Kwankwaso, Ganduje take turns to meet Tinubu at Aso Rock

Former governors of Kano State Abdullahi Ganduje and Rabiu Kwankwaso took turns to visit President Bola Tinubu at Aso Rock. 

The duo, who is at loggerheads, visited the Nigerian leader in Abuja on Friday as they continued in what many have described as a supremacy battle.

While Ganduje (contesting and winning under the All Progressives Congress) succeeded the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples  Party (NNPP) as governor, the duo fell out some years back.

But the NNPP defeated Ganduje’s APC in the 2023 governorship election as Kwankwaso took third in the presidential poll.

Months after the elections and with Tinubu of the APC becoming the president, there have been efforts to reconcile Kwankwaso and Ganduje.

That was one of the major talking points of Tinubu’s recent meeting with the NNPP chieftain in France.

Friday’s meeting was in furtherance of consultations with Kwankwaso who is expected to work with the new government.

But Ganduje’s faceoff with his predecessor, which is a major obstacle to that, appears to have worsened with new Kano State Governor Abba Yusuf demolishing some structures erected by the previous government.

Infuriated by Abba’s moves, Ganduje said he could have slapped Kwankwaso if they met at Aso Rock.

“I know he (Kwankwaso) is in the building but we have not met. Probably if we met, maybe I could have slapped him,” Ganduje.

He claimed that some of the properties demolished by the NNNP-led Kano State government were done under a private-public-partnership, expressing disappointment over the development.

Kwankwaso, was, however, quick to dismiss claims by his successor and accused Ganduje of appropriating government properties to himself and his family.

Away from this, he said conversations around a ministerial post for him in the Tinubu administration also took centre stage during the visit.

The NNPP presidential candidate reiterated his commitment to working with Tinubu but maintained he won’t join the APC as being speculated in some quarters.

According to him, Tinubu is only interested in forming a government of national unity.