By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

Kano State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said in view of the prevailing dispute over the Kano Emirates, the ruling New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) will suffer re-election in 2027, and not President Bola Tinubu as speculated in some quarters.

The State Chairman of the APC, Abdullahi Abbas, said in a statement that the party is now more united, popular and will deliver triple of what it got in the last presidential election in Kano State due to failures of the current NNPP administration in the state.

Abbas said contrary to a media report credited to the Kano State NNPP Chairman, Hashimu Dungurawa, it is the ruling party in the state and its national leader, Engr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso that will suffer the consequences of the ongoing Emirship tussle negatively.

The Kano NNPP Chairman had said the lingering Emirship tussle may negatively work against President Tinubu’s second term ambition in 2027.

But the Kano APC Chairman said the claim by the NNPP’s state chairman was an indication of the party’s frustration in the state and the nation’s political scene.

He added that the crisis of confidence rocking the factionalised opposition NNPP and its embattled leader, Senator Kwankwaso is embarrassingly exposing its dismal failure, even as it is boasting of clinching the nation’s presidency comes 2027.

According to Abbas, Kwankwaso’s presidential debut in 2023 was deliberately intended to test his national outlook, relevance in the scheme of things, manipulate the way for his son in-law to have his way and also to reclaim Kano from the APC.

“Kwankwaso got 1,454,649 total votes, representing only 6.23 per cent, and most of them from Kano. In fact, media post-election analysis showed that Kwankwaso did not get up to 100,000 votes elsewhere aside from Kano,” he said.

Abbas pointed out that Kwankwaso got 1.2 million or 19 per cent of the total votes in the North-west, his geo political zone, and almost nothing in other regions of the country.

“How come Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the opposition Labour Party from far away South East bested Kwankwaso in 13 northern states of Kaduna, Taraba, Borno, Gombe, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Niger, Sokoto, Nasarawa, Plateau, Adamawa and Benue,” he queried.

The APC Chairman said the people of Kano and leaders of thought in the Northern Nigeria understood that the only interest of the Federal Government in the lingering Emirate crisis in Kano is to ensure that the rule of law prevail for peace and tranquility in the largest populated state.

He reminded the NNPP Chairman and his group how they were roundly beaten in 2019 and narrowly escaped in 2023 based on votes statistics despite having a presidential candidate from Kano State.

Abbas said, “Aside widely acknowledged poor performance of Governor Abba Yusuf-led NNPP government in Kano State in the last one year, the party’s penchant for causing and sponsoring crisis in a peaceful state he inherited and some of his anti-people’s policies are factors voters will consider in the next election.

“It is a public knowledge that while other state governors were commissioning one project or the other to mark their one year in office, the NNPP Kano State government was busy distracting the good people of Kano from his obvious failures through the contentious Emirate law as a tactic from his inadequacies in office.”

He added that in 2027, the people of Kano State whose houses were demolished and rendered homeless will not forget in a hurry, those whose sources of economic survival and businesses were destroyed and will not vote NNPP again, among many other categories of people already badly affected by the “current misfit government in Kano.”

Abbas stated that bringing up the issue of 2027 presidential election by the Kano NNPP chairman in the face of an apparent failure of the government was not only diversionary, but an indication of a plan to plunder the resources of the state in the name of candidature.

The APC chairman maintained that Kwankwaso would continue to lose the presidential election because he still does not have the national outlook to contest the nation’s coveted seat.

Abbas added that since his debut into the political scene, to him, everything has to be about him and nothing else, and that the process also had to be manipulated.

“When Kwankwaso contested the gubernatorial primaries in 1999 on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party, alongside Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Mukthari Zimit and Alhaji Kabiru Rabi’u, he didn’t win the election. He had to rig the election in Gabasawa with only 86 votes, which Ganduje vehemently rejected. But the party leadership had to prevail on him to let it go,” he said.

The APC Chairman stated that the NNPP government in Kano State started on a wrong footing by going against the very essence of governance, which is the people, and always wants to distract the people from its apparent failure.

“We are using this medium to assure our able and capable President, including the party’s national leadership that Kano State APC is now more united, popular and is daily attracting politically valuable people into our fold. We are ready and will deliver more than triple of the votes we got in 2023 presidential election,” he boasted.