Rabiu Kwankwaso, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress who is
\nincreasingly becoming estranged from the ruling party, has said President
\nMuhammadu Buhari will be defeated in 2019.<\/p>\n
He identified the Peoples Democratic Party as the most potent opposition
\nplatform capable of defeating the incumbent in the upcoming presidential
\nelection fixed for next February, and swiftly added that he is the
\nsuitable candidate to fly the party\u2019s flag to victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a free man now and available to try my luck elsewhere but I know that
\nPDP is the biggest party and as long as they follow democratic principle,
\nBuhari will easily be defeated, but if they handpick and force any
\ncandidate on the party, they will fail,\u201d Mr Kwankwaso told Dele Momodu in
\nan exchange published Saturday.<\/p>\n
Mr Kwankwaso, a serving senator and former governor of Kano State, often
\nclaims credits for helping Mr Buhari secure 1.9 million votes in the
\nstate. He also helped Governor Umar Ganduja, his deputy while he was
\ngovernor, to power in the 2015 elections.<\/p>\n
Mr Kwankwaso\u2019s attack against the APC comes a few days after he shunned
\nthe party\u2019s national convention in Abuja. The crisis was a fallout of his
\nlong-running political battle with Mr Ganduje, which had repeatedly turned
\ndeadly when their respective supporters clashed.<\/p>\n
He turned up at the Abuja home of Atiku Abubakar the night of the
\nconvention, fueling speculation about his readiness to dump the ruling
\nparty for the major opposition tent. During the week, he travelled to
\nEkiti to meet Governor Ayo Fayose, arguably the most vocal PDP governor.
\nHe was reported to have backed Olusola Eleka, the PDP candidate in the
\nupcoming governorship election in Ekiti, against Kayode Fayemi, his major
\nchallenger and candidate of the APC.<\/p>\n
Mr Kwankwaso served as defence minister and elected Kano governor on the
\nplatform of the PDP, but joined then-newly-formed APC in 2013 as part of
\nthe renegade \u2018newPDP\u2019 bloc. But in recent months, he has been among top
\n\u2018newPDP\u2019 bigwigs finding it difficult to remain in the APC, amidst rankles
\nabout marginalisation.<\/p>\n
Although talks are underway by the APC to broker a political accord that
\nwould allow Mr Kwankwaso and other aggrieved members remain in the party
\nbeyond the 2019 elections, the latest statement from the politician
\nindicates he has all but left the ruling party, even though some party
\nmembers still believe he is one of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cPDP needs someone from the 3k States, Kano, Katsina and Kaduna to win the
\nnext election. That\u2019s where the votes are. It would be difficult to win if
\nthey pick someone from any other zone\u2026,\u201d Mr Kwankwaso told Mr Momodu of
\nhis presidential chances.<\/p>\n
Mr Kwankwaso said he was set to join the PDP, but even then the party
\nwould also run into trouble if internal democratic guidelines are not
\nfollowed in the award of its 2019 presidential ticket.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can guarantee them that I will beat Buhari if given the chance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Kwankwaso might be the biggest politician to decamp from the APC since
\nMr Abubakar left the party last November on the same anger of
\nmarginalisation and poor governance.<\/p>\n
Other bigwigs like Senate President Bukola Saraki, Speaker Yakubu Dogara,
\nand some senators and governors who identified as \u2018newPDP\u2019 elements in the
\nAPC are also reportedly on the verge of abandoning the ruling party,
\nalthough their individual plans remained unclear.<\/p>\n
When Mr Abubakr left the APC last year, he said the scale of injustice in
\nthe party would compel others like him to chat a new political course, a
\nclaim the party rejected at the time. Another visible politician likely to
\ndump the APC any moment is Shehu Sani, a serving senator from Kaduna
\nState.
\nBolaji Abdullahi, a spokesperson for the APC, did not immediately return
\nrequests for comments. The party\u2019s chairman in Kano was also unavailable
\nand a text message sent to him did not deliver on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n
But party strategists said Mr Kwankwaso\u2019s comments were hardly unexpected,
\nespecially as he had removed himself from the party\u2019s activities,
\nincluding failure to participate at the recent convention.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had known all along that he was no longer in the party,\u201d said APC
\nstrategist Ayo Akanji. \u201cIt was clear that he was going to leave at a point
\nin time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Akanji downplayed the threats of Mr Kwankwaso, whose rights to
\nassociation he respects, but said his exit would have no adverse effect on
\neither the party or Mr Buhari\u2019s political chances. There are concerns that
\na mass exodus of bigwigs could leave the ruling party fractured going into
\n2019, a crack which some analysts said would be near-impossible to
\nsurvive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe president\u2019s support in Kano or anywhere else in the country remains
\nintact and formidable,\u201d Mr Akanji said. \u201cThis is democracy at play, we
\nwish him the best. We\u2019ll bring our best and he brings his best, we will
\nsee how it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Buhari has declared readiness to seek re-election, and he is seen as a
\nshoo-in for his party\u2019s ticket. While Mr Kwankwaso is considered
\npolitically-relevant in Kano and possibly other areas in the North-west,
\nhis ability to appeal to the larger populace in a diverse Nigeria would be
\nkeenly watched by political observers.
\nPremium Times<\/p>\n
Rabiu Kwankwaso, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress who is increasingly becoming estranged from the ruling party, has said President Muhammadu Buhari will be defeated in 2019. He identified…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n