Buba Galadima, a former political ally of the outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari and chieftain of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), said Nigerians who voted for the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, must prepare for the consequences of exchanging their votes with Indomie noodles and N1,000 at the last general election.
Galadima said the electorate will constitute a “greater disappointment” if the last presidential election was to be reviewed because they allowed themselves to be deceived by politicians.
He said another category of people was the Muslim and Christian clerics who felt they could use their influence to determine who emerges as the country’s next president.
“To the masses themselves, they were a greater disappointment because instead of voting for those that will salvage them from their abject poverty, from their pitiable condition.
“They voted for those who gave them one Indomie and N1,000. Now they should wait to reap the harvest of their investment. This is where Nigeria finds itself today,” Galadima said during an Arise TV interview.
The NNPP chieftain also responded to a recent claim by President Buhari’s media adviser, Femi Adesina, that his principal would leave Nigeria better than he met it in 2015 in terms of security and the economy.
Galadima said, “We wish that he (Buhari) could have kept the country (as he met it) on May 29, 2015. We could have clapped for him and escorted him to Daura or wherever he intends to live after leaving office.
“The man has set Nigeria 100 years back, divided Nigeria across religious lines, along ethnic lines and crashed economic policies that have left the dollar which he met at N157/$1 and he’s now leaving it at N800/$1, that is if you see the dollar to buy.
“And insecurity was confined to the North East generally, except some dark spots that had happened in Abuja, Kano, and some few other places. Today, you cannot travel to any part of Nigeria with your eyes closed. You have to spend the night praying that God delivers you.
“If that is the kind of Nigeria that Femi Adesina wants, then I pray to God to visit him with what the common people suffer daily in Nigeria.”
Galadima further slammed Garba Shehu for reiterating President Buhari’s claim that the opposition lost the 2023 presidential election to the ruling All Progressives Congress because they were complacent and overconfident.
The NNPP chieftain said Bola Tinubu’s victory was not due to the support he receive from President Buhari and his close associates, saying the president and the likes of Shehu worked against Tinubu’s emergence as president-elect.
“I wish somebody will tell Garba Shehu that, yes, he is right but he was part of the opposition to this incoming government (of Bola Tinubu). Buhari and himself (Shehu) and others around them never wished these people (Tinubu) to emerge as they emerged. They emerged on their own strength,” he said.
“The incoming government knows that Buhari never supported them but it is God that anoints leaders and dethrones leaders. The man (Buhari) in his wildness believed that people should worship him.
“So those serial betrayers that were kneeling down and lying down and worshiping him, and he granted them access to power are now those that are abusing him and taking him to court.
“Those that are saying all kinds of things about him have now started with Tinubu because they want to ingratiate themselves because they cannot be out of power. Any government in power, they must find their way of getting there. I am advising Tinubu to be aware of the pitfalls (by getting) rid of those that think they must be in the corridors of power.”
Galadima added, “My only regret in this country is that Buhari has left Nigerian polity bedeviled by religious and monetization issues, which was worse than rigging because you can no more win an election on the basis of the quality of service, on the basis of your credibility, public service or what you had done, but it is only on the basis of money.”
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