The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Rabiu Kwakwanso

  • Kwankwaso, Governor Yusuf part ways over defection plan

    Kwankwaso, Governor Yusuf part ways over defection plan

    • As governor marks birthday, NNPP leader opens loyalty register
    • Federal lawmakers split

    The rift between Kano State Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) leader Senator Rabiu Kwakwanso has deepened.

    In reaction to the governor’s readiness to defect from the NNPP to the All Progressives Congress (APC), Kwankwaso opened a loyalty register for political office holders to ascertain their allegiance and fidelity to his leadership.

    The former governor began taking stock of his loyalists in Kano at the time Yusuf was celebrating his 63rd birthday in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    With the governor were top government officials and party chieftains.

    Kwakwanso,  who shunned the ceremony, was busy in his Kano residence with “engagement meetings” with NNPP stakeholders, particularly members of the Kwakwansiyya Movement.

    A source said moves and counter-moves by Yusuf and Kwankwaso have polarised the party and divided members of the NNPP in the National Assembly.

    The governor has already secured the support of the 40-member House of Assembly, led by Speaker Jibril Isma’il Falgore, and all the 44 local government chairmen.

    However, NNPP federal legislators have not openly indicated their willingness to defect to the APC along with the governor.

    There are 21 House of Representatives from Kano state, out of which 13 are in NNPP.

    Read Also: Kwankwaso, Yusuf nationalists working for unity, says Idahosa

    Sources said Yusuf and Kwankwaso have polarized the NNPP federal lawmakers over the defection disagreement.

    Out of the 13 NNPP representatives, Umar Mukhtari Zakari, who represents Tarauni Constituency, has publicly opposed the planned defection.

    However, Aliyu Sani Madaki (Dala), Abdulmumin Jibrin (Bebeji/Kiru), Yusuf Rabiu (Sumaila/Takai), and Sani Abdullahi (Karaye/Rogo) have already moved to the APC.

    Also, Kabiru Usman, who won a rerun in Rano/Bunkure/Kibiya Constituency under the NNPP, and Sagir Ibrahim Koki (Kano Municipal) have defected to APC.

    Although the defection was scheduled for yesterday, it was postponed by the APC national leadership till January 12.

    In the earlier arrangement, Vice President Kashim Shettima and the national chairman of the APC Nentawe Yilwatda were billed to receive Yusuf into the party.

    Party sources said the event was rescheduled to allow further consultation with the National Assembly lawmakers from the state and key stakeholders who are yet to fully commit to the move.

    A close aide of the governor said the governor is yet to officially register at his ward and he has not obtained the APC membership card for formal defection.

    The defection is part of a larger political realignment that will enable Yusuf to potentially take on a significant leadership role in the state chapter of the party, and as well seal his bid for the  governorship ticket ahead of the 2027 elections.

    The move, a strategic decision to strengthen the APC’s position in Kano State, has been rejected by Kwankwaso, who is speculated to be on his way to the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in protest.

    The sources said Yusuf defection will be a significant blow to the Kwankwaso-led Kwankwasiyya Movement.

    The former governor had publicly threatened that no one betrays the Kwankwasiyya movement and goes free.

    The disagreement between Yusuf and Kwankwaso led to the sack of Hashimu Dungurawa (a pro-Kwankwaso chieftain) as state chairman of the party.

    Yusuf has picked Alhaji Abdullahi Zubairu Abiya as Acting State Chairman.

    A Kano State High Court ruling upheld the suspension of the embattled chairman and barred him from acting in that capacity, pending the determination of the suit.

    But the national secretariat of the party has described the change in the leadership as a nullity and went ahead to dissolve the entire executive committees at the ward, local government and state levels indefinitely.

    The APC is treating Yusuf’s defection move as a major political gain. It has significant implications for Kano State politics and beyond, including stripping the NNPP of its only governorship seat and potentially reducing its influence and viability as a national party.

    The defection will bolster APC’s dominance in Kano and enhance its chances in the 2027 general election.

     The existing power bloc of the Kano APC, led by former Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin, had openly expressed their readiness to work with Yusuf.

