2019: Kwankwaso, Lado Set For Clash Over Kano Central
The recent defection of Senator Basheer Garba Lado from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) has placed him, once again, on a war path with Senator Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, whose senate seat Lado will be eyeing in2019.
Last week, Senator Basheer Garba Lado decamped to the APC with over 100,000 supporters in Kano. He was received into the party by the state governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, at a special reception held at Sani Abacha Indoor Stadium.
While receiving the senator, Ganduje promised that he will replace Kwankwaso, the current senator for Kano Central with Senator Lado in 2019, saying the people of Kano Central would replace Kwankwaso with Lado in the next general elections.
Ganduje created an interested political scene at the event when he raised Lado’s hands, saying, in Hausa language, “Kano ta Tsakiya,” and the crowd replied, “Sai mun chanja,” meaning “We must replace the Senator for Kano Central.”
The statement by the governor clearly showed that Senator Lado defected to APC purposely to contest for the position of senator in 2019.
But what is not clear yet, is whether Senator Kwankwaso will remain in the APC to re-contest his seat next year.
It would be recalled that Alhaji Abba Kabiru Yusuf, a former Commissioner of Works and Housing, during the administration of Kwankwaso as governor of Kano, won the APC ticket to contest the Kano Central against Lado, who emerged the PDP candidate for the election.
However, his name was replaced with that of outgoing Governor Kwankwaso before the list of candidates for the 2015 elections was submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the secondary election.
Senator Kwankwaso at that time contested for the APC presidential ticket alongside then candidates Muhammadu Buhari, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Chairman of Leadership Newspapers, Mr Sam Nda Isaiah. But the three aspirants were defeated by Buhari with Kwankwaso coming second ahead of Atiku and Nda Isaiah who came third and fourth, respectively.
After Kwankwaso replaced the former commissioner of works, other aspirants that contested the primary election with him (Yusuf) went to the court and challenged his replacement. They urged the court to stop Kwankwaso from participating in the secondary election since he did not participate in the APC primary election.
They argued that if Yusuf was to be replaced with someone, that person should be one of those that contested primary election with him, not Kwankwaso who did not partake in the election.
However, the court ruled that a political party had the sole mandate of presenting to INEC the person that will vie for any political office under its platform. The court ruling, therefore, paved way for Kwankwaso to run for senatorial seat under the APC, emerging the winner having defeated Senator Lado.
With Senator Lado now in the APC and enjoying the backing of the state governor, who has since fallen out with Kwankwaso, the battle line has been drawn.
But what is certain at present is that Kwankwaso, touted to be eying the Presidency, would not just vacate his senatorial seat without planting a successor, if not for anything, just to show that he is still a force to be reckoned with in Kano.
As the national leader of the Kwankwasiyya Movement, he would like to ensure that beyond his senatorial seat, his men capture key elective positions in Kano and beyond, including the seat of governors.
Daily Trust on Sunday observed that from the body language of majority of members of Kwankwasiyya, Senator Kwankwaso will rather vie for the Presidency come in 2019. The popular slogan among members of the Kwankwasiyya group in Kano is Daga Daura, sai Madobi, which literally means, after Daura, it is Madobi’s turn. Madobi is the Kano local government Kwankwaso came from.
Although there is not any formal declaration for Kwankwaso’s presidential ambition yet, one of the Kwankwasiyya leaders in a chat with our correspondent said, “Kwankwaso is too big to compete with Lado. In fact, to members of Kwankwasiyya, it would be disgraceful for Kwankwaso to compete with Lado in an election. It is an attempt to bring Kwankwaso down politically if you compare him with Lado.
“After all, who told you that Kwankwaso is going to contest for the senate in 2019?,” he asked.
“Remember, he contested for the Presidency in 2015 and he came second in the primary election after Buhari. The slot for president will be free for everyone including Kwankwaso to contest in 2019. For your information, Kwankwaso has never said he will contest for senatorial position again in next year’s general election. So, the issue of competing with Lado does not even arise at all,” he added.
It has become apparent that Kwankwaso and Ganduje are at each other’s throat and are both set to see the downfall of one another politically.
While Kwankwaso is determined to see that Ganduje did not come back as governor of Kano State in 2019, Ganduje is also committed to scuttle Kwankwaso’s political plans ahead of the next general elections.
According to some political watchers in the state, the lingering political rift between Kwankwaso and Ganduje will no doubt determine the person that will run under the APC in the next general elections.
In such situations, Senator Lado might have the chance to get the ticket through incumbency factor.
Pundits added that in the event that Kwankwaso decamps to another political party and decides to contest for senate, then Senator Lado’s ambition to return to the Red Chamber in 2019 will face a serious challenge.
They opined the Kwankwasiyya factor will play a significant role in favour of its founder and national leader.
Some months ago, rumours filtered into Kano that Kwankwaso had entered into a political alliance with the PDP in his quest to stop Ganduje from winning election in 2019.
But his former Special Assistant, Alhaji Sanusi Surajo Kwankwaso said Kwankwaso was too big to seek alliance with the PDP to dislodge the incumbent governor in the next election.
Surajo Kwankwaso said no political party in the country had the capacity to dare Kwankwasiyya at the polls, claiming that the movement was powerful enough to challenge any political party in any given election and at all levels.
He said, “Kwankwaso does not need any helping hand from the PDP to dislodge Ganduje come 2019 general elections. It is mere rumours that Kwankwaso is seeking alliance with the PDP in Kano to dislodge Ganduje.
“The speculation is untrue and unfounded. Kwankwasiyya is an independent movement and is powerful enough to compete with any political party,” he said.
Kwankwaso said no political party in Nigeria that is more powerful than Kwankwasiyya, empathizing that Kwankwasiyya had never met with PDP at any level with intent to form political alliance ahead of 2019 general elections.
Speaking to Daily Trust on Sunday on the recent political developments in the state, the Chairman of Senator Lado Political Consultation Committee, Alhaji Yusuf Muhammad Maibiredi, said they joined the APC together with the senator because they believe he would continue with the people’s oriented programmes he has started when he was senator.
Maibiredi explained that even Lado’s political opponents could attest to the fact that in the history of Kano, the state had never got a senator who impacted on the lives of his constituents through the execution of meaningful projects that touched on their lives the way Senator Lado did within his 4-year tenure.
“Senator brought the Kundila flyover which the people of Kano State named after him in appreciation of the role he played not only in bringing the project to the state but also in ensuring its completion. The ongoing project for the dualisation of Kano-Katsina road is another constituency project he brought for the benefit of his constituents,” he said.
He added that Senator Lado had empowered many women and youths in Kano Central and beyond, beside hundreds of boreholes and schools he constructed across his constituency, among others.
“In short, Senator Lado is a tested and trusted politician and we are not regretting dumping the PDP for the APC alongside him because we believe he will better the living standard of his constituents,” he concluded.
It is now left to be seen how the drama will end.