Governor of Kano State Abdullahi Ganduje, on Monday, invited his predecessor and presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso to hold a rally in the state to test his popularity.
Speaking during a live appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Ganduje, an All Progressives Congress (APC) leader, defended the large turnout of supporters for his party’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu in the state earlier in the day.
“Kwankwaso is a presidential candidate, there is no doubt about that. But equally, we are on the ground and many of his people are now in our political party,” he said.
“So, if Kwankwaso thinks that he can win the party, let him hold a march like this and compare what will happen if he can do so.”
Commenting on the possibility of his party losing ground to another of his predecessors turned political rivals, Ibrahim Shekarau, Ganduje questioned the political relevancy of the former Minister of Education over his switching allegiance.
“Pertaining to Shekarau, we won our election without Shekarau. Later, we invited him into our party and he decided to leave the party to Kwankwaso’s party.
“Later on, he left that party to Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) where he was originally. So, you can see that these are nomads in politics. You expect that people who run from one party to another will lose followers.
“Once you change your political party, you cannot carry everybody to where you want to go. You will leave some followers. He left a majority of his followers in APC and then he left others in NNPP. He then left many there. Where he is now, well, we will live to see,” he said.
‘Ado-Doguwa’s Grievance Resolved’
Ganduje also addressed issues raised by the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa earlier this month.
Ado-Doguwa claimed that though Ganduje had governed the state well, those he handed the party affairs to in the state were discriminating against loyal party members, forcing them to defect from the party.
But the governor told Channels Television that the lawmaker’s complaints had been put to bed.
“Having internal wranglings in a party is not new. Honourable Alhassan Ado-Doguwa and our former commissioner for local government, who is now the deputy gubernatorial candidate, had a misunderstanding.
“But we sat down under my chairmanship and everything is put in order now. Even today, they were together; they even took pictures together and issued a press release together. So, everything is normal within our party,” he said.
