Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Kano governor, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, are no longer as close as they used to be. This is well known among the powerful northern political elites. For a long while now, these two intimidating political juggernauts from the north have barely been on talking terms. In fact, lately, you will rarely see both of them attend same political gatherings much less sit close together and share banters. That has not happened in a long while. You can only see pictures of them together taken years ago, but not in recent time. They are hardly seen together these days. And what’s more, politically, they have been poles apart lately. None has found cause to align with the other. Their political inclinations have shifted sharply and its not looking like anything would bring them back together soon.
Many close political observers had thought that the newly formed ADC coalition that has as it’s front runners, Atiku Abubakar, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, Peter Obi and Rotimi Amaechi would also have in it’s fold Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso as was speculated. But that didn’t happen. And from what City People found out, Atiku has deliberately stayed away from the coalition because of Atiku. He does not want to have any political fraternity with the former presidential candidate of the PDP. Even as it is no longer a secret that Atiku and his other opposition elements are already at an advanced stage of launching a broad based coalition ahead of 2027 with the sole aim of unseating the incumbent president Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Kwankwaso insists he is not interested in joining them.
According to one the close aides of the leader of the Kwankwasiyya movement, the former Kano governor is not keen on such a coalition, because his past association with Atiku did not end well. The aide said Kwankwaso was weighing his options ahead of 2027 and would decide his direction soon, but was not keen on the coalition. And truly, Kwankwaso made it very clear that he wanted nothing to do with the coalition when he lashed out Atiku.
Known as the brutally blunt and vocal leader of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, (NNPP), Kwankwaso launched a scathing attack on former vice-president Atiku Abubakar, branding him a “serial liar” at 80.
Speaking passionately during an interview with the Hausa Service of a foreign Radio service, Kwankwaso expressed outrage at what he described as a baseless and deceitful plot.
He vehemently denied claims that he participated in a meeting concerning Atiku’s 2027 presidential bid, dismissing the entire narrative as fabricated.?
“I was horrified to hear that the PDP held a meeting with clerics and other leaders, during which they claimed I agreed to a supposed arrangement where Atiku would serve one term, I would serve another, and Peter Obi would serve two terms.
“This is an outright lie. I was never part of any such agreement”, Kwankwaso declared. The NNPP leader didn’t hold back, accusing Atiku and his associates of weaving a web of lies to manipulate public perception.
His posts read: “Elderly people aged 70 to 80 years will sit and lie, telling clerics and other leaders something that never happened.
“I am still alive and healthy, there is no way you can assemble over 40 people without me having two or three among them that will inform me of what transpired in the meeting. This is not good for a personality to lie. In such incident, if a government is formed on the basis of lies, it’s like starting a foundation on a weak structure.
“With these lies, we can’t believe such people that they can only serve one term in office if you entrust them with leadership”.
Kwankwaso stated clearly that he was unaware of such a plan and expressed disappointment at the spread of false information.
“I did not appreciate this at all.
“This is completely false; such an agreement never existed.
“Such lies and deceit are precisely why we left. Myself, Peter Obi, Wike, and others all left.
“Now they are coming back, asking us to help those who humiliated us to achieve their goals,” he told BBC.
But what was the genesis of the friction between these two highly respected political sons of the soil? They used to be quite close and often showed mutual respect for each other, what then tore them apart? Who offended who?
City People can authoritatively tel you that it all started after the emergence of former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar as Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2019 general election. Weeks after the convention, uneasy calm had descended the camp of the flag bearer over the seemingly aloofness of the then lawmaker representing Kano Central Senatorial District, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.
Kwankwaso, the former governor of Kano state garnered a total of 158 votes to finish fourth on the log behind Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Sokoto state governor, Aminu Tambuwal and Atiku respectively at the PDP Presidential primaries which held in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital back then.
Although, the founder of the Kwankwasiyya political movement pledged to abide by the outcome of the exercise while soliciting the support of party delegates hours before balloting, he suddenly went quiet in the weeks after the convention; a development that brought great unease to the camp of the erstwhile Vice President.
Unlike Ahmed Makarfi, Tambuwal and other party bigwigs who vied for the sole ticket with Atiku, Kwankwaso had failed to pledge his readiness to work for the success of the party and its Presidential candidate with barely three months to the general elections at the time.
A highly placed source and loyalist of Kwankwaso who declined to be named because he was not authorised to speak on the matter, said Kwankwaso was dissatisfied with the conduct of the primaries and its outcome. He was displeased that it was turned into a one man show – the Atiku Abubakar show! And flagrant display of financial inducement to win over the delegates left him speechless. It was simply a battle of the biggest war chests. He simply could not stand the arrogance and the unmatchable influence wielded by Atiku
Another reason why Kwankwaso decided to recoil into his shell as it were, had to do with the outcome of the PDP governorship primaries in Kano which held about the same time with the PDP primaries. The party which became polarised in the days leading to the congresses produced two factional candidates, Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf, a son in-law to the former governor and Mallam Salihu Sagir Takai, who is believed to be enjoying the support of the state chairman of the party, Senator Mas’ud Doguwa.
Kwankwaso, it was gathered was not particularly happy that despite the calibre of politicians who defected alongside with him from the APC, the leadership of the PDP failed to secure the loyalty of its state chapter for him. And even though, the party submitted the name of his son in-law to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, ahead of the elections; there were fears Takai’s group may work against Kwankwaso’s interest, unless a kind of deal, acceptable to both parties, was brokered. In the end, Kwankwaso had his way but he did not get it on a platter of gold. All of these issues formed the beginning of his friction with Atiku at the time
From the look of things, the relationship between these two political power houses has grown frosty eversince. Kweankwaso has not had anything to do with Atiku eversince and, as 2027 draws close, it remains to be seen if the two would find a common ground and interest to consider joining forces together to dethrone a man thy both admit is a formidable political foe- President Bola Ahmed Tinubu!
–WALE LAWAL
(08037209290)
