8th August, 2023
Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has shown willingness to receive Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, the Presidential Candidate of the New Nigerian People Party (NNPP), if he agrees to defect to the ruling party.
Ganduje made the remarks during a media conference after he hosted former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, at his Abuja villa.
He said, “Nobody will say Kwankwaso is not a good politician, at least he was a two-term Kano Governor, although, in disrupted tenures, he was Minister of Defence, even though he doesn’t know what defence is, and was once a Senator, even though he never said anything throughout his stay there.
“But if he is willing to decamp to the APC, our door is open, especially now that someone from his state is the party chairman, so it will be easier for him to lobby.”
When asked why Kwankwaso was left off President Bola Tinubu’s list of ministerial nominees, Ganduje revealed that the NNPP candidate was never promised anything in the first place.
He first learned of the news from Kwankwaso himself after returning from his meeting with the President in Paris, France.
“It is true that President Tinubu has promised to run a unity government, and he stood by his words. Nyesom Wike, from the PDP, is now a Ministerial nominee. But he [Kwankwaso] is the one who said he would be given an appointment initially, and not the President himself,” he added.