Zainab
Buba Galadima is the daughter of Alhaji Buba Galadima the national
secretary of the CPC. She’s contesting for the councillorship seat for
Wuse Ward in the March 6, FCT area council polls. She explains why she
is in the race, how she emerged CPC’s candidate and her chances of
winning. Excerpts:
By Musa Abdullahi Krishi
You have the same surname with the CPC national secretary; Alhaji Buba Galadima, are you related or it’s just a coincidence?
I’m his daughter. I went to school in
England. I have two Bachelor and two Master degrees, and I’m about to
complete my ECC, in chartered accounting. I completed my National
Service last year. Now I’m contesting for councillorship seat in Wuse
Ward, which is under AMAC.
Why are you contesting on CPC platform?
Naturally, I’m a CPC card carrying
member, and the party is very strong in Abuja. If you look at the last
elections conducted in the country, like the presidential, senatorial
and House of Representatives’ elections, you notice that CPC won in
Abuja. Beyond that, I do identify with the ideals and principles of the
party; that is why I joined the race on the platform of the party.
Some say you got the ticket; because your father is the national secretary of the party....
It’s not because my father is an
official of the party; he actually never said anything about it. He
didn’t really interfere in all the affairs. I decided to run because a
couple of people came and advised me. I’ve been interested in politics,
and I’ve been an activist for the past four years, so I decided to run
for the councillorship.
When I declared my intention, there
was a candidate, who was the secretary of the party at the ward level
then. We were two, but later on, the party chairman at the ward then
decided to join. So, the secretary stepped down for him, and it remained
the two of us. But because I came in before him, and there was need for
us to avoid conflict in the party, we decided to come out with one
candidate, who is capable of winning; who will be appealing to the crowd
and be able to achieve that feat. We had series of meetings, and most
people felt it was better for the other aspirant to step down for me in
order to go for primaries without any problem, because we didn’t want to
pick the problem that CPC is having in some states.
They really gave me a tough time; this
didn’t come to me on a platter of gold; I worked hard for it, because
they thought that how could I come from nowhere, even though I’ve been
in the party from the beginning but not as an EXCO member, to get the
ticket? I had to consult them. We attended a lot of meetings. They
thought my father would interfere or they would get instructions here
and there, but none of that happened. In fact, my father even told me
that if it would cause problem, I should just step down for him, but I
said I came in to make a difference; that was how I emerged.
So your father did not influence your election as the party’s candidate?
No. The first person that came out was
the party secretary at the ward level, and when I came along with the
other aspirant he stepped down for the person. He may be more popular,
but he didn’t step down for me. He did that for the then chairman who
resigned to contest for the post after I had come in. It’s not about
winning the primaries but the elections. Wuse is quite a big area, and
we had to weigh our chances and bring out a candidate who can capture
all.
So was there any primary at the end?
Well, we went for primary, but he stepped down for me at the end.
What do you have to offer to the people if elected?
I want to bring about change; change
in the sense that I want to see that things work. I want to make sure
that the needs of the people are met. I want to make sure that the
allocations given to AMAC are used effectively for the people, because
we have problem of mismanagement of funds, and things are not working.
There are problems we face every day in our lives, which we can change,
but if you’re not there, you can’t make a change.
For how long have you been in Wuse that you feel the people can give you their mandate and support?
I’ve been in Wuse since October 1998.
My family house is there; our office is there. I live in one of the
largest areas of Wuse. I do relate with people in Zone 4 and Wuse II. I
can say I’m quite popular, especially within the working class and the
elite among the people.
The attitude of an average Nigerian is that elections are won by the size of one’s pocket, how prepared are you financially?
To the best of my ability, I’m
prepared. We do write to people we feel can help us. It doesn’t have to
be money; even if it’s advice or have them introduce us to some
particular areas where we can go and enlighten and convince people to
vote for us, because in Abuja, we don’t have much problem of money
politics, except on the election day when you need to pay agents to make
sure votes are counted and recorded and to make sure there is no foul
play. So, we need to address that when it comes to election day.
What are your chances of winning?
My chances are very high. By God’s
grace, I think I’ll be able to win that seat. I say that because I
monitored elections in 2011, and CPC has done very well, especially in
Wuse. It’s one of the places that CPC won elections. There was no
polling unit I went to that PDP won. So, with that, we’re quite popular
in Wuse and the whole of Abuja.
DailyTrust
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