President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has kick-started moves to reconcile the national leader of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso, and the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Ganduje, ahead of his push for a second term in office in 2027.

Kwankwaso and Ganduje are former Governors of Kano State and major stakeholders in the North West state.

According to Daily Trust, the president communicated his intention for reconciliation to both leaders separately during a meeting with Kano APC stakeholders at the State House in Abuja last week Thursday.

It was said that President Tinubu had given Kwankwaso and Ganduje some time to inform their stakeholders and return at a later date to finalise the reconciliation process.

The president is said to be planning to personally chair a reconciliation meeting where the two former governors of Kano State are expected to come with two persons each
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One of the sources close to Ganduje confirmed that the president had asked the APC leader to meet with APC stakeholders in Kano on Thursday and commence the process of solidifying the unity of purpose amongst them.

The source said: “Contrary to what is trending that the president ordered the (national) chairman (Ganduje) to reconcile with Kwankwaso, the president never spoke specifically about Kwankwaso during the stakeholders’ meeting at the Presidential Villa, last week. During the meeting, the president praised Ganduje’s reconciliation skills in Ondo and Edo and said he wants him to do similar things with Kano.”

The source added that it was during a private meeting between Tinubu and Ganduje that the president informed the APC leader of his intention to bring Kwankwaso into APC and asked the latter to devise a strategy for realising this objective.

He said as a first step towards achieving that goal, however, the president asked Ganduje to convene a meeting in Kano, in order to secure the buy-in of APC stakeholders in the state.

It was gathered further that while many of the APC stakeholders at the meeting in Abuja had their reservations about what the president was proposing, none could raise a dissenting voice.

“There was no room for that (dissenting voice). What happened was that the plan for the meeting with the president was to allow the chairman to do the opening remark and then yield the floor to Barau (Jibrin, the deputy Senate President) as well as (Alhassan Ado) Doguwa (member representing Doguwa/Tudunwada Federal Constituency of Kano State).

“But as the chairman was rounding off his speech, the president put on his microphone, signalling that he was ready to speak, and he did not mince words in what he told them. First, he learnt that the members of the APC family in Kano were unhappy with the Supreme Court judgment that retained Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf and that many of the party faithful felt let down by him (the president) over this development,” the source said.

The president was then said to have appealed to the party’s leaders at the meeting to reach out to the Kano APC family in Kano and appease them, assuring them that he played no role in the loss suffered by the party.

“The second thing the president said was that our chairman should use the reconciliation skills to effectively manage the Kano APC stakeholders, after which he should return to him for further consultation.

“Shockingly, the president never said anything about possible ‘compensation’ for Gawuna and Garo (the governorship candidate and his deputy) with some political appointments,” the source added

Speaking on Monday, the former majority leader of the House of Representatives, Alhassan Ado Doguwa stated that he was at the meeting last Thursday with the president and commended Tinubu for the reconciliation moves.

The lawmaker stated that while not being averse to the reconciliation moves, he only hoped that the efforts would yield the desired objective.

He added that what would augur well for all is for the terms to be accepted by all parties, and for there to be certain guidelines to be observed by those coming in and those already in the party.

He said: “I was part of the meeting with Mr President, and he was simply suggesting that as one people from the same state (Kano), he recalled meeting all of us in the same group before the 2015 general elections and that it will not be bad for us to come back together under one party. It was a suggestion, not a marching order. But when a leader suggests something, it’s as good and effective as an order.

“I don’t think I can oppose the reconciliation as a Muslim and with my knowledge of politics. We will be glad if reconciliation can be forged to push the state and party to greater heights. But I hope such reconciliation will be based on genuine intentions so that at the end, none of us will be taken for granted.”

Meanwhile, the acting National Chairman of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Abba Kawu-Ali, has said the party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Rabiu Kwankwaso, is not planning to defect to the APC.

AThe NNPP acting National Chairman said as far as the party is concerned, there is no plan for Kwankwaso to leave the party for the ruling party.

Kawu-Ali also asserted that the NNPP is not planning to collapse its structure with that of APC, but added that nothing can be hastily predicted in politics.

The NNPP chairman stated that the party and its leaders are not enemies with the APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, and his party in Kano state.

He said: “As the chairman of the party, we don’t have any arrangement like that, and I have not discussed it with my leader (Kwankwaso). But we are not enemies (with Ganduje and APC). We are politicians and we cannot predict tomorrow. But as of today (Monday), Kwankwaso does not have any plans like that. Also, the NNPP does not have any plan like that for now.”