    Ganduje and the APC Chairman, Abdullahi Abbas, have urged him to feel free to join the ruling party.

    Yusuf’s much awaited arrival in APC may spark rivalry within the APC. It will ultimately neutralise the chance of Deputy President of the Senate Barau Jibrin who has been aspiring for the ticket, a development that will likely influence negotiations, future alliances and voter alignments in Kano State.

     Barau, who represents Kano North, has remained indifferent to the governor’s move, apparently because of his ambition.

    Senator Rufai Sani Hanga (Kano Central) remains in the NNPP with Kwankwaso, while Senator Abdurrahman Kawu Sumaila (Kano South) defected from NNPP to APC last year and he is certainly not with Kwankwaso.

  • Buhari appoints Tinubu to head APC reconciliatory team

    Buhari appoints Tinubu to head APC reconciliatory team

    President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to lead the consultation, reconciliation and confidence building efforts toward improving cohesion within the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    The information is in a two-paragraph statement issued by Malam Garba Shehu, the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity in Abuja on Tuesday.

    According to the presidential aide, the assignment will involve resolving disagreements among party members, party leadership and political office holders in some states of the federation.

    The News men reliably gathered that the Kano State APC crisis involving supporters of former Gov. Rabiu Kwakwanso and the serving Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, is one of the tasks of the Tinubu reconciliation committee.

    Read Also: Buhari’s visit:  Security beefed up in Nasarawa

    It would be recalled that the Presidency on Jan. 29 summoned Gov. Ganduje and Kwakwanso over the aborted Jan. 30 visit of the former governor to Kano to avert breakdown of law and order in the state.

    The governor, accompanied by two serving senators and two members of House of Representatives from the state met with the Chief of Staff to the President, Malam Abba Kyari at the Presidential Villa.

    Ganduje, however, declined to speak to State House correspondents after the closed door meeting.

    The Tinubu committee is also expected to reconcile other APC members in Kaduna, Zamfara, Oyo, Kogi and other states of the federation.

    NAN

  • I won’t probe Kwankwaso’s administration – Ganduje

    I won’t probe Kwankwaso’s administration – Ganduje

    Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State said his administration would not probe the administration of his predecessor, Rabi’u Kwankwaso.

    Ganduje stated this at an interactive session with newsmen in Sokoto on Saturday.

    He said, “though there are so much issues of probe across most of the states and the country, but in Kano State, I will not probe the past administration.

    “We are only committed to ensuring that all government’s uncompleted projects and programmes left by the past administration are put into use for the benefits of our state.

    “Moreover, we will ensure completion of all projects that are due and genuine as well as initiate more in such direction for the overall development of the society,” he said.

    The governor also said that their retreat in Sokoto was aimed at discussing issues relating to the party as an institution in order to design a change in the party administration.

    “This is to change the usual tradition of party administration in Nigeria, as once election has held, usually, political parties go into hiding and become inactive.

    “So, we are all here in Sokoto in order to deliberate on how we can strengthen our party in Kano State and address the demands of the masses, ” he said.

    Ganduje said that the political party leader will as well be educated in order to maintain the internal democracy in the system.

  • Tribunal dismisses case against Kwankwaso

    Tribunal dismisses case against Kwankwaso

    States and National Assembly Elections Petition Tribunal sitting in Kano, Tuesday dismissed a petition filed by Alhaji Bashir Garba Lado of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), challenging the victory of the immediate past governor of Kano state, Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the APC in the race for Kano Central Senatorial District.

    Dismissing the petition, the presiding judge, Justice Cornelius Akintayo said the petitioner had failed to establish a prima facie evidence against the respondent, hence the decision to dismiss the case over lack of merit.

    According to him, even though the petitioner was eminently qualified to contest for the seat of the Kano Central Senatorial District, his submission on challenging the substitution  of the name of Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf,  the aspirant, who initially purchased the nomination form with that of the immediate governor  was untenable and lacked merit.

    Akintayo, however stated that the Tribunal did not find any incontrovertible evidence to declare the election null and void, saying the Tribunal considered the outcome of the Kano Central Senatorial District Election credible in the absence of any admissible evidence to prove otherwise.

