By Ismail Auwal
Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, former Governor of Kano State, has finalized his bid to join the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), according to the party’s leadership.
Kwankwaso on Tuesday reportedly met with the NNPP leadership in Abuja.
The meeting, according to the party’s National Secretary, Ambassador Agbo Gilbert Major, was held to make critical decisions that will reposition the party ahead of the 2023 general elections.
According to him, the two-time Kano State governor will join the party along with his allies in a few days.
He said, “Nigerians are getting set for the general election and we are meeting to reposition the party, and the frontiers are opening, a lot of Nigerians are coming in and there is need for us to adjust and accommodate the interests that are coming in.
“These are the very crucial decisions that we are about to take and it is going to midwife a national convention which will hold within the next 30 days. We have read Nigerians speculating, the only thing I can tell you is that we are in deep talks with Kwankwaso, in fact we have almost concluded, in the next few days, we will be reverting to Nigerians to tell them what understanding we have had with him (Kwankwaso), but I can assure you that he is on his way into NNPP,” Major said.
He said Kwankwaso, during the talks, assured that he would be a loyal party member and would follow the dictates and rules of the party.
“The presidential ticket is not automatic, he (Kwankwaso) has told us that his moves towards coming into the party should not be seen as an attempt to take the ticket automatically, and we have encouraged other aspirants to come so that we can fully demonstrate the power of the rights of people,” he said.
Major also stated that the party will not join a coalition or merge with any group or political party, as this has been tried in the past with little success.
“We have never been part of any coalition, it is important to let you know that the NNPP is a very old party and so we have seen a lot of these things come and go, we have never believed in this coalition thing because we have experimented it.
“In 2007 we went into some form of electoral alliance, we did not get what we wanted to get, coming together entails either a merger arrangement or a coalition, we have experimented with coalition repeatedly, and it has not given us any result, the only thing they have tried and it worked is the merger,” he said.
The proposal to amend the party’s constitution, granting waivers to new members and restructuring the party, was approved at the meeting.
Some of the prominent Kwankwaso loyalists that attended the meeting include former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prof. Rufai Ahmed Alkali; former National Secretary of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Engr. Buba Galadima; and former Kaduna Senator Suleiman Othman Hunkuyi among others.
