Two-time former Governor of Kano State, Engineer Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso says though there are talks about cross carpeting to New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) he is still a member of the People Democratic Party (PDP).
Kwankwaso earlier announced plans to move to the NNPP before the end of March, a move speculated mainly to grant him the chance to contest the Presidential election in the forthcoming elections.
The PDP at the moment is likely to consider former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar for the ticket, even as stakeholders are clamouring that the next President comes from the Southern Part of Nigeria,
Kwankwaso in an interview with the BBC said the launch of The National Movement gave birth to the NNPP, adding that there is a need to change the system introduced since 1999 to one that will benefit Nigerians.
He said there is a need to study what the country can change to get a new focus, but he insisted that he is still in the PDP.
“As we speak, I am still in the PDP. We started the movement step by step. The first is to withdraw to the background, thinking some people within the party will want to hear our grievances, but the party didn’t do anything, we joined the group and still, nothing was done by the party, now we are at the level of a political party.
“Even as I speak with you, we are still between a group and a political party, and I have not left the PDP, but this group has linked up with the NNPP. Whenever I am quitting the PDP you will be among the first to know because we are carefully following our programme.”
Kwankwaso said that it is not as if he is running with the hare and hunting with the hounds in his relationship with the NNPP and PDP.
“The issue is not about Rabi’u Kwankwaso or Kwankwasiyya movement. It is about ‘The National Movement’ and we are many in it, and most of the people in the movement are big people, so I can’t take any decision alone.”
When asked about the reported dissolution of the NNPP leadership even before they joined, he said: “Actually the party is not ours, but they want us to be involved. That was why they want to bring their representatives and want us to do the same. And their tenure has lapsed and they have all stepped down, including the person that registered it more than 20 years ago. So it is a fresh arrangement that they are making to involve all of us because in most states they don’t have anybody.”
Many supporters of Kwankwaso in Kano and Jigawa States have already defected to the NNPP, while preparations and consultations continue for others and the former Governor himself to move to the new party. However, it is unclear if some of the most important persons in the kwankwasiyya movement will leave the PDP with him.
But Kwankwaso, often in interviews says he is still a member of the PDP, giving rise to speculations about his true intention.