POLITICS

How Kwankwaso Nailed His Own Coffin In APC 2027 Deals

<p>How Kwankwaso Nailed His Own Coffin In APC 2027 Deals<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a> <&sol;strong>reports that fresh details emerged yesterday on how efforts by the presidency and the All Progressives Congress &lpar;APC&rpar; to forge a political deal with Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso&comma; until recently regarded as Kano’s &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;beautiful bride” and a potential election-shaping force&comma; eventually collapsed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Courted for the perceived electoral value of his red-cap movement&comma; Kwankwasiyya&comma; the former Kano governor appears to be watching his political allure wane&comma; leaving the leader of the New Nigeria Peoples Party &lpar;NNPP&rpar; increasingly isolated and struggling to translate past dominance into present influence&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Sources familiar with the talks said engagements between Kwankwaso and President Bola Tinubu stretched across several months&comma; with multiple meetings held&comma; especially in Abuja&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>At the outset&comma; the presidency was said to have viewed Kwankwaso as a strategic bridge into Kano and parts of the North-west&comma; particularly given NNPP’s performance in the 2023 general election&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;However&comma; top sources within the ruling APC told THISDAY last night that negotiations broke down over what they described as excessive and unrealistic demands&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to sources&comma; Kwankwaso sought control of up to 20 per cent of APC’s national structure&comma; alongside a vice presidential slot and guarantees extending to the 2031 political cycle&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Senior APC figures said the requests immediately raised red flags as manoeuvring ahead of the 2027 polls gathered pace&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Even President Bola Tinubu has not specifically asked for any percentage share of the APC&period; That demand for 20 per cent of the structure of the APC nationwide was a deal breaker&period; Besides&comma; the vice-presidential position was never on the table&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It was made clear to him that it was not vacant&comma; and there was no basis for discussions around 2031 at this stage&comma;” the impeccable source who was familiar with the negotiations told THISDAY&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Also&comma; the Dr&period; Boniface Aniebonam bloc of the NNPP&comma; yesterday&comma; revealed that the decision by Governor Abba Yusuf to leave the party was due to Kwankwaso’s domineering attitude and alleged slavish intentions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Reacting to comments by Buba Galadima on Yusuf’s defection&comma; the National Vice Chairman North-west&comma; Alhaji Sani Danmasani&comma; in a statement claimed that Kwankwaso’s behaviour was unbearable&comma; prompting Yusuf to seek &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;greener pastures&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Although initially&comma; the Kwankwaso&sol;APC engagements were driven by the belief within the APC that the former Kano governor remained indispensable to the ruling party’s long-term electoral calculations&comma; particularly in the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;vanguardngr&period;com&sol;">North-west<&sol;a>&comma; in the build-up to the collapse of the deal&comma; presidency strategists increasingly questioned Kwankwaso’s claim to absolute control of the state’s political machinery&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>They envisaged that the growing friction between him and Yusuf&comma; as well as signs of uncertainty within the NNPP over the governor’s long-term political future could be exploited&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It was no surprise then that negotiations soon ran aground on the scale of Kwankwaso’s demands&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;According to senior APC sources&comma; the NNPP leader’s demand for control of 20 per cent of the APC’s national political structure&comma; stunned party leaders and was quickly deemed impractical&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Beyond structural concessions&comma; Kwankwaso also pressed for the vice presidential slot&comma; despite the fact that the position had already been filled and was not subject to renegotiation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Kwankwaso has also publicly confirmed this&comma; saying recently that he would only join or defect to another political party if he was offered either the presidential or vice presidential ticket ahead of the 2027 general election&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;He was clearly overreaching&comma;” a top APC chief said&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;According to those who spoke to THISDAY&comma; even more striking to APC negotiators was Kwankwaso’s apparent focus on the long game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Kwankwaso was said to have sought assurances not just for immediate accommodation&comma; but also for influence over the party’s succession plans&comma; with an eye firmly on 2031&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;To the presidency and APC leaders&comma; the package of demands suggested a politician negotiating not as a prospective ally&comma; but as a near-equal stakeholder in a party he did not build&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>When no headway was made&comma; Tinubu&comma; initially open to engaging Kwankwaso as the presumed gatekeeper of Kano politics&comma; then recalibrated his strategy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Rather than expend political capital trying to woo an opposition leader with expansive demands&comma; the president and APC negotiators were said to have turned their attention to consolidating ties with the Kano governor&comma; betting that incumbency&comma; federal leverage and direct engagement would yield better results than protracted courtship with Kwankwaso&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;That was the turning point&period; Once it became clear that Kwankwaso no longer controlled the entire Kano political space