A chieftain of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Buba Galadima, has said that the party refused to challenge the victory of Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the 2023 presidential election in court due to the lack of funds.
He stated this while speaking to ARISE TV on the recent meeting between Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the NNPP and the President-elect, Tinubu.
Tinubu and Kwankwaso had met in Paris, France, and the meeting was brokered by Kwankwaso’s ally and former Tinubu’s campaign coordinator, Abdulmumini Jibrin, the House of Representatives member-elect who defected to the NNPP from the APC before the general elections.
Details of the meeting are still sketchy but both men are said to have discussed a government of unity between the two parties that may lead to a possible political alliance between the two politicians.
While responding to it, Galadima said such a meeting between politicians is no news because it had happened a lot of times in Nigeria’s political history.
He said, “Everything in Nigeria is news. Ordinarily, a meeting between two political leaders should not attract that kind of ecstasy by 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 are 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’s 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 Tinubu’s victory like the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party (LP), among others, he said the party lacked enough resources 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 naira. We don’t have that money to do that,” he said.
