The Kano State chapter of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has responded to the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP) in Kano over the latter’s claim that the ongoing tussle for the Emir of the North West state would affect President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s chances in the state in the next general elections.
Chairman of the NNPP in Kano State, Hashimu Dungurawa, alleged over the weekend that the presidency’s meddlesomeness in the impasse would mar Tinubu’s chances in 2027.
In a statement on Monday, Chairman of APC in Kano, Alhaji Abdullahi Abbas, boasted that the party was more united than before. He maintained that the former Kano State governor and NNPP presidential candidate would suffer defeat, not the APC.
The APC Kano chairman declared that unlike the ruling party, the NNPP was more polarized. He maintained that contrary to the NNPP’s claim, its performance in Kano at the last general elections was not a resounding victory. He also argued that the opposition party lacks national appeal.
“Kwankwaso got 1,454,649 total votes, representing only 6.23 percent, and most of them from Kano,” he said. “In fact, media post-election analysis showed that Kwankwaso did not get up to 100,000 votes elsewhere aside from Kano.”
Abbas pointed out that Kwankwaso got 1.2 million or 19 percent of the total votes in the North-West, his geopolitical zone, and almost nothing in other regions of the country.
“How come Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the opposition Labour Party from far away South-East, defeated Kwankwaso in 13 northern states: Kaduna, Taraba, Borno, Gombe, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Niger, Sokoto, Nasarawa, Plateau, Adamawa, and Benue?”
The APC Chairman said the people of Kano and leaders of thought in Northern Nigeria understood that the only interest of the federal government in the lingering Emirate crisis in Kano is to ensure that the rule of law prevails for peace and tranquility in the state.
Alhaji Abbas said: “Aside from the widely acknowledged poor performance of Governor Abba Yusuf-led NNPP government in Kano State in the last year, the party’s penchant for causing and sponsoring crises in a peaceful state he inherited and some of his anti-people policies are factors voters will consider in the next election.
“It is public knowledge that while other state governors were commissioning one project or another to mark their one year in office, the NNPP Kano State government was busy distracting the good people of Kano from its obvious failures through the contentious Emirate law as a tactic to cover its inadequacies in office.”
The statement added that in 2027, “the people of Kano State whose houses were demolished and rendered homeless will not forget in a hurry, the people of Kano State whose sources of economic survival and businesses were destroyed will not vote NNPP again, among many other categories of people already badly affected by the current misfit government in Kano State.”
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The APC chieftain stated that bringing up the issue of the 2027 presidential election by the Kano NNPP chairman in the face of an apparent failure of the government was not only diversionary but an indication of a plan to plunder the resources of the state in the name of candidature.
“When Kwankwaso contested the gubernatorial primaries in 1999 on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party, alongside Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Mukthari Zimit, and Alhaji Kabiru Rabi’u, he didn’t win the election. He had to rig the election in Gabasawa with only 86 votes, which Ganduje vehemently rejected. But the party leadership had to prevail on him to let it go,” he said.
The APC Chairman stated that the NNPP government in Kano State started on the wrong footing by going against the very essence of governance, which is the people, and always wants to distract the people from its apparent failure.
“We are using this medium to assure our able and capable President, including the party national leadership, that Kano State APC is now more united, popular, and is daily attracting politically valuable people into our fold. We are ready and will deliver more than triple the votes we got in the 2023 presidential election,” the state Chairman stated.
