A chieftain of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, Buba Galadima, has said that the party didn’t have enormous resources to challenge the victory of the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, in the presidential election petition tribunal.
Mr Galadima stated this while speaking to Arise TV on the recent meeting between the presidential candidate of the NNPP, Rabiu Kwankwaso, and the President-elect on Thursday.
According to him, such meetings are not strange in Nigerian political history.
He said: “Everything in Nigeria is news. Ordinarily, a meeting between two political leaders should not attract that kind of ecstasy from the citizenry.
“But you know Senator Kwankwaso contested against the president-elect in the 2023 election, in which the NNPP came fourth.
“However, after the contest, we’re one party that didn’t go to court even though we’re the only people who have credible reasons to go to court. That in itself speaks volumes and can be interpreted in several ways.
“The actual situation is that meetings of such nature and even the idea of unity government is not something new in Nigerian politics. It happened in the First Republic between the NCNC and the NPC – that’s Azikiwe’s and Ahmadu Bello’s parties.
“Later, there was also a unity government that was formed between the NPC and the NNDP led by Chief Samuel Akintola of the Western Region.
“Of course it is also on record that during the government of Shagari, the NPP led by Nnamdi Azikiwe had an agreement with the government of the NPN.
“So, it’s history that’s repeating itself. This is why there is the need to educate the young people about the history of their country.”
Responding to why the NNPP did not go to court to challenge Mr Tinubu’s victory like other opposition parties did, Mr Galadima said the party would require at least N5 billion to do that.
“First, we have to place on record that it’s the PDP that has expelled both Kwankwaso and myself. So we wouldn’t have been in a race just to stop them from winning an election.
“But we also know that even going to court entails a lot of resources, which we didn’t have. Our performance was measured solely on our credibility and not on the deep pocket.
“For anybody to go to court to challenge an election, that person must have not less than N5 billion. We don’t have that money to do that,” he said.
