Kwankwaso Abandon NNPP For Appointment
Information reaching Ibom Focus says that Kwankwaso Abandon NNPP For Appointment
The romance between a former governor of Kano State and presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) on February 25, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and the government of President Bola Tinubu has thickened lately. The belief is that the secret meetings before and after the election between them is the formation of an all-inclusive government at the centre. TAOFEEK LAWAL writes on some controversies trailing the talks between the two leading politicians.
In the run-up to the 2023 general election, the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) was seen as a Third Force that could displace the two established parties: the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Its perceived wide acceptance across the country, especially in the North, was phenomenal. The Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s effect added ‘fire’ to the NNPP brand because of his seeming cult followership in the North and Kano State in particular.
A former national chairman of the party, Professor Ahmed Rufai Alkali, in one of his interviews, said Nigerians could not wait for NNPP to form government in the country because of his belief that both APC and PDP had abused the trust reposed in them by Nigerians since the return of civilian rule in 1999. “Nigerians have been waiting for something fresh, something new, something different, something that you can trust again because it was based on trust PDP was elected in 1999 and it is based on trust that APC was elected in 2015 but these have been dashed. So, the New Nigeria People’s Party has come at the correct time and we have a very clear understanding of the problem before us. That at the moment, we don’t know tomorrow, that those that are in charge of the current political parties have abandoned Nigerians and the country,” Alkali said.
It will be recalled that a former governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi, dumped the PDP for the Labour Party (LP) and picked its presidential ticket. Before then, Kwakwanso had secured the presidential ticket of the NNPP, paving the road for a four-horse race for the 2023 election. At a time, there was a report that the NNPP and the LP were on the verge of reaching an agreement to merge to confront the PDP and APC at the poll. But the plan flopped because neither Obi nor Kwankwaso was ready to step down in the presidential race. Speaking at the Chatham House, British Royal Institute of International Affairs in London in January, when asked of the similarities of his campaign strategies to that Obi, Kwankwaso confirmed the initial plan by him and Obi to work together. His words: “On Labour Party, I was initially interested in working with them, but at that time, they were at peak of the media hype and we couldn’t reach a compromise. Our party (NNPP) is a national party and we are commanding the support of the masses. I can’t work with a party whose ideas are based on ethnicity and religion because I’m a Nigerian. If you had been from the North, I am sure you won’t have made that statement for Kwankwaso to withdraw for Labour Party… If they want Kwankwaso to withdraw, let’s bring the criteria and select the best. Anytime they have a better candidate, I am ready to talk to him.”
That was how what some promoters of the plan said would pave way for a political tsunami in Nigerian politics was lost because while Kwankwaso is a cult figure in the North, Obi enjoys an overwhelming support in the South-East. The supporters of Obi tagged as ‘Obidients’ later took the country by storm making inroads to the North and pushing the NNPP to the fourth in the order of ranking for the election.
Prior to the election, it was alleged that Kwankwaso was working underground to support Tinubu to emerge as president. It was alleged that there was an unwritten agreement between the two, who were governors of Kano and Lagos states respectively in the 1999 to 2003 class. The signal to that began to get clearer after Tinubu emerged as the president and the subsequent meeting between the two political juggernauts in Paris, France where both were reported to have discussed a lot of issues as far as Nigeria is concerned. However, things became very clear when Kwakwanso later met President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa with speculation of a ministerial slot for NNPP in Tinubu’s yet to be formed cabinet.
But will Kwankwaso’s romance with Tinubu not sound a death knell on NNPP’s future with a serving governor and handful of lawmakers both at state and federal levels? Will it not lead to an exodus from the party? Is Kwakwanso really planning to abandon his new platform and return to APC?
The NNPP acting national chairman, Abba Kawu Alli, however, allayed the fears of the party faithful. He said there was no cause for alarm. Kawu Alli submitted that Kwankwaso accepting ministerial appointment under Tinubu’s government would be nothing to worry about as it should not in any way, if it happened, be misconstrued that the former Kano State governor will leave NNPP. He said Kwankwaso’s pedigree, experience and ideas will be beneficial to Tinubu’s administration in the long run and to Nigeria as a country. “Kwakwanso has not said he will accept ministerial position. He didn’t make the statement whether he is going to accept it. Even if it happens that Kwakwanso is going to accept it, he is not new to ministerial appointment. This is just my personal view and observation. Kwakwanso accepting ministerial offer under the government of Asiwaju will not make him to leave his party, the NNPP. This I can assure you. He is not going to abandon the party. This will not happen and take it from me.
“For Kwakwanso to accept ministerial or any other position or give it to any member of the NNPP is not new in Nigeria. I could remember during Obasanjo’s government, Bola Ige from the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD) served as a minister under the former president. Ige was not a member of the PDP. There is also a minister called Aisha from Kano State and Mahmud Waziri from Adamawa who served during Obasanjo’s administration. That is unity government and it happens all over the world.
“If at the end of the day, Kwakwanso accepts the offer, it will never change his mind or he will leave NNPP to join APC. He can be in the government and be among the decision makers. He has a vast experience and his records are there to see for all Nigerians. He has been a deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, a two-term governor, ambassador, minister, senator. I think Asiwaju needs his (Kwakwanso) ideas and contributions to the success of his government. So there is nothing wrong in Kwakwanso becoming a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Nothing will change in NNPP. We are on ground. We are not going to join the APC because Kwakwanso is a minister. Kwakwanso will remain in his party. Being a minister is an administrative matter and there is no cause for alarm. We are all his followers and we will remain in the NNPP,” the chairman told Nigerian Tribune.
A background check showed that the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD) did not recover from the romance of its party’s bigwigs with the Olusegun Obasanjo administration. Does a similar fate await the NNPP already?
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