Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the president-elect, and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, who flew the flag of New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) in the February 25 presidential election, met for four hours in Paris, France, on Monday.
The Cable reports that at the centre of the discussion was the potential involvement of Kwankwaso in the in-coming administration as Tinubu plans to form a “government of national unity,” which means giving certain positions to opposition parties.
The meeting also discussed issues around the election of the legislative leaders ahead of the June 13 inauguration of the 10th national assembly.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has zoned the two top positions in both chambers, but some of its members are kicking against the formula and threatening to form an alliance with the opposition to torpedo the arrangement.
While APC has 59 senators and 175 members of the House of Representatives, NNPP has two and 19, respectively.
A simple majority of 56 senators and 181 representatives is needed to elect the top two leaders in the respective chambers.
Tinubu’s representatives have also been meeting with key figures in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), The Cable confirmed.
The Paris meeting between Tinubu and Kwankwaso started at 12.30 p.m. and ended at 4.45 p.m., insiders told The Cable.
Femi Gbajabiamila, speaker of the House of Representatives and presumptive chief of staff to the president-elect, attended the meeting, while Abdulmumin Jibrin, an NNPP rep-elect and former leader of a Tinubu campaign organization, accompanied Kwankwaso.
The Cable learned that Tinubu and Kwankwaso reminisced about their relationship dating back to the National Assembly in 1992.
Tinubu was a senator, while Kwankwaso was deputy speaker in the House of Representatives.
The Cable understands that Kwankwaso, in principle, agreed to join Tinubu’s government subject to consultations with stakeholders on both sides.
Tinubu is expected to brief Kashim Shettima, the vice president elect, the APC governors forum, and other party leaders, while Kwankwaso will do the same with his party leadership.
The Cable learned that Tinubu expressed concern over the strained relations between Abdullahi Ganduje, the outgoing governor of Kano State, and Kwankwaso and promised to broker peace between them.
Ganduje was deputy to Kwankwaso when he was governor of Kano from 2011 to 2015, but they soon parted ways.
Tinubu polled 8,797,726 votes to win the presidential election, beating the PDP’s Atiku Abubakar by a margin of two million.
However, Kwankwaso polled 1.5 million votes, which many analysts believe were votes that could have gone to Atiku if the former Kano governor had not defected from the PDP.