the way he claimed&comma; especially with divisions between him and his erstwhile political godson&comma; the presidency decided it made more sense to deal with the governor&comma;” another source explained&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A masterstroke&comma; the shift appeared to have effectively stripped Kwankwaso of the bargaining power that once made him attractive&period; His inability to deliver a unified Kano bloc&comma; combined with what APC leaders described as an inflated sense of indispensability&comma; weakened his negotiating position&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to the sources&comma; the president and his people positioned the APC to Yusuf as a more stable and predictable platform for him&comma; amplifying doubts about Yusuf’s second-term prospects within Kwankwaso’s NNPP&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>NNPP Bloc&colon; Kwankwaso’s &OpenCurlyQuote;Slavish’ Intentions Forced Yusuf Out<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Meanwhile&comma; the Dr&period; Boniface Aniebonam-led NNPP has revealed that the decision by Governor Yusuf to leave the party was due to Kwankwaso’s domineering attitude and alleged slavish intentions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Reacting to comments by Galadima on Yusuf’s defection&comma; the National Vice Chairman North-west&comma; Danmasani&comma; in a statement claimed that Kwankwaso’s behaviour was unbearable&comma; prompting Yusuf to seek &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;greener pastures”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The NNPP chief stated that Yusuf’s move to the APC was not driven by selfish motives&comma; but rather a desire to escape Kwankwaso’s suffocating leadership style&period; The party accused Kwankwaso of attempting to impose his will on others&comma; leaving Yusuf with no choice but to leave&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The NNPP leader described Kwankwaso as the mastermind behind the betrayal&comma; who violated the trust of the party’s founder&comma; Aniebonam&period; The statement alleged that Yusuf’s efforts to reconcile differences within the party were thwarted by Kwankwaso’s arrogance and greed&comma; forcing the governor to seek alternative political shelter&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On Buba Galadima’s interview on Arise News Television&comma; Danmasani added&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The cross over of Yusuf to APC is affecting Galadima and Kwankwaso so much that the bitterness and pain are evident in their speeches&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;What is striking in the details of Galadima’s expression during the session on Arise TV were his experiences&comma; travelling by road from Enugu airport to Umuawulu town in Anambra&comma; hometown of NNPP Founder&comma; Aniebonam&period; He got to Anambra by 2&period;a&period;m to meet Aniebonam for the purposes of getting a political platform for Kwankwaso and others against the 2023 general election&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Incidentally&comma; Yusuf who is a prime beneficiary of the risky trip to Umuawulu is the one found to have betrayed the NNPP family to join their enemy&comma; a former governor of Kano state and APC stalwart&comma; Ganduje&period; Galadima and Kwankwaso crying foul of betrayal of trust were the same people&comma; who were favoured at no cost to use the NNPP platform to contest elections in 2023&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;They were the same people&comma; who betrayed Aniebonam&comma; and fought to hijack the party he founded in 2001&period; They are still fighting to hijack the structure of the NNPP without conscience&comma; yet calling Yusuf a betrayer&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>One begins to wonder why Kwankwaso and Buba Galadima are crying foul and disturbing the peace of the society as if they do not know that God acts differently&quest;” he stated&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The party&comma; therefore&comma; stated that rather than continue to lament over Yusuf&comma; Kwankwaso and his group should seek the face of God and ask for forgiveness from those they betrayed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Kano Govt&colon; We’ve Reached Understanding on Emirship Tussle<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In another development&comma; after almost two years of unresolved crisis over who was the actual Emir of Kano&comma; despite the various legal interventions&comma; the impasse&comma; THISDAY learnt&comma; may be ending soon&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The state government confirmed the development yesterday&comma; when it said an understanding had been reached on the matter and a political solution had been deployed instead&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The crisis&comma; which has lingered for nearly two years&comma; has begun to thaw with the state government saying it was ready to deploy a political solution to the emirship tussle&period; The state government further assured the people that it would soon resolve the dispute by working out a solution whereby one substantive Emir would emerge&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Commissioner for Information and Internal Affairs&comma; Ibrahim Waiya&comma; disclosed that the state has initiated modalities to ensure that a workable solution was applied to resolve the issue&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The Kano state government has assured you that very soon&comma; the Kano government will resolve the dispute over the Kano Emirate&comma; because we are now one&period; It is possible that some will step down from the throne on their own&comma; or others will seek reconciliation because a mutual understanding has been reached&comma;” he added&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Corroborating the issue&comma; the political adviser to Governor Yusuf&comma; Alhaji Mustapha Bakwana&comma; said on a local radio programme that resolving the emirship dispute was key to the state’s political growth&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He noted that the government planned to unify the Kano Emirate under one leader&comma; putting an end to the ongoing tussle&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Content outside headline&comma;ThisDay<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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