    Counsels to the petitioner and the respondents had unanimously concurred that the verdict of the election petition Tribunal was sound and credible and adduced that the clients would be fully consulted on the next line of action.

    The Tribunal verdict was however greeted by considerable euphoria and jubilation by Kwankwaso’s die-hard supporters, who had seen the futility of challenging the outcome of the election they considered as free, fair and credible.

    According to an APC Chieftain in Kano, who craved for anonymity, the petitioner had only wasted his energy and resources in chasing a wild goose, which could not deliver the expected golden eggs.

    He said the petitioner was only myopic in his political calculation, given the landslide victory recorded by the immediate past governor, stressing that the petitioner was a victim of the new revolution in Nigeria’s politics.

  • Kano blast: Kwankwaso pleads with Boko Haram

    Kano blast: Kwankwaso pleads with Boko Haram

    Governor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso of Kano State has appealed to insurgents to embrace dialogue and present their grievances to stop the killings of innocent people in the country.

    The governor made the plea on Saturday when he visited the Kano Central Mosque where hundreds of Muslims were attacked by insurgents during the Friday prayer. He was accompanied by the heads of security agencies in the state.

    Gov. Kwankwaso who described the attack as very sad considering the fact that innocent Muslims faithfuls were killed while observing Friday’s prayer, assured that the state government will continue to do its best towards protecting lives and property of the people.
    While lamenting that 100 people lost their lives while at least 135 sustained different degrees of injuries, the governor said the attack was barbaric.
    The governor while commiserating with the families of those who lost their loves ones, assured that government would shoulder the hospital bills of those injured. He stated that emergency units of all federal, state and private hospitals were directed to accommodate victims of the attack.

    Governor Kwankwaso, who along with his entourage, visited victims admitted at Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital, Kano city, appealed to citizens in the state to be cautious of suspicious movements and alert security agencies of any attempt to breach the peace.

    Meanwhile, the governor has also visited internally displaced persons from Mubi town, Adamawa state, who are residing in at a camp in Dawakin Kudu local government area, where he promised that government would give them adequate attention in order to feel homely.

  • Poisoned chalice

    Poisoned chalice

    What was that all about — President Goodluck Jonathan’s unthinking rally in Kano; and Governor Rabiu Kwakwanso’s alacrity to sweep away the president’s supposed ill-fated footprints from his territory?

    Even as no less than 75 innocent Nigerians perished in a terror attack in Nyanya, Abuja, and same terrorists abducted at least 100 secondary school girls in Borno State, the president must go on a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) “unity rally” in Kano — and less than 24 hours after this twin-tragedy?

    No less blameable: Jonathan must stand on his presidential dignity to thumb his nose at the Electoral Law, which spirit, if not letters, the president and his party serially and cynically breach by the so-called “unity rallies”? Is the president then above the law that created his office?

    And Governor Kwakwanso — what, beyond partisan grandstanding, did he mean that the people of Kano would not welcome the president? Could “the people”, de jure or de facto, have stopped him, given the Federal Government’s monopoly of the security agencies?

    And the high drama of sweeping away the president’s footprints! That was hilarious politics to be sure! But that hilarity brought both the offices of president and governor to high lows, given the bitter partisan exchanges between the two.

    Unfortunately, the president did himself and his office no credit by unabashedly romping in the sewers at the Kano rally. He childishly suggested he induced voting delegates (euphemism for bribery?) at his 2011 presidential nomination; and went ahead, with child-like naivety, to bomb the governor for alleged non-delivery on the gratification!

    Doesn’t this president know that both who gives and takes bribes are culpable?

    To keep what he has, President Jonathan must rally in Kano — unthinking at best, callous at worst. Meanwhile, the country mourns the victims of the Abuja bombing; and parents of the abducted girls are a nervous wreck on the fate of their loved ones, again kidnapped from a government-owned school!

    Perhaps the most damning to the Jonathan Presidency, on this latest terror attack, is a two-picture montage now making the rounds in the social media. Picture 1 shows the British High Commissioner in Nigeria donating blood in aid of the Abuja blast victims. But picture 2 shows President Jonathan making merry at the Olubadan centenary. The contrast is devastating!

