DailyPost has gathered that Kano State Governor, Malam Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso is under intense pressure to step down for General Muhammadu Buhari in the bid for the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Speaking with TheCable, a close ally of Buhari, who would not want to be identified, said, “we know for sure that Kwankwaso is not really interested in being president. He basically wants to be relevant at the federal level after leaving office as governor, and he can be rest assured of being a federal player should Buhari win.
“He (Kwankwaso) is one politician who is committed to having power return to the north. We believe that this consuming passion of his can make him relinquish his aspiration in support of a more viable aspirant sure to sway the votes in APC’s favour. We are really working on Kwankwaso as regards this and we will see him yielding eventually,” Another ally also told DailyPost.
It is now common to see supporters of the former head of state campaigning for his adoption as the consensus candidate of the party ahead of the February 14, 2015 presidential election.
Following APC’s reluctance to toe the path of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which has already adopted President Goodluck Jonathan as its sole candidate, loyalists of Buhari are now putting pressure on other candidates to voluntarily withdraw for him.
Supporters of Buhari have been holding talks with Kwankwaso in order to persuade him into stepping aside to allow the push for a northern consensus candidate that would face Jonathan at the polls.
Kwankwaso, due to vacate office as governor of Kano state by 2015, is also seen as someone who could provide valuable logistic support to Buhari in the presidential primary if it becomes a direct contest between Buhari and former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar.
A high-ranking member of Kwankwaso’s cabinet confirmed that the governor was under intense pressure to step down, but said it is “premature to reach a decision now.”
The source feared that supporters of Buhari in Kano were not making it easy for Kwankwaso and this has to be sorted out first.
Crisis is currently rocking the Kano chapter of the APC, with those who defected from PDP pitching against the defunct parties that merged to become APC.
Buhari is known to have mass appeal in Kano, where he won in 2003, 2007 and 2011. This will however not save him as the presidential primary is an indirect election and Kwankwaso is in control of most of the Kano delegates.
The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) had merged to birth APC. When Kwankwaso, alongside his loyalists defected from PDP and took over the machinery of APC in the state, internal controversy emerged within the party.
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