Ganduje Labels Kwankwaso a Political Drifter

The former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has taken a swipe at ex-presidential candidate Rabiu Kwankwaso, branding him a political wanderer who habitually jumps from one party to another.

Kwankwaso had, on March 30, joined the African Democratic Congress (ADC), citing an internal crisis within the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP).

However, barely a month after the defection, Kwankwaso, on May 3, joined the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) alongside the 2023 Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi.

Kwankwaso and Peter Obi said the decision to dump the ADC follows the Supreme Court judgment, which recognised David Mark’s leadership but remitted the leadership tussle in the ADC to the trial court.

Ganduje, in an interview with BBC Hausa, which recently surfaced online, said he shares political roots with Kwankwaso, but the former Governor is always groping for a new platform.

Ganduje said the Kano State Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf, had anticipated the challenges Kwankwaso and his supporters are facing, which informed the his decision to join the APC.

According to Ganduje, political strategies were deployed to wrest control of the government from Kwankwaso before Yusuf joined the APC to align with the centre, with the sole aim of ensuring political stability in Kano state.

Ganduje emphasised that Kwankwaso’s defection would not pose any challenge to the APC in the forthcoming election.

He said, “We share the political roots, having started at the PDP. Because of Kwankwaso we joined the APC. We later dumped the party. He left us there. He was groping for a new political platform, when eventually aligned with the NNPP, where he went on to form a government.

“He (Kwankwaso) has become a political drifter; a political bird that can perch anywhere, moving from one platform to another. We deployed our political strategy to wrestle the control of the government from him. The governor is now ours.

“He joined a political party, which is a coalition of people of differing interests; each one of them wants be handed the presidential ticket. That very issue will ultimately disorganize them.

“They are already in conflict with one another right now fighting each other. Meanwhile state governors are aligning with the APC. There has never been a time in the history of Nigeria when a political party has had 31 state governors.”