…Kwankwaso losing grip on party as loyalists begin to abandon him
From Desmond Mgboh, Kano
Afew months ago, the former governor of Kano State and national leader of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, celebrated his birthday at his palatial Bompai home in Kano State.
Compared to the same occasion, last year, it was undoubtedly clear that something was missing. A certain sense of occasion and profoundness that marked last year’s celebration was absent this year.
To a keen observer, gone was the surging crowd of party men – some of whom were appointment seekers – that lined up to hail him to the roof top. Gone was all the fine oratory about new age and his contributions to politics and humanity.
This fact is a signal that certain things have changed – either the man himself has started losing his cherry appeal or the Kwankwasiyya Movement, a vast political structure he embodied, has suffered a diminishing return in the light of several onslaughts. Aggrieved party supporters told Sunday Sun that the quality of attendance at the birthday was a sign of the crisis within the party, which has pushed away many of his die-hard followers or has discouraged a lot of his one-time worshippers.
Investigations by Sunday Sun indicate that in the past one year and six months, the state chapter of the NNPP led by Hashimu Suleiman Dungurawa, has been passing through trying times though it is putting up a face that all is well. The party, itself, has been accused of suffering from insufficient internal democratic culture and values as well as hydra-headed, undue influence of its leader.
These and other intrusive situations have led to growing distrust, lack of confidence in party issues, exclusion of some non- Kwankwassiyya members, disloyalty, and outright renunciation of the party by some protesting party members, among others.
Prominent among the list of crises rocking the party at the moment is the battle between the leader of the party and the former Secretary to the State Government, Abdullahi Baffa Bichi.
The conflict reached its crescendo a few weeks ago, climaxing with the sacking of the latter from the party and from the government.
“Despite his immense contributions to the flavour and growth of the party, he was shown the way out like a common fly. He was dropped with a press release,” a close ally of his in the state, who gave his name as Usman Ahmed Bebeji, lamented.
Ahmed said: “Here is a man who not only contributed substantial financial support to the party during the electoral campaigns, but brought to the table his vast political experience as a reputed activist and a former Chairman, Bayero University, Kano branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, to help the governor come to power”.
Bichi’s downfall is certainly and directly linked to his awry relationship with the godfather of the party.
Like many people in the state, he had wanted Kwankwaso to halt his undue influence on the governor of the state and allow the government a space to fly on its own wings and terms. He had wanted the governor, on his side, to drive the administration like the captain and desist from easing out his functions to his mentor, Kwankwaso. Both desires, as innocent as they were, political observers say, were deadly desires, the equivalent of a mortal sin.
It is not surprising that they haunted him to his fall.
Party sources told Sunday Sun that one of the events that escalated the faceoff was the selection process of the party during the just concluded local government elections.
Bichi as the Secretary of the Government had a candidate in mind for the chairmanship position for his own local government area, Bichi LGA.
He was said to have pleaded to be allowed to appoint his own candidate. But his appeal fell on deaf ears.
Rather a candidate closer to Kwankwaso was endorsed for the post. That shot up his anger and made him much more vocal than he should have wisely been.
On November 12, the NNPP state chairman announced his suspension from the party, and about a month later, the governor also announced his sack, citing his failing health.
Sunday Sun gathered that the sacked secretary has not been taken lightly by the victim. it was a hard blow. In fact, he has reportedly reassigned his loyalty to the Boniface Aniebonam-led national faction of the NNPP. But that is not all.
A few days ago, upon his return from Saudi Arabia, he fumed and roared with anger over his sack.
In a viral video sighted by Sunday Sun, the former Secretary told his supporters that Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf and his mentor, Kwankwaso were not what they made people to believe about them, vowing to expose them.
“I have documents, videos, and voice notes that would show everyone who they really are.
“They don’t know anything except treachery, they cannot be trusted” he alleged.
The whole of Kano is waiting for the big exposure he promised and the thrilling political fight while the opposition parties are waiting in the wings for the bounties and benefits that would accrue from this dispute. But will Bichi spill it all? The cloud is gathering and many feel that this battle will not augur well for the party, particularly on its march to 2027.
A leading party member in the state told Sunday Sun that beyond the fight with the former Secretary to the government is a new, but disturbing concern which is yet to be obvious in the public domain.
According to him, there is a growing number of federal legislators that have dumped the party in their spirits and are only confined to it with their bodies.
In this set are the likes of Senator Suleiman Abdulrahman Kawu Sumaila, alongside the likes of Reps Kabiru Rirum, Ali Madaki, Sani Rogo and several others.
Each of them have one quarrel or the other with the way and manner the party is being run.
They have unhealed injuries and only time will tell whether they will remain in the party or will exist.
Senator Kawu, who represents Kano South in the upper house is presently at loggerheads with the chairman of the party.
The fire is still simmering and many fear that it is likely to lead to grave consequences.
Unlike many of the crop of red cap-wearing Kwankwassiya apostles and beneficiaries in the state, persons who came to power and their current positions because of their utter loyalty to Kwankwaso, Kawu is self-made and popular.
He was already a successful household name in Kano South and in the politics of Kano State before joining the NNPP.
It is held in some quarters that it was the coming of gladiators like Senator Kawu that helped the NNPP to eventually overcome the APC government in power.
However, a few weeks ago, the proxy quarrel between Kawu and the chairman of the party came to the public domain. That was after the party chairman reportedly accused Senator Kawu of offering a huge sum of money as bribe to one Hon. Kabiru Bichi to manipulate the 2023 election.
His lawyers, Aliyu Musa and Co, have since denied the accusation and threatened to go to court. In letter dated November 12, 2024, they had issued an ultimatum asking the party chairman to retract the libelous statement and issue an apology over the comment that was broadcast at Freedom Radio, Kano.
However in his reaction to the reported letter from Kawu’s lawyers regarding the allegation of bribery, the party chairman described the said letter as “rumours created by the enemy, supported by ignorance and accepted by fools and I am not part of any of the above.”
Beyond this rift which nobody knows how it will end, there is yet another dispute of fire consuming the NNPP in the state.
This hydra-headed quarrel was stoked by the emirate dispute that had paralysed the traditional institution in the state.
House of representatives member and former Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Kabiru Rirum, it appears has dumped the party, at least, the Kwankwaso-led faction of the party on this ground.
It was gathered that his decision to distance himself from Kwankwaso was largely prompted by the dissolution of the Rano Emirate Council which affected his position as the holder of the title of the “Turaki” of the dissolved Emirate.
Insiders also argued that the relegation of the status of Rano Emirate to a second class Emirate is an unpopular policy within the Rano Emirate Council, adding that Hon. Kabiru Rirum is only running away from a likely backlash of that government decision.
Speaking while interacting with journalists in his constituency recently, he stated that he will retain his membership of the NNPP, but had reassigned his loyalty to the founder of the party, Chief Aniebonam and not Kwankwaso.
A similar case of break away from the NNPP in the state is that of Hon. Aliyu Sani Madaki, a House of representatives member, whose objection to the red cap wearing culture is well known.
“They have dismissed us saying that we lacked support, but we are not afraid to stand alone. We are prepared to confront any member of the party if the need arise.
“Anybody who considers me their leader should remove the red cap. Women should remove the red cap. We are done,” the lawmaker told his supporters in his constituency in November last year, also ending his loyalty with the Kwankwaso’s faction of the party.
