A signatory to the 2013 merger of the All Progressives Congress, Alhaji Buba Galadima, said there was indeed an agreements between President Muhammadu Buhari and presidential aspirant, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to support the former Lagos State Governor’s presidential ambition in 2023.
While speaking during an interview with PUNCH, Galadima said the agreement was reached before the 2015 presidential election.
Galadima’s confirmation is coming days after Tinubu’s outburst in Abeokuta while addressing Ogun State APC delegates, he claimed that without him Buhari wouldn’t have become Nigeria’s president in 2015
As a former associate of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), do you think the President will impose his candidate or leave it open for all aspirants to contest in the Presidential primary of the APC?
You don’t need to be a prophet or soothsayer to know that the President will indeed anoint whosoever he wants to be the candidate of the APC. But what one needs to look at is whether he could do that with some sense of decorum, with some sense of decency, with some sense of consideration for the opinion of the majority members of his party. My answer is No. Therefore, whoever he anoints will cause bickering, infighting, and a lot of anti-party activities. This will bedevil the APC.
As one of the founding members of the APC, was there any agreement at any time that Tinubu would succeed Buhari?
Not perfectly an agreement, but there was an understanding because Tinubu with one other person and the President also with another person sat down and the information we got was that they agreed that if Tinubu would help Buhari win, he would become the Vice-President. When that was not possible, they called him to ask him to assist because of the exigencies of the time, which wouldn’t have allowed for a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
They said that whatever he does, he should deploy and make sure that Buhari becomes President and that when he (Buhari) is going, he would also do whatever he would in his powers to assist Tinubu to become President. It looks like they are now going back on that understanding. And a promise is a promise whether written or unwritten because if you can subvert it, God knows your heart. And God never accepts betrayal. When you are committed, whether it is sour or bitter, or tasty, you have to swallow it.
Now, it looks like they want to go back on that understanding with Tinubu. This is why Tinubu is bitter and I understand this bitterness, because of what has happened to him, which I told him years back. I told him what was going to happen to him. And everything that I predicted those years is now happening. My prayer for him (Tinubu) is that he should come out of this unscathed and healthy. That is my biggest prayer for him.
But for him, it looks like he has already been subverted. The only way he can get his momentum is if the party agrees to do primaries. If the party agrees to go to the primaries, I have no doubt in my mind that Tinubu may emerge victorious, but as far as the consensus which they want to adopt is concerned, he is out of the game.
Who were those present when Buhari and Tinubu reached this agreement you claimed?
I won’t tell you but the people involved know. Tinubu came to the meeting with a former governor while Buhari came with a sitting governor. That is why that governor is solidly behind Tinubu today and because of the fear of God. But I wouldn’t want to mention the names of the two of them, because, Tinubu himself has alluded to this kind of understanding.
