around, mobilize the entire country in a manner that the leadership of the  CPC did. We should rather be commended for our mobilization skills; administrative skills, rather than to be demonized for what happened which everybody knew that we put our lives on the line, to make sure that what is right is done and we had courageously spoken, without fear or favour. I mean, not many people in our position would have done what we did.

Are you saying that  members of the party who are calling for the sack of you leaders of CPC, are not doing so with genuine intention or genuine love for the party?

They are not our party members. They are wolves in sheep’s  clothing. They are PDP in heart,  just sent to destroy the CPC because PDP are enemies of the people. In fact, people see them as their own enemies because  they are trying to promote evil and the evil as represented by those who sent them. I do not regard them as members of the CPC. Anybody in CPC who is working on the principles of the CPC, would be doing so, not for personal gains, but   especially for the emancipation  of the down trodden people of this country.

And how far these do you think they can go?

…They won’t get anywhere. There is nothing they can do. They are just wasting their time and in fact they are destroying their public image and destroying their political future.

The party is in court, not just over the Presidential election, but also in several states. But we gathered that this intention of the party to challenge the outcome of the election in court, is equally one of the things creating this division within the party. Why do you think that Some of your members are against the leadership of the party challenging the election result court?

If they are genuine CPC members  it means they have to be interested in the CPC victory, CPC dreams and they must stand for actualizing that the votes of the people must count. whoever is against this, you must know the background he or she is coming from because whoever says that the votes of the people should not count and that  the rule of law should not take its course, then you can be rest assured that you will he will be worse than Obasanjo in the PDP.  That is the way l look at it.  I see a future in this great nation. God does not do

things out of the ordinary. What had happened during this election and after the election, is an eye opener that after all, we are getting somewhere, for anyone to rig election, he or she must calculate the risk of election rigging. That is the big lesson we have learnt. My only prayers is that the judiciary should leave up to its expectations because  I know that surely one day I’ll die and if the result of any of these elections in any state of the federation is subjected to forensic analysis, less than 20percent of those who are occupying elective positions in government  today, will survive.

You ,as National Secretary of the CPC, have been accused, especially by leaders of the PDP, of being responsible for the post election Violence that erupted in parts of the north, what they say is that you told CPC supporters that anybody who rigselection, should be lynched. I want to know your side of the story.

 Let me say for sure that I did not, but why are the PDP afraid? We said those who rig should be punished. So does it mean that it is the  PDP  people who rigged? If it is the PDP people who rigged, then they should be shot dead. If it is they who rigged, they should be shot dead. We said those who rigged. Why do they ascribe to  it to themselves if they are not the ones who rigged. We said that whoever rigs election is worse than an armed robber; he is worse than the hired assassin; he should be dealt with summarily.  We didn’t say PDP, WE SAID THOSE WHO RIGGED. If they didn’t rig, what is their problem? We didn’t say that PDP should be shot but that those who rig should be dealt with by the people because they are their enemies  

Now we understand that since after the election, the leadership of CPC of which you are the National Secretary has been under intense pressure to co- operate with the PDP government and part of that lobby was an invitation to join the Government of National Unity[GNU]. Why did you turn it down?

[Laughter] We keep on telling people that the leopard will never change its skin. This is PDP. When they deceived parties like the ACN, APGA, labour party, to help them rig elections so that they antagonize and kill Nigerians in this dispensation, we told them not to go and work with them. They did not believe us.  They thought PDP is honest and honourable people. They have now seen that PDP was never looking for any ACN man; labour party man or an APGA man to work with. What they are afraid of is to compromise the CPC people. Immediately we refused to give in, they sacked all of them. All the leaders of these parties should be ashamed of themselves. They should go and bury  their heads in shame.

So, how did you turn down the invitation of the PDP?

How can they steal my property and come and borrow it to me. We see this mandate as our own because if there had been  proper  election, Buhari wouldn’t have won less than 80 percent  of the votes. Even if he won79.9 percent, I say he was rigged out. l still maintain my stand .

Let’s go to this problem that has been troubling Nigeria, the Boko Haram saga. It has gotten to a point where soldiers are posted in the streets of Borno State. Leaders from the state are saying that the soldiers should be withdrawn. Those outside are saying no. What is your take on this?

