The meeting between President-elect Bola Tinubu and Rabiu Kwankwaso, presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) has continued to ruffle feathers, especially among leaders of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the ancient city of Kano.
Recall that Tinubu and Kwankwaso met for four hours in France last week, discussing a wide range of issues, including the possibility of the NNPP Presidential Candidate joining the incoming cabinet.
Reacting to the meeting Abdulmajid Kwamanda, an APC leader in Kano, expressed his dissatisfaction with the meeting, he warned Tinubu against giving any appointment to Kwankwaso, not even that of a messenger.
“We in the North West do not welcome Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso to our party APC. We do not accept the idea of Bola Tinubu giving him any appointment even as low as a messenger in our dear party. Should Tinubu ignore our outcry and appoint Kwankwaso, we are going to disrupt the entire APC in the north and withdraw our support for him, ,” Kwamanda had told reporters.
Moments after Kwamanda spoke, the audio of phone call between Ganduje and Ibrahim Masari, a former placeholder vice presidential candidate of the APC, surfaced.
In the audio, the governor was heard bemoaning the president-elect meeting with Kwankwaso, saying it’s in bad taste.
The governor had started the conversation by saying that the meeting between Tinubu and Kwankwaso was generating so much hoopla in Kano.
Ganduje said even though Masari had told him of the possibility of such meeting, there was nothing he could have done about it.
He, however, said Tinubu could have invited him and other APC bigwigs in Kano to the meeting as a symbolic gesture.
“But at that time, you could have spoken with him (Tinubu). You can (sic) call him and talk to him,” Masari said.
The governor was then heard saying “what could I have told him? Now he (Tinubu) is seeing Kwankwaso as an alternative to us? No problem. Because we don’t have a government? And it’s even because of him (Tinubu) we lost the government in any way.
“Even if he will see him (Kwankwaso), he ought to have called us too. Or don’t you understand, even if symbolically.”
In the audio, Masari, an ally of Tinubu, was then heard pacifying Ganduje and urging him not to be angry over the development, adding that everyone knows that Tinubu was not fair to him. He asked the governor to remain calm until he visits Tinubu on Thursday and until they meet in Abuja.
“And all these things are from God. And the calculation that he is doing is not even accurate… And this man, how did he end up with Jonathan,” Ganduje said.
According to Daily Trust, the governor left Kano for Abuja late Friday evening and will hopefully be meeting Masari over the weekend before the former would meet with the president-elect.