    Now, the president visiting the Olubadan on such an auspicious occasion was no crime. Indeed, it was duty. But the timing was awfully wrong. The president’s friends could argue he postponed it by a day, to visit the scene of the blast and see some of the victims in their hospital beds.

    But the merry smirk on the president’s face at the Olubadan’s, combined with his gaiety on the hustings in Kano, were so out of tune with the country’s dolorous mood that one begins to wonder, with all due respect, at the quality of his sense of judgement. It was a most reprehensible escapism, that was anything but presidential!

    Why does the president give the sorry impression that Nigeria and Nigerians are nothing but winning in 2015 is everything? And over what — the poisoned chalice that he now drinks from?

    Yet, warts and all, President Jonathan would rather keep what he has!

    And Governor Kwakwanso, and the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), would fight tooth and nail to have what the president has — that same poisoned chalice!

    No doubt, Kano Governor Kwakwanso was spot on in his high moral criticism about the president gallivanting about on “illegal” rallies instead facing his job of tending hurting Nigerians. But the partisan base of the manoeuvre was all too clear — no crime, there!

    Still, with all due respect to the APC democratic right to contest for power, what is the worth of this poisoned presidency to anyone now? All the bitterness by innocent victims and galloping evil by the Boko Haram anarchists, will they just vanish because power has changed hands?

    Nigeria appears frightfully on the way to Kigali. A heightened recklessness may shoot it straight on the road to Magadishu! All too soon, the dire prediction that Nigeria would break up by 2015 does not look so fantastic after all.

    Can a power change of guard halt the creeping disaster? Maybe. Maybe not. But the omens are not so convincing — without a conscious and deliberate attempt at healing and reconciliation.

    That puts the ball right in the court of the ongoing National Conference. But that is if it rises above the suspicious circumstances of its birth; and seizes the moment to make history.

    Everyone is teary right now, but it is high time we started asking the hard questions. All this mayhem has its roots in the summary junking of PDP’s zoning, that gifted Jonathan the presidency, but clearly embittered a section of the North.

    So, where is former President Olusegun Obasanjo? He wanted to build a dynasty of puppets, so he could call the shots from behind. Though that scheme spectacularly collapsed and the puppet can no longer hear his puppeteer, the old general is cool and comfy at home. But not so the innocent victims of mass murder, who continue to pay with lives and limbs, in a plot they had no part!

    And Citizen Goodluck Jonathan? He is right there, in the virtual valley of the shadows of death! Even as president, he cuts the picture of abject power opportunism gone awry, a stiff price for a breach of agreement.

    What is his presidency worth, when everyday he is greeted with the slain being shovelled into trucks after each mass massacre, and the gnashing of teeth of the dying and the wounded, being rushed to hospital?

    The agonised public — where were they when the power dealers were cooking their anti-zoning brew? Didn’t they, back then, lose their sense of outrage, simply because the power plotters were their friends and kin; and the hurt victims, their foes and just “other people”? Did they not, Nigerian-style, pounce on the victim, while hailing the aggressor to ride on?

    And the embittered segments of the North — if really by their threat to make the country ungovernable, for a Jonathan that allegedly stole their power patrimony, they are behind this anomie — what do they intend to gain?

    Wipe out the whole country and later gain power over ghosts? Some northern rascals, after all, annulled June 12 and a Sani Abacha came to kill and maim the victims for their audacity to complain! A case of galloping injustice consuming its own children?

    As in the June 12 issue, the present crisis results from rogue politicians plotting dangerous power games and the people playing dumb when they should have shouted down the blatant injustice. Now, everybody is paying so dear!

    Nigeria needs healing. Today’s victims were yesterday’s aggressors. Today’s aggressors are tomorrow’s victims. Everyone has sinned and fallen short of glory. So, this madness must stop.

    The National Conference must seize the times and work on healing old wounds, aside from genuine federal restructuring.

    Should all this madness continue, sooner than later, it might just be “To your house, O Israel …”