Two leading opposition figures in the country, former Vice
president Atiku Abubakar and a former Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Musa
Kwankwaso, recently held a meeting in Abuja.
The meeting took place at the residence of the former
Governor and leader of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) late Tuesday.
Kwankwaso confirmed the meeting on his Facebook page, saying
that “I was pleased to receive my brother, the former Vice President, His
Excellency, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, at my residence this evening. I thank Waziri
for this fraternal visit. – RMK.”
Though details of the meeting are yet to be known as those close to the two leaders have kept sealed lips, it was gathered that the meeting might not be unconnected with the political situation in the country and recent developments.
Before taking oath of office, President Bola Tinubu of the
All Progressives Congress (APC) met with Kwankwaso, his NNPP rival in the
election.
According to sources, the president considering a Government
of National Unity and had planned to include Kwankwaso and some of his allies
in his administration.
However, neither Kwankwaso nor any of his known associates
made the ministerial list, while the immediate past governor of Kano, Abdullahi
Ganduje, a known political foe of Kwankwaso, had some impute in the cabinet.
After Tinubu met with Kwankwaso, Ganduje had expressed
worries, saying he felt abandoned.
In a leaked conversation, Ganduje was heard telling Alhaji
Ibrahim Masari, one of Tinubu’s aides that there was noise all over Kano over
the meeting between Tinubu and Kwankwaso.
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 is even because of him (Tinubu) that
we lost the government. Even if he would see him (Kwankwaso), he ought to have
called us too. Or don’t you understand, even if symbolically.”
But Ganduje’s body language changed in the following weeks
as he warmed his way into Tinubu’s camp, emerging National Chairman of the
ruling party and also nominating a replacement for Maryam Shetty, the nominee
who was dropped for the inclusion of Gnduje’s former commissioner in Tinubu’s
cabinet.
Before the election Atiku and his allies tried to form a
political alliance with Kwankwaso against the APC and its presidential
candidate, but that was not to materialize.
Even though a source close to the former Vice President said that the meeting was just for fraternal greetings, the days ahead
will show weather a new political alliance is already in the offing.
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