The presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, has come under fire from the national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje.
Ganduje in a viral video on Monday claimed Kwankwaso supported the contentious demolition of buildings in Kano.Ganduje spoke in Hausa to some of his loyalists and party supporters from Kano State who paid a courtesy visit to the secretariat.
In the two-minute, 28-second video, Ganduje stated that President Bola Tinubu was smart enough to see through Kwankwaso’s desperation to become the next Minister of the Federal Capital Territory.
He added that the random demolition of buildings approved by his administration was the only way he and his political godson (Kano governor, Abba Yusuf) could express their frustration under the guise of sanitising Kano’s master plan.
“Is it not the FCT minister position that he wanted? That was why he demolished buildings in Kano under the guise that he wanted to defend the master plan. If you ask him what the master plan is, he can’t tell you.
“All you will hear is, ‘We will reset the Kano master plan. We have promised Kano people that we will demolish houses even if they are 1,000-storey buildings.’ Look, if an illiterate person does not know he is one, he is certainly blind. That is what befell him,” Ganduje mocked.
The video clip, which has since found its way to social media, has started generating debate among supporters of both candidates.
When contacted for reaction, the NNPP National Publicity Secretary, Major Agbo, pleaded to be left out of the personal conflict between the APC national chairman and his one-time ally.
He said, “Please leave us out of the Ganduje matter. Whatever he thinks he has against Kwankwaso is their problem. It doesn’t have anything to do with the New Nigeria People’s Party.
‘‘Also, the issue of demolition in Kano is the decision of the governor. The party has no role in it.”
But the spokesperson for the NNPP Presidential Campaign Council, Ladipo Johnson, stated that Ganduje is merely seeking relevance.
“Does anyone really still listen to what Ganduje says? The fact that he is the APC national chairman doesn’t mean that he is a rational human being. That is all I have to say.
“We are not going to waste our time on somebody who is inconsequential, no matter what the APC thinks they are doing. It is as simple as that,” he noted.
Prior to the unveiling of the ministerial nominees, there were high expectations that Kwankwaso, former Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, and some party chieftains from the opposition would feature prominently in Tinubu’s proposed government of national unity.
While Wike and a few others were shortlisted, Kwankwaso was not.