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It seems the reported meeting between the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and the New Nigeria People's Party (NNPP) presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has created a crack in the All Progressives Congress (APC) fold.
This is because the Kano State Governor and one of the most vocal Tinubu supporters, Abdullahi Ganduje, has allegedly accused the former Lagos State Governor of dumping him for Kwankwaso.
A report emerged during the week indicating that Tinubu, who returned to Nigeria from a trip to France on Saturday, May 20, 2023, held a meeting with Kwankwaso during his stay in Paris.
It was gathered that the President-elect and Kwankwaso were locked in a four-hour-long meeting where a wide range of issues were discussed including the possibility of the NNPP presidential candidate joining the proposed government of national unity promised by the incoming administration.
No sooner the report hit the newsstands than a Kano chieftain of the APC, Abdulmajid Kwamanda, had cautioned Tinubu from appointing Kwankwaso to any position in his government.
“We in the North West do not welcome Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso to our party APC. We do not accept the idea of Bola Tinubu giving him any appointment even as low as a messenger in our dear party. Should Tinubu ignore our outcry and appoint Kwankwaso, we are going to disrupt the entire APC in the north and withdraw our support for him,” Kwamanda had told reporters.
Ganduje thinks Tinubu has dumped him for Kwankwaso
The audio of a phone conversation between Ganduje and Ibrahim Masari, a former placeholder vice presidential candidate of the APC has now leaked, Daily Trust reports.
In the leaked audio, the outgoing Kano Governor was heard lamenting being treated unfairly by the President-elect, referring to the meeting with Kwankwaso.
Ganduje, who started the conversation, complained that the news of the phone call between Tinubu and the NNPP presidential candidate has been making the rounds in Kano.
He said even if Masari had given him a heads up about the meeting, there was nothing he could have done to stop it from happening.
“But at that time, you could have spoken with him (Tinubu). You can (sic) call him and talk to him,” Masari said.
Ganduje was then heard saying “What could I have told him? Now he (Tinubu) is seeing Kwankwaso as an alternative to us? No problem. Because we don’t have a government? And it’s even because of him (Tinubu) we lost the government in any way.
“Even if he will see him (Kwankwaso), he ought to have called us too. Or don’t you understand, even if symbolically?”
As the conversation progresses, Masari can be heard trying to pacify the displeased governor and urging him not to take the matter to heart. He asked Ganduje to remain calm until he meets with Tinubu to clarify things, Daily Trust added.
“And all these things are from God. And the calculation that he is doing is not even accurate… And this man, how did he end up with Jonathan?” Ganduje responded.
The paper said the audio file was subjected to multiple verification processes by its investigative team who certified that there was no indication of manipulation.
What you should know about Ganduje and Kwankwaso rift
The enmity between Ganduje and his predecessor, Kwankwaso, dates back to the period leading to the 2019 general elections when the latter dumped the APC to rejoin the PDP, a party from which he had crossed to the ruling party in 2014.
The NNPP presidential candidate felt betrayed by the outgoing governor whom he installed in 2015 and nearly ousted him from office during the 2019 governorship election until the exercise was declared inconclusive allowing Ganduje to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat for a second term in office.
However, things turned out differently in this year's election as Yusuf Abba, Kwankwaso's son-in-law and anointed candidate floored Nasir Yusuf Gawuna, the outgoing Kano Deputy Governor and Ganduje's pick to win the governorship election.
This was after the NNPP had dominated all the elections in Kano State by winning most seats in the House of Representatives, as well as most seats in the State House of Assembly and two out of the three senatorial seats.
The development has made the APC the minority party in the ancient North-West state and Tinubu is believed to be looking for an alliance that will help him solidify his chances in the region ahead of the 2007 election.