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The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) presidential candidate, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, has claimed that the just-concluded presidential election didn’t reflect the choice Nigerians made at the poll.
The former Kano State governor finished a distant fourth in the race as Aswiaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) ran away a winner with over 8.7m votes.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Atiku Abubakar, finished second while his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi finished third in the hotly-contested election.
But, speaking at the first post-2023 election meeting of the NNPP National Executive Council, on Thursday, March 30, 2023, Kwankwaso argued that the election could have been cancelled if it had taken place in a more advanced country.
He said the election “is not a reflection of the minds of Nigerians,” while condemning the ruling APC for allegedly manipulating the process to its advantage.
Kwankwaso, who led the NNPP to win one governorship seat as well as several state and national assembly seats despite joining the party less than a year before the elections, charged members and leaders of the party to work harder ahead of the 2027 election cycle.
Kwankwaso’s words: “We have four years to reposition the party to deliver positive change to Nigerians.
“We joined this party barely one year ago, but with the performance we have seen, I believe we should all congratulate ourselves.
“We have done well and what is even more important is that almost everybody now believes that the NNPP is a party for the future.
“Immediately after this election, some people visited me to say that now, we have seen the light and before 2027, they are going to join our party.
“The challenge of the time is very critical because this is the first time in the history of this country where we have a party, especially after the establishment of the two parties across the country, that within the shortest possible time, had this kind of popularity based on the integrity, hard work and commitment to this country.
“I believe it is time we congratulate ourselves and also tighten our seatbelts to go back to our constituencies and work much harder.
“I also believe that now, we have more years to strategize and push forward the party so that more people are accommodated as members and leadership at various levels of the party; even in terms of number and quality so that Nigerians can have the opportunity to have a positive change that our party, the NNPP stands for in this country.”