Rabiu Kwankwaso, vice-presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), has explained why he wants former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, to step aside for NDC flagbearer Peter Obi in the 2027 election. He said his appeal comes from a long personal and political relationship with Atiku, not from hostility.
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Kwankwaso spoke on Thursday on Channels Television’s Politics Today, where he traced decades of dealings with Atiku and explained why he aligned with Obi. Asked whether he was insisting that Atiku should abandon his presidential ambition this time, he answered plainly: “Well, yes.”
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Fulani delegation and a request to Atiku
The former Kano State governor said he recently used a courtesy visit to his home by a group of Fulani people from across the country to ask them to speak with Atiku about stepping aside before returning to their towns and villages.
“I had some people, coincidentally, a group of Fulanis from across the country who came for a courtesy visit to my house. And I thought it was an opportunity for me, really, to talk to them and ask them that they should create time before they go back to their towns and villages to talk to him,” he said.
He stressed that the call was not driven by animosity. “His Excellency Vice-President Atiku Abubakar is somebody that I know fairly well. And we have done so much together with him in the past. In fact, more than anybody who is around him today,” he said.
A relationship dating back to 1993
To show how deep their ties run, Kwankwaso went back to 1993, when both men belonged to the political movement led by the late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua. He said Atiku was the group’s choice for the Social Democratic Party (SDP) presidential ticket, and that they did everything they could to make him the candidate.
“We supported him. We did everything possible to make him our candidate of the SDP. And when it didn’t work out, of course, we tried also under General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua to ensure that we got the ticket of the Vice-President,” he said.
He recalled that the effort failed, but that their association continued into 1999, when Olusegun Obasanjo emerged as the presidential candidate. Kwankwaso was then Governor-elect of Kano, and Atiku was Obasanjo’s running mate, later vice-president. “I was very close to him,” he said.
Later years
Kwankwaso said Atiku also played a major role in 2003, and that in 2007 almost 90 per cent of Kano’s votes went to him, even though they were in different parties at the time. He noted that Atiku was in the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) while he himself was not.
He added that the two worked together again in 2011, and that both were aspirants for the APC presidential ticket before the 2015 election. “Buhari was number one, I was number two, he was number three. That’s 2015, so you can go on and on,” he said.
“Everything has time”
Kwankwaso closed by insisting his position should not be read as opposition to Atiku personally. “What I’m trying to say is that we are not against him. The two sides, we’ve worked together with him so everything has time,” he said.
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