Buba Galadima, the spokesman of the New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP, has disclosed why his principal and 2023 Presidential Candidate of the Party, Rabiu Kwankwaso, could not work with the Presidential Candidate of the Labour party, Peter Obi.
It can be recalled that during the build up to the 2023 Elections, Obi and Kwankwaso met several times to discuss the Possibility of a Partnership but all efforts for it to come to fruition failed.
Speaking in an interview with Punch, Galadima said;
“There are many reasons Obi would have been a wrong man to work with. We will make some of these reasons public, and others we will keep to our hearts. Many Nigerians know that Kwankwaso had been in the PDP and the ruling APC in the past and he participated in the formation of these two parties. The Labour Party, after Peter Obi joined, also became one of the strong four political parties but all the three parties have nothing in common with the NNPP philosophy. All the other parties campaigned on the basis of religion, ethnicity and ‘it is my turn’ fault lines. The NNPP and Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso did not believe in all these primordial sentiments. Nigerians are looking at winning elections now but we are looking at establishing a structure that will do away with the issue of tribe, where one comes from and the issue of religion. That is why I said we wouldn’t have joined forces with Peter Obi because what we knew earlier which a lot of people did not know has now surfaced.”
“The Labour Party’s prominence, popularity and performance were not organic. It was based on certain primordial sentiments and now that sentiment is over and gone for good. I cannot see the Labour Party becoming a force to be reckoned with again because a lot of Nigerians will look at it from what they see now, things that are happening and information being made public on a daily basis. If we had joined forces with them, we could have soiled our thinking of building a new Nigeria where all primordial sentiments should be put aside.”
“If you look at Peter Obi, even there in Anambra State, where he comes from and governed for eight years, you cannot count five mosques. There was a time he (Obi) designed a passport for northerners to identify them in his state. He can’t be talking of national unity and be doing such things. We in the NNPP and they are like water and palm oil; we can’t mix. As for Atiku Abubakar, the man is always looking at himself. He comes to election to make money and when elections are over, he runs out of the country to live outside for three years and then come back.”
“He would then pick a running mate from either the South-East or South-South. If he wins, he will make money from all over the world. So, Atiku is in politics to make money. We are not in politics for business; we are in politics to uplift the living standard of Nigerians and this we have done. So, we are not in a hurry to be in power by all means; we are in this race to make Nigerians understand that we are the best, that we are reliable and that they can pitch their tent with us. So, the difference between Kwankwaso and these other politicians you mentioned is very clear. Kwankwaso is in his own class and miles apart from them.”
CAMPAIGN AFTER ELECTIONS.
What a sorry soul!