The Labour Party, on Sunday, welcomed the offer by the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, to be running mate to LP’s Peter Obi in the 2027 presidential election.
Kwankwaso, in a recent viral post, indicated his willingness to serve as running mate to the former Labour Party presidential flag bearer barely two years after talks between both parties went south.
The LP and the NNPP, THE PUNCH noted, had considered a merger ahead of the 2023 general elections, but the inability of either Obi or Kwankwaso to concede the leadership collapsed the heightened move.
The former governor of Kano State, who spoke in Hausa, expressed his readiness via a circulated video on his official account provided ‘certain conditions are met.
Kwankwaso, who acknowledged his rising political profile stated: “I’m bigger than Peter Obi politically; I’m his elder brother, I’m a PhD holder, I performed better than him when I was the governor of my state.
“I’ve no problem with deputising for Peter Obi, but only if certain conditions are met.”
He further expressed the possibility of engaging in meaningful discussions with Obi, noting: “We are willing to engage in discussions, provided that trust is established.”
In the last elections, Peter Obi of the Labour Party emerged third position, securing approximately 6,101,533 votes, while Kwankwaso garnered 1,496,687 votes to emerge a distant fourth position.
It should be recalled that Kwankwaso has been vocal in his criticism of the Bola Tinubu-led Nigerian government, faulting the government’s economic policies which has plunged Nigerians into hardship.
Reacting in an exclusive interview, the National Secretary of LP, Umar Farouk, told The PUNCH that the renewed move by Kwankwaso was a welcome development.
He also appealed to the former Kano governor not to kill the merger talk again with his insinuation of being a better politician and holding a higher education degree.
He said, “As a political party, we stand for good governance and we have equally given all our candidates, both former and serving ones, the opportunity to choose how to associate with people of like-minds who share the philosophy and ideology of the Labour Party.
“We are happy Kwankwaso has alighted from the high horse he was riding and willing to offer himself to Obi as deputy having seen he garnered more than six million votes at the 2023 election. With his so-called popularity in the North, Kwankwaso could only amass less than two million votes.
“Again, he should stop this talk of being a bigger politician and PhD holder. What did he even do as a minister of defence? This is why we advise politicians to always consider tne dynamics of politics to gauge the temperament of the electorate at a particular time.
“Of course, we know what played out in 2023 will be different from 2027. It will be in the interest of Nigerians if Obi and Kwankwaso are willing to come together and wrest power from the APC government. But again, we know the sitting government will not go to sleep and allow the renewed move to work.”
‘Tinubu will emerge victorious’
Meanwhile, despite criticisms of President Bola Tinubu’s reform policies by the opposition, a legislative Aide to the Deputy President of the Senate,Alhaji Ado Garba (Tati), however expressed optimism that he re-clinch the Presidential seat with a landslide victory in 2027.
According to Tati, while exchanging vrews with newsmen in Kano on Sunday, he is confident that the people of Kano would massively vote for President Tinubu and the APC in 2027.
“It is because of the goodwill of the Deputy President of the Senate,Barau Jibrin, which the people of the state have been enjoying.”
Such goodwil, he explained,include Senator Barau’s women and youths empowerment programmes, scholarship schemes, desilting of dams, provision of Federal and feeder Roads and irrigation schemes in the Kano North Senatorial Distric, which he represents in the National Assembly.
Other initiatives, he said, include the distribution of 60 trucks to farmers free, establishment of a Transport Service, with over 1000 buses and facilitating siting of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) campus in Kano North Senatorial Zone.
“All these programmes have impacted positively on the lives of the people of Kano North in particular,and the people of Kano State in general.”
Similarly,Tati stated that,Senator Barau’s populist programmes have been attracting more membership for the APC in the state, with the Deputy President of the Senate receiving thousands of NNPP supporters into the APC fold.
So far, he said Barau had received thousands of NNPP supporters, who defected to the APC “notwithstanding the fact that Kano State Government is an NNPP controlled state, and we are still counting.”
“Following Senator Barau’s initiatives and development programmes coupled with President Tinubu’s realistic and patriotic reform policies will induce the people of the state to vote for President Tinubu en masse in 2024,”Tati added.
