By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor

…Why they are after Buhari
Alhaji Buba Galadima, is one of the egg heads of the North and close associate of ex-military Head of State and National Leader of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd). He spoke in a telephone interview on issues arising from the “bloody and baboon” warning given by Buhari during an interaction with a delegation of CPC from Niger State last Monday.

Buhari had been quoted as saying that “God willing by 2015, something will happen. They either conduct a free and fair election or they go a very disgraceful way. If what happens in 2011 should again happen in 2015, by the grace of God, ‘the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood.’

Buhari’s assertion was quickly followed by sharp denunciations from the presidency and the retooled publicity machine of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The presidency in its reaction through Dr. Rueben Abati had ridiculed what it saw as Buhari’s descent from statesman to regional chauvinist and a blood thirst individual desperate for power.

Dr Abati also poked at Buhari’s past drawing attention to past assertions by one of Buhari’s present associates, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai where the later had claimed that Buhari was unelectable. The presidency also made insinuations of Buhari’s perceived inflexibility as a military ruler saying that he was removed from office on account of his obstinacy.

Alhaji Buba Galadima

The PDP also that same Tuesday speaking through Chief Olisa Metuh, the national publicity secretary of the party at a hastily arranged press conference in Abuja also lampooned what it described as Buhari’s desperation for power which it claimed the former leader would not mind acheiveing even in a pool of blood. The party also sought to draw attention to perciveed infrastructures of the Buhari junta, notably the famous 53 suitcases passed through customs during a nationwide currency exchange in 1984 that demanded the search of all things coming into the country.

The exchange continued on Wednesday with the opposition rallying behind Buhari. The CPC formally defended its national leader on Thursday with a robust denunciation of the allegations from the presidency and its own condemnation of the President. Buhari was further shored up by the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN which through a press statement by its national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed charged the PDP and the presidency of running away from the issues raised by Buhari.

In the midst of the exchanges, Vanguard sought a telephone interview with the National Secretary of the CPC, Alhaji Galadima who remarkably, is one of the closest associates of the General as Buhari is famously hailed among the Northern intelligentsia. He spoke on reasons why Buhari is now in the eye of the storm. Excerpts:

There are speculations about the imminent arrest of General Buhari and yourself. Do you feel it?
They have not yet done that, but we learnt that is what they are planning to do, but nobody has arrested me.

What of the General?
Not yet.

Why do you have the fear that they want to arrest you?
We have our feelers that they are hyping all these issues to lead to our arrest and they have always been trying to do that and that is why they are accusing us.

Why are they picking on the General?
They are picking on the General because it is him they are afraid of and because once you take away rigging they are gone, but they have forgotten that their master, Obasanjo was the first to talk of ‘do or die’. ‘Do or die’ means blood, if you don’t do what I want I will kill you, that is what he said.

The issue is very simple, if you are not a thief why should you be afraid if they say whoever steals should be killed? That is why they are afraid. It is not the first time. General said he was quoting Prof. Ango Abdullahi who said that there are three Boko Harams: the original one, the one that is now perpetrated by criminals that are now raiding homes and markets, and government itself.

Was it not Jonathan who said that there are Boko Harams in his government? Didn’t Azazi say so? So, why are they threatening General Buhari when he was quoting somebody?

President Goodluck Jonathan and Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd)

The press is not being fair to the country because what General said was that it was the malpractices that led to the post election violence of 2011 and that in other countries of the world this injustice leads to civil war, it leads to killing of innocent people and that therefore Nigeria should do better by doing what is right to avoid what is happening in other countries.

Is he not being patriotic when he gives people free consultancy? This is a man who fought in the Congo because of election malpractises.

Whatsoever was the thing that led to the Nigerian civil war, the baseline was election rigging that led us into that civil war. Are you saying that somebody of Buhari’s stature cannot warn those in authority that there is no need for the country to go into this? Why are we miss-reading things? The man should be commended for having the courage to tell those in authority that they should behave well. Let them go and pick him as their mentors are now advising them to. If Obasanjo cannot arrest Buhari I want Jonathan to do it if he can try it because they are hiring people all over the North to be talking for them because they can pay them money.

Who is being hired?
Go and listen to VOA and you will hear them. Why are they jittery, why are they jittery? Is it wrong to say let’s do the correct thing? I challenge Jonathan and his group to publish the Lemu report which they said indicted Buhari. Why are they afraid to publish a white paper because it indicted them as having been responsible for the election violence. I dare them if they are honest people and I dare PDP if they are honest people, let them conduct a free and fair election and let’s see whether they will win one councilor?

Who do they think that they are that they will threaten people? Power is transient! Where is pharaoh?
The man is jeopardizing the fate of Nigeria. The man should choose between PDP and the nation. If we don’t remove PDP the way they are going we will never have Nigeria. They can arrest anybody they want to arrest we are not afraid of arrest after all Buhari himself was in detention for four years. Me I have been charged with treason. It will add to their problem. Let them try it if they can threaten us. If they want they can even kill us are we the first to die?
That is what they want to do because these guys have no culture of running a plural society like Nigeria.