 Well, my take on this issue, is very simple. I think Nigerians are too forgetful, too soon to forget their differences. You should know and remembered better than anybody, that I was the first Nigerian, known Nigerian, to have spoken openly on the 6th of June 2009 when the Boko Haram people were attacked by soldiers and 19 of their people were killed during a funeral procession in Maiduguri.  Those that were injured were taken to hospital and were denied medication. Even in war, when the enemy is injured he is given the privilege of treatment, let alone in the same country. Your own country man shot by your own soldiers, taken to hospital and denied treatment.  I issued a statement that it was not right and condemned the action of the soldiers but because we are too forgetful; we don’t remember history. Nobody has remembered that statement that I first made in 2009 in Nigeria. Secondly, when the Boko Haram leader, Mohammed Yusuf, wrote a letter to then, late President of Nigeria, Yar’adua, copied the IG, Chief of Defence staff, service chiefs, including the Borno state commissioner of police and the director of state Security Service in Borno, that there must be an investigation as to how and why their members were shot  during a funeral procession. And the government turned a blind eye. Three weeks later, they wrote a reminder. Nobody cared. Then they wrote a third letter, nobody cared to respond to their demand. It was  as if chicken were shot by the Nigerian soldiers.  Then said they will take revenge. Nobody bothered. The rest is history.   From our records,  7 to 8,000 people were killed in Maidugiri during that mayhem. Their leader was caught  everybody saw him, well and handed over to the police. He was  extra-judicially murdered. Let me tell you that of the over 7-8,000 people who were killed that time, most of them were killed in cold blood by security agents but the PDP government that claimed the mantra of the ‘rule of law’, never bothered to investigate. Even when they whole mayhem was shown on Aljazeera. It never bothered them because it was as if they shot chicken in a poultry farm.  When pressure became too intense, they set up a committee under Lt. Gen. Aliyu Mohammed Gusau, to go and investigate the situation and report. Nobody is asking question, where is the Aliyu Gusau report? What were his findings? You mean that we as Nigerians have no right to know about the report in a democracy because it is a PDP affair? Or is now what they call, in their usual  Mago-mago, ‘family affairs When they kill this number of Nigerians. So, in fact what we should do is for all of us to demand that all members of the government then and now, should  be taken to the Hague and tried for concealment or for extra-judicial killing or massacre. After all, it is massacre. Whatever may be the case[Alimodu] Sheriff cannot absolve

himself.   I learnt he said that Boko Haram was there before he became governor. Yes Boko

Haram was there doesn’t Nigerian government know that there was a freedom of expression or freedom of  religion, you can even decide not to have religion. The Boko Haram that was there, did he have a problem with them? Did they harm anybody? But the story is that they worked with him. It was during his time because they were partners. This is why he had to appoint their  ambassador as a commissioner in his cabinet. This, to my mind, is what led to the elimination of their own ambassador in  his cabinet  because they assisted him to win the election in 2003.

 So what you are saying is that Boko Haram was part of the rigging of election in 2003?

 Of course they are part of the problem. They were part of the ANPP   machine in Borno in 2003 when became governor. That was why he gave them a cabinet position in  his government. And this why a lot of people are saying that the Commissioner, Buji Foi, was killed because if he was left alone, a lot of things would have been revealed.

You called for the trial of those who were involved in the concealment of the killing of the Boko Haram members. You said they should be taken to the Hague. Are you referring to officials of then state government or both officials of state and Federal government?

Of course both of them as well as the security agencies who had  hands in it. We all know them, they are known, the police commissioner who was on posting during that time, is known. Could he have shot those people without the  knowledge of his superiors? Could the Police Commissioner have given order for those people to be shot without the knowledge of the governor? One thing should lead to the other. Or could the governor have deployed the military to carry out mass murder in Maiduguri at that time in 2009 without the knowledge of security agencies and the President of the country?

So what is the solution now?

They must all be tried. This  is our country, they must face trial. They are not supper human beings. Because they occupied a transient political position  does not mean that they are above the law. This should be a lesson to whoever is government or is holding a transient public office, that you cannot do as you wish, that if all days are for the thief, one day will be for the owner.

President Jonathan has been in office for close to two months. How do you assess his performance so far?  

Does he have the large heart to rule Nigeria? Does  he know what it takes to be the President of Nigeria? I can only concede one thing, that he is trying very much, in order to kill the CPC, the most viable opposition party in Nigeria today. He is trying very well to strangle it. I must concede that to him.   will he succeed?  Never. You will never kill an idea. No brute force can kill an idea. If he can do that, then America should have obliterated al-qaeda. They have not. So Jonathan will never succeed. He is just wasting his time. And l want to caution him that he will be playing with fire, if he says that he wants to extend his tenure to six years or seven years. I hope all the speculations are false.

Why do you say so?

Well  Because his master tried it and he did not succeed.

So what makes you believe that he will not succeed?

Can the ear be bigger than the head?

What advise do you have for CPC supporters most of who are downcast over what is happening in the party?

They shouldn’t worry, they shouldn’t worry, they should be resolute, they should be focused. Their eye should be on the ball, the goal is our target. They should discountenance all these yappings from PDP sponsored surrogates. They are going nowhere.  

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