It is no longer a question of if but when the embattled Senator representing Kano Central in the National Assembly, Rabiu Kwankwaso, will leave the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
The immediate past governor of Kano State who emerged first runner-up at the APC presidential primary in 2014, is a member of the nPDP faction within the APC.
In the last one week, the former Kano State governor who was elected on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2015 election, has been in talks with chieftains of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in what political pundits say is his imminent return to the party he dumped in the buildup to the last general elections.
Political commentators say President Muhammadu Buhari’s refusal to meet with the faction over alleged marginalisation in the governing party and the failure of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s one-man reconciliation committee, indicate strongly that the ex-governor may have entered a cul-de-sac.
According to a school-of-thought, the development is a plus for the Liyel Imoke-led Contact Committee saddled with the responsibility of bringing in aggrieved politicians from other political parties and forming alliance with other parties. Since the inauguration of the panel in May this year, Kwankwaso becomes the second nPDP heavyweight to identify with the main opposition party after controversial Chairman, Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory, Dino Melaye, technically ‘defected’ to PDP during Senate plenary.
Nonetheless, some pundits have argued that this is a drop in the ocean considering the fact that there are more aggrieved nPDP members still in APC. These include Senate President Bukola Saraki, Speaker House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara, Sokoto State Governor and former Speaker of the House of Representatives Aminu Tambuwal, Governor Abdulfatai Ahmed of Kwara State, former PDP national chairman Kawu Baraje, former Adamawa State governor, Murtala Nyako, his Rivers State counterpart and current Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi, Senators Barnabas Gemade, Danjuma Goje, Aliyu Wamakko, among others.
They hinged their argument on what transpired in 2014 when Atiku led five PDP governors and several federal lawmakers to defect to the then opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).
“The impact of the Contact Committee is yet to be felt. If you carry out a comparative analysis with what happened in the buildup to the 2015 general elections, you will realise that APC benefitted more from heavyweight defections than PDP is currently enjoying. I can count the number of defections PDP has enjoyed so far. Apart from Atiku, no political bigwig in APC has formally pitched his tent with PDP.
“It should also be noted that the planned defection of Senators Kwankwaso and Melaye to PDP is not as a result of the efforts of the PDP Contact Committee per se but to the fact that the duo had been frustrated by their respective governors.
“From the unhealthy rivalry between Kwankwaso and his successor, Abdullahi Ganduje on the one hand and Dino Melaye and his governor Yahaya Bello on the other hand, it doesn’t take rocket science to know that they are on their way out of APC,” a political analyst, Kenneth Eze told BDSUNDAY.
Meanwhile, the senator who has endeared himself to the people through his Kwankwansiyya Movement has explained that he shunned the Convention to avoid a clash between his supporters and the governor’s.
He also expressed regret that all the Congresses conducted by his faction in the state were not recognised by the national leadership of the party.
His words: “Our presence will create embarrassments and a lot of friction at the (Convention) venue.
“I wish to inform the leadership of the party and the general public that we had wanted to be part of the National Convention but regrettably all the congresses that we conducted at the wards, local government councils and at the state level were not recognised by the outgoing National Executive Council of the party”.
Indications have also emerged that the senator is set to take another shot at the presidency to confront President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.
National Coordinator of the Kwankwasiyya movement, Rabiu Suleiman Bichi, hinted that Kwankwaso was still consulting widely on which platform to realise his presidential ambition.
Bichi who was Secretary to Kano State Government during the Senator’s stint as governor, said: “Kwankwaso’s political ambition to be President is still there and nothing has changed about it for now. We are still consulting with supporters and stakeholders on which of the platforms to use to actualise his aspiration”.
Other PDP chieftains that have indicated interest to contest the 2019 presidential race include: ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar; Governors of Ekiti and Gombe States, Ayo Fayose and Ibrahim Dankwambo; former Governor of Kano State, Ibrahim Shekarau; former Minister of Special Duties, Tanimu Turaki; immediate past Chairman of the PDP National Caretaker Committee Ahmed Makarfi as well as Datti Baba-Ahmed.
Observers believe that as much as Kwankwaso still enjoys some level of cult followership up North, he will find it extremely difficult to garner same measure of support down South, as he is widely perceived as an ‘ethnic and religious bigot’.
