Revealed: We dragged Buhari into politics to stop Yoruba Nation agitators, says Buba Galadima

By Samuel Ogunsona, Omolade Adegbuyi and Ahmed Adio

A chieftain of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), Mallam Buba Galadima, has revealed that Northern leaders recruited late President Muhammadu Buhari into politics to stop the agitation for Oduduwa Republic.

He said the Northern leaders were worried about Oduduwa Peoples Congress (OPC) attacks and incursion to Ilorin which attempted to scuttle Fulani structures.

Galadima made this disclosure on Arise Television Morning Show program on Tuesday monitored by Irohinoodua.

He was speaking on the legacy of the Daura born former Nigerian leader.

According to Galadima, the Yoruba Nation agitators’ actions in 1999 and 2000s, which included invading Ilorin with over 500 vehicles to uproot Fulani structures, prompted the northern group to seek a strategic way to counter the threat.

He said the Northern leaders assembled a strategic team and thought that the best approach was to support a retired Military Officer of Fulani ancestry who was popular in the North and also had the capacity to stop the agitation for Oduduwa Republic led by Oodua Peoples Congress, (OPC) and the Coalition of Yoruba Self Determination Groups, (COSEG)
Galadima’s Revelation exposed the fundamental reason behind Buhari’s assessing to power in 2015 after three futile attempts and the evident overwhelming Fulani support he commanded.

In early 2000, the Coalition of Oodua Self Determination Groups, (COSEG) which comprised the Oodua Peoples Congress, (OPC), O’odua Liberation Movement, (OLM), O’odua Youth Movement, (OYM), O’odua Republic Front, (ORF), Federation for Yoruba Consciousness and Culture, (FYCC) and Yoruba Revolutionary Movement, (YOREM) had moved to Kware State with hhe hope of uprooting the enthrenched Fulani hegemony. The movement was led by late Rotimi Obadofin from Kogi State. The Yoruba groups at that time also began a series of global mobilisation for Yoruba Nation including writing to the United Nations and also producing the first Yoruba Charter for Self Determination which was launched in Lagos, Irohinoodua heard on Tuesday.

The coalition supported the late Governor Mohammed Lawal’s first term and bid for a second term.

The Saraki dynasty which supported Mohammed for a first term, had withdrawn its support during Mohammed’s second term campaign.

Mohammed was the great grandson of Afonja, the founder of Ilorin.

Dauring his first term, Mohammed had carried out radical reforms which included the appointment of a direct descendant of Afonja as an Oba in Ilorin. This jolted the Fulani hegemony. He also changed the state transport courier from Ilorin Emirate to Kwara Express. Mohammed was eventually defeated in the 2007 controversial poll which saw the emergence of Senator Olusola Saraki who began the dismantling of all the transformation of Governor Mohammed.

Afonja, the Governor of Ilorin was killed in 1823 by former Fulani allies, Shehu Alimi and Solagberu who was later killed by Alimi’s son.

After the revolution, Ilorin became part of the Sokoto Caliphate. In 1852 when Captain Hugh Clapperton visited Oyo-Ile in 1825 during the reign of Alaafin Majotu, he rejected plea to reverse Ilorin into a frontier state of Oyo Empire. This led to a regroup of Yoruba soldiers after extensive infantry and guerilla training at Ibadan organise six batallion of soldiers which led to the 1842 war and the defeat of Fulani incursion into the Yoruba mainland, albeit temporarily.
The literary handover of power to Fulani in 1960 by the British is believed to have sustained Fulani domination of the political economy by other means.

Galadima revealed that his group decided to bring Buhari into politics to achieve the goal of halting the provocation of Yoruba Nation agitators.

Galadima said: “Some of us who recruited Buhari had a mission. And I will reveal that mission today why General Buhari came into politics. It was not his province. He never liked the politicians because he believed we were fake and that we did not mean what we say.”

He spoke further”But there was an incident that made some of us recruit him, convince him, and use other people to convince him to join politics, even though we had our own agenda.”

Galadima said beginning from 1999 and the early 2000 the OPC, COSEG and others were on a rampage in some parts of the country, especially the South West, and had inconvenienced a lot of people from the Northern part of the country.

He said the Northern establishment was worried to the extent that the Yoruba groups mobilized over 500 vehicles and invaded Ilorin with the sole aim of uprooting what they called Fulani structures in Ilorin.

“We felt that was too much, and President Olusegun Obasanjo was doing nothing. President Bola Tinubu, then Governor of Lagos, was doing nothing. And some of us felt that those groups of people were being encouraged by their leaders in positions of authority. So how do we stop that?”

He said he called a meeting in Kaduna of about 34 Northern leaders and that they sat down to reason and worked out strategic response to the menace.

“How do we save our people from this OPC menace? I suggested that we have to, because you remove government through only two ways. The barrel of the gun and through the ballot box. And they said it was impossible to challenge General Obasanjo. That was how Buhari came to our mind.”

He said when Buhari was approached, he had very unkind words about politicians.

“But since he did not say he was not doing it, we still persuaded him. To cut a long story short, we achieved our first purpose of putting a brake on what the OPC was doing. Immediately Buhari joined partisan politics, we had a very big outing to initiate him into politics. The Obasanjo government became restive and was shaken to its bone marrow. Obasanjo had to really checkmate the OPC.” Recall that former President Olusegun Obasanjo declared two leaders of OPC wanted, Dr Fredrick Faseun and the current Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Adams. Obasanjo also ordered security operatives to shoot OPC members at sight. Many members of the Yoruba Self Determination Groups were killed at this time.

Galadima said for that reason, the North achieved their first purpose of bringing General Buhari into partisan politics.

“The remaining now is history,” he said.

He said the group successfully persuaded Buhari to join politics, and he eventually became a major player in Nigerian politics.
The speech of Galadima has revealed three things: Buhari did not come into politics to save Nigeria but to protect his part of the country and halt the agitation for Yoruba Nation. Secondly, Buhari’s actions during his eight-year tenue which included cold complicity towards armed Fulani invaders may not be unconnected with mission to counter Pan Yoruba measures which included subtle suspicious kid-gloves treatment of armed Fulani invaders and occupation of Yoruba forest and indigenous territories even as at today. Thirdly, that Buhari though was the President of Nigeria but in actual fact he had a Fulani kitchen cabinet that dictated his pace when he was in power.

The Secretary General of Alliance for Yoruba Democratic Movements, (AYDM) a coalition of 120 Pan Yoruba groups Mr Popoola Ajayi told Irohinoodua that the Revelation from Galadima was not surprising.

“There was no illusion about it. Buhari came to save the Fulani North. That was why he built many roads in the North and constructed the railway to his ancestral home country of Niger. He also ensured key security positions were reserved for Fulani people. He also created all Fulani language Federal Radio, perhaps for strategic anticipation of a major ethnic conflict while he resisted state police and decentralisation.”

He said “Many Yoruba political leaders are naive and even to some extent foolish. They lack the capacity to understand and appreciate the context of geo-political dynamics in Nigeria and the long standing agenda of the Fulani leaders which is to seize Nigeria by all means and scuttle self determination.”
He said from Galadima’s submission, Buhari was a Fulani agent masquerading as a the messiah who had come to safe Nigeria.

“With the emergence of Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB and other ethnic based groups, it shows clearly that the first agenda of any Northern candidate in the coming Presidential election is to protect Fulani interests though presented as attempt to safe Nigeria.”