‘In 2015, God made General Buhari President and no human being could have stopped it. Everything worked towards his favour. But one instrument made it possible. And that instrument is the Card Reader. It was the fear of the card reader that made Jonathan’s administration not to torpedo the will of the people. And it’s that same Card reader that brought President Buhari to power that he is now refusing to sign into law in Nigeria’

The Chairman of Reformed All Progressive Congress (R-APC) Alhaji Buba Galadima declared in London that the important thing Nigerians need now is a change of leadership to save Nigeria as a country. Alhaji Galadima made the assertion at an event organized at the British House of Commons, London by African Development Partnership (ADP).

In a Paper he presented at British House of parliament titled ‘Sustaining Democracy in the Up-coming Nigeria General Election 2019’ Alhaji Galadima said they are in the opposition and there can be no true democracy without opposition.  

He said the air of freedom started sweeping through Africa from 1947 when Africans began to yawn for self-rule or independence from the Colonialists. Africa was essentially divided into two camps, the French and the British. There were also some German and Portuguese colonies.

He took his audience through past political lanes of some African countries like Ghana, Cameroon, Niger, Sudan, Egypt and Nigeria where democracy was curtailed by successive military juntas. And a change of governments became impossible except through the barrels of the gun.

In Cameroon, he said, retrogressive elements were in-charge and only God will save one if one differs. Even in the last election, President Biya was carried on a stretcher to rallies. Some people held him, and he still thinks that he is useful and without him, Cameroon would not survive.

You may not agree with me, but in a democracy, whether you like what one says or not, the most important thing is that we are all contributing towards good governance. We may belong to different political persuasions or what we term in Nigeria as our primordial groups – religion, ethnicity or where one comes from, but I am dead sure that all of us here have one common denominator. And this, the betterment, peace, and progress of our country Nigeria. That’s my thinking and I hope it is so.

Alhaji Galadima claimed that in 2015, God made General Buhari President and no human being could have stopped it. Everything worked towards his favour. But one instrument made it possible. And that instrument is the Card Reader. It was the fear of the card reader that made Jonathan’s administration not to torpedo the will of the people. And it’s that same Card reader that brought President Buhari to power that he is now refusing to sign into law in Nigeria. 

He recalled that when he went to see the Chairman of Ghana Electoral Commission, there was no protocol, access was easy, and security was minimal. But in Nigeria, you have a battalion of policemen guarding the INEC Chairman and other Electoral Commission staff instead of sending them to fight the insurgency or Boko Haram.

‘Democracy is not only the ticking of the ballot papers and voting on the day of the election. There are processes leading to a free, fair, transparent and credible election. If there is no justice, forget about peace. There are some factors militating against a free and fair election in our country. The rule of law is what governs this justice we are talking about. The President has refused to sign the electoral laws. Can we conduct the elections without laws? Can anything good come out of the election? The electoral laws have not been amended since 2010. And for nine years a lot of water has passed under the bridge’ he said.

This electoral law of 2018 was developed by the Tripartite groups in Nigeria, namely National Assembly, INEC and the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation, representing the Executive. For two years they addressed so many issues, lapses in the previous elections from 1960 to the present. They worked hard to plug all the loopholes including court judgments and the card reader which enabled Muhammadu Buhari to become the President.

And, recently the election Monitors from Europe confirmed that Trader Moni is a form of inducement to the voters. These are your people, Europeans, not our people. What is wrong with this is that, since they are now buying votes, whoever they give money they will collect their Permanent Voter Cards (PVC).

Alhaji Galadima told his audience that in the last Rivers and Akwa-Ibom States governorship elections, all the evidence that was put based on the card reader, the Supreme Court ruled that the card reader is not known to the law, it is not justiciable. Since it is not recognized by any law in Nigeria you cannot use it as evidence. That was the view of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. The National Assembly decided to make it justiciable, but the President said it’s too late to sign the bill into law. But the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to my knowledge, has not complained.

Today they are talking about the Chief justice of Nigeria. For me, there is mischief. They knew that the Chief Justice had a problem, maybe, three and a half years ago. Why did they wait until it’s one month to the election? The man was a Supreme Court Judge, second in line when he was nominated by the National Judicial Council (NJC) to replace Justice Mahmud that was retiring. Everybody knew in Nigeria, that the President Buhari refused to confirm him. In fact, it took the Acting President Prof. Osinbajo to unilaterally confirm him.

There is also the harassment of opposition candidates in Nigeria like the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, Dina Maleye, and others. The bank Account of many who they thought have links with the opposition have been blocked, family members of opposition politicians are daily being harassed and their houses raided, but nothing is recovered. It’s just shameful and does not allow for free elections, said Alhaji Galadima.

‘Well, you know of course the big issue about Amina Zakari. She is not the President’s niece by blood. But she is his niece by association. The President’s senior sister is married to Amina’s father. Her role as the Chairman of the collating centre is that all the results of the elections are sent to that centre to be purified before they are sent out to the National Returning Officer’.

They have now started to transfer Commissioners of Police. And, have also declared ‘Operation Python Dance’ nationwide one month to the election and one month after the election. Which means they are envisaging that there will be a problem before and after the election and they can deal ruthlessly with whosoever they want. And President Buhari has publicly said that he doesn’t know what happens around him. The wife also told Nigerians that there only two or three people ruling the country.

In his closing speech, Alhaji Galadima implored Nigerians in the UK to impress on the British government to intervene in the atrocities going on in Nigeria because if there is a crisis in the country the UK cannot accommodate Nigerian refugees.  

He said Nigerians want justice, free, fair, transparent and credible election in Nigeria in 2019. And the only person who can genuinely work to achieve what Nigerians want is the former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. Atiku is a true Nigerian. He is married to an Easterner, a Westerner, and a Northerner. So, his family represents all of us. All our blood will live inside the villa.