{"id":32438,"date":"2014-10-23T20:59:30","date_gmt":"2014-10-23T19:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=32438"},"modified":"2014-10-23T20:59:30","modified_gmt":"2014-10-23T19:59:30","slug":"kwankwasos-amusing-obsession-pdp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/kwankwasos-amusing-obsession-pdp\/","title":{"rendered":"Kwankwaso\u2019s amusing obsession with PDP"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Matthew Adejoh<\/p>\n

Whether Kano State Governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, likes or dislikes the Peoples Democratic Party is immaterial. What is self-evident is that the man cannot stop referencing the party in charge of Nigeria\u2019s Federal Government. Kwankwaso, a man whose fixation with the PDP is easy to understand since it is the party that made him all that he is today, never lets a week go by without making one pronouncement or the other about the party which he abandoned for the All Progressives Congress.<\/p>\n

Kwankwaso\u2019s latest swipe at the PDP comes by way of a declaration aimed at squashing some purported moves by backers of\u00a0General Muhammadu Buhari to persuade him to discard his presidential aspiration and instead support the former military dictator and three-time failed presidential candidate. The red-capped Kwankwaso says no one has spoken to him and in any case, in his words: \u201cWe\u2019re talking about APC, a mega party. We\u2019re different from PDP where one person decides the fate of others.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Kwankwaso were to come out tomorrow to say he was misquoted, it would be understandable. This is because referring to the PDP as a party \u201cwhere one person decides the fate of others\u201d is perhaps the most disingenuous thing Kwankwaso could have said. It would have been far truer if the Governor had said that his newfound love, the APC, is a party where one person decides the fate of others.<\/p>\n

Amusingly, the hilarious charge against the PDP by Kwankwaso appears to have been purloined and revised from the words of Chief Tom Ikimi, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs and ex-chieftain of the APC who not too long ago bade farewell to Kwankwaso and his opposition cronies. In a lengthy letter that Ikimi wrote to announce his resignation from the APC, the former minister described the APC as \u201cTinubu\u2019s party\u201d, implying that the party belongs to, and is permanently tele-guided by former Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu. It is the height of comedy for Kwankwaso to turn around today to charge the PDP as being a party \u201cwhere one person decides the fate of others\u201d even though he seems unable to tell Nigerians who that one person is.<\/p>\n

Discerning Nigerians may wish to ask Kwankwaso whether the PDP was a party \u201cwhere one person decides the fate of others\u201d when the party feathered his political bed, ensuring that he not only emerged as Governor of Kano in 1999, but kept him strategically relevant through a senior ministerial appointment after he lost his first bid for re-election in 2003. Additionally, was the PDP still a party \u201cwhere one person decides the fate of others\u201d in 2011 when the party supported Kwankwaso in his second and successful attempt to be re-elected as Governor of Kano State?<\/p>\n

It is understandable that as the 2015 electioneering season gets under way, politicians from all sides will say things that stand logic on its head. However, such politicians should not expect Nigerians to believe the comical things they say for amusement.\u00a0\u00a0Not so long ago, one such comical statement was credited to the same Kwankwaso. The Kano State Governor was reported to have alleged that the PDP is plotting to make President Goodluck Jonathan a life President. That nobody bothered to respond to that bit of folly showed how preposterous Nigerians considered the statement.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the same Kwankwaso conducted local government elections some months ago.\u00a0\u00a0In a display of sheer political comedy, the APC, which the Governor left the PDP for only some months earlier, \u201cwon\u201d the election in every single local government area. Kwankwaso himself was apparently so unconvinced of his \u201cvictory\u201d that he spent millions of naira on many newspaper earpiece adverts to publicise the Kano local government election results to the great amusement of Nigerians.<\/p>\n

Today, Kwankwaso is going around saying he will not step down from his unachievable presidential ambition for anybody.\u00a0\u00a0In his words: \u201cI\u2019m not under any pressure to step down for anybody.\u00a0\u00a0In fact, nobody asked me to step down for anybody and doing that will not be even good for the party.\u00a0\u00a0You see many people are used to either small parties or let me say medium-sized parties where people sit down and choose somebody in a room. Now we are talking about APC mega party, which is not ANPP, CPC, APGA or ACN.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s a collection of all and we always tell people to look at the example of PDP. From 1999 to 2011, each election they had to go for primary elections not arranged election, but real elections.<\/p>\n

It is good and well that Kwankwaso remembers his PDP roots.\u00a0\u00a0Be that as it may, the Kano State Governor needs to be told that, with or without his red cap, whether in APC or the PDP that he cannot seem to forget about, the likelihood of him winning a presidential ticket is next to nil.\u00a0\u00a0He will be trounced for all to see what he is without the PDP.<\/p>\n

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