Elder Statesman and leader in the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), Alhaji Buba Galadima, says northern groups recruited the Late General Muhammadu Buhari into politics to confront the Yoruba socio-cultural group, Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), which, between 1999 and 2000, invaded Ilorin to uproot “Fulani structures.”
The NNPP chieftain disclosed this on Tuesday while fielding questions on Arise Television’s Morning Show programme.
Considered a buffer between the North and South, Ilorin,. current capital of Kwara State, although dominated by Yoruba, is ruled by a Fulani Emir tied to Sokoto under the Sultan.
Historically, this Yoruba outreach fell to the rampaging army of the Sokoto Caliphate around 1836s.
OPC was founded by Dr. Frederick Fasehun in 1994 as a vehicle to help revive the June 12, 1993 presidential mandate won by Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola but annulled by General Ibrahim Babangida.
The NNPP chieftain said his Northern group felt that the OPC objective was too much and should be confronted.
According to him, former President Olusegun Obasanjo and then Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu, were doing nothing.
Galadima said: “Some of us who recruited Buhari had a mission. And I will reveal that mission today.
“General Buhari came into politics. It was not his province. He never liked the politicians because he believed we are fake and that we do not mean what we say.
“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.
“In 1999 and 2000, the OPC was on a rampage in some parts of the country, especially the South West, and had inconvenienced a lot of people from this part of the country to the extent that they mobilized over 500 vehicles to come and invade Ilorin with the sole aim of uprooting what they called Fulani structures in Ilorin.
“We felt that was too much, and President 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?
“I called a meeting in Kaduna, about 34 of us, and we sat down to reason. 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.
“And when he was approached, he had very unkind words for 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.”
