Prominent Nigerian politician Engineer Buba Galadima says he is aware that President Muhammadu Buhari will never agree to sign the country’s electoral law, which includes the imposition of a free and fair election.
He made the remarks in an interview with BBC Hausa as citizens continue to speculate about President Buhari’s decision not to sign the election law.
An excerpt from a letter sent to the National Assembly by the President said that the by-elections in more than 8,000 constituencies in Nigeria, would result in a significant increase in the cost of holding by-elections between the parties.
But Engineer Buba Galadima, a former political ally of President Buhari, said the president refused to sign the bill “for personal reasons and not for the public good.”
“I was not surprised by the move, because I have said in many media outlets that I agree to be beheaded if Buhari signs the bill,” he said.
Asked why Buhari would not sign the election law, Buba Galadima said: “There are some of Buhari’s aides who believe that if a fair election law is enacted, they will not be able to manipulate the election. Secondly, his officials told him that they did not win the election because they had a large population, but only because they had the power of the government. the ability to distort and defeat the election in the future. “
Buba Galadima said it had been more than two years since the election law was finalized, but Buhari had rejected it.
“The law was brought to him for two years, but he returned it after it was returned to him. Bring it, bring it back. It was said that Abubakar Bukola Saraki did not love him and his people. But he was not Saraki. He does not love him, because he knows that once he signs, he knows he has lost the election, his party has lost. “
He added that there was still a long way to go.
“Even now that the objections have been removed from the bill, if it is passed, it will be returned to the legislature.”
Asked about allegations that he was being incited by President Buhari’s close associates, he said:
“If the election is free and fair, I assure the Nigerian people that neither the APC nor any councilor will ever win in this country. If they do, they will sign the election law as it stands. “
On the urgency with which the Nigerian president has said that political parties will spend huge sums of money on the by-elections provided for in the bill, Buba Gladima said that was not the case.
“These elections are not conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), they are political parties.
He said there was no amount of money that the parties would need.
“I think you have forgotten. You have forgotten that I, as the secretary general of the CPC, was the first to suggest that there should be a by-election, that there should be a referendum, and that governments should. to intervene to destabilize states like Kano, Bauchi, Katsina and Kaduna? Has this been forgotten? I was the one who initiated the by-elections. “
He said the move would affect the image of President Buhari in the eyes of Nigerians.
“He has not lost his temper, since he has not forgotten that we have not raised our voices in this world, in Nigeria, including in our protests for a free and fair election law so that the masses can choose who they want. Since he climbed the hill I survived, why did he forget all these things he did in the past?
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