2027: Tinubu Activates High stakes Re-election Strategies

By Akinjide Aina, Abuja Bereau Chief

“Real Reason Ganduje Was Forced Out,  The Shettima, Kwankwaso Angles”

Apparently living up to his hype moniker cum chieftaincy title, “Jagaban”  which roughly translates to ” a war leader” or “strong man” and signifies someone who is powerful and influential, President Bola Tinubu has formally commenced high stakes re-election strategies and he is taking no prisoners.

Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, the loquacious immediate past Governor of Kano state and until Friday, National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC is the president’s first victim. The next in line, some  APC sources told this magazine, is Vice President Kashim Shettima.

Contrary to his lame duck reasons  for leaving his plum party position , Ganduje, This  Magazine was told, was given just 24 hours to resign or be disgraced out. He complied promptly having got the wind that his corruption cases have been dusted up and were about to be acted upon with dispatch by the EFCC. In effect, the  former Governor was forced to resign.

But why?

Ganduje, it was learnt, was not ready to share the Kano political space with anyone and was, therefore, resisting the Tinubu- inspired defection to the APC, of the presidential candidate of the New Nigerian Peoples Party, NNPP in the 2023 presidential election, Dr Musa Rabiu Kwankwaso. Recall that Ganduje was Kwankwaso’s Deputy and was instrumental to the ex- APC National Chairman becoming Governor. However, no sooner had Ganduje settled down as Governor than he started fighting Kwankwaso.

Meanwhile, President Tinubu who sources claimed has sworn to bulldoze his way back to Aso Rock  irrespective “of the politcal cost,  encounberances and opposition”, has engaged 2027 cold calculations while Ganduje was busy flexing his muscles with his former boss.

Realising that Kwankwaso is a bigger pie and wields enormous electoral strength than Ganduje and with the former refusing to have anything to do with the APC if the latter remained as the party’s National Chairman, Tinubu wasted no time in ditching Ganduje to court Kwankwaso.

With the core Muslim North not disposed to supporting his re-election, President  Tinubu is believed to have talked Kwankwaso into joining the APC to shore up his ( Tinubu) electability and dwindling support base and goodwill in that part of the country.

Though, the President is considering running with a Northern Christian Deputy in 2027- reportedly either former Speaker of the House of Reps, Yakubu Dogara from Bauchi state or former Benue state Governor and current Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, George Akume- Kwankwaso may likely replace Shettima in another Muslim-Muslim ticket as a last minute effort to placate the core North.

Multiple APC sources allege that if it becomes clear, as 2007 approaches, that replacing Shettima with another Muslim VP is the only life-wire for Tinubu’s re-election, Shettima will  resign the same way as Ganduje  so that Kwankwaso will be named the VP and run with the President as a sitting VP in 2027.

This medium was unable to confirm this.

There is also the  suggestion that to fully take control of the Kano APC, the Senator representing Kwankwaso’s Senatorial district should be asked to resign so that the former Governor will go to the Senate; that way he will automatically become the APC leader in the State in line with President Tinubu’s determination to have him as a member of his inner caucus knowing his electoral worth.

The magazine gathered that even if Kwankwaso is not eventually picked as Tinubu’s running mate for 2027 presidential election, the President will reconfigure the power equation in the country in his second term to accommodate him in the top echelon.

Meanwhile, unconfirmed sources allege that President Tinubu’s decision to drop Shettima is on the table. “Take it to the bank, Vice President Kashim Shettima is a one-term VP; he will not return in 2027 because Baba (President Tinubu) will not re-nominate him as his running mate. In 2023. Shettima brought nothing to the table in terms of votes and the man (Tinubu) does not want to take chances in 2027”, a highly placed APC source told the magazine.

Besides, some party chieftains that have the ears of the President  reportedly alleged that the number two citizen  orchestrated the recent fracas at the APC North east Summit in Gombe  to curry sympathy within and outside the Northeast with the view of forcing the President’s hands.

Recall that violence erupted at the summit following the organisers failure to also endorse Shettima after endorsing President Tinubu for second term.

The said APC chieftains, mostly from the South west, point to the incident as another of Shettima’s alleged desperation and vaulting ambition, recalling that the VP, as a running mate, had, during the electioneering campaign for the 2023 presidential election, emphatically declared that if he and Tinubu eventually got elected, he (Shettima) as Vice president will be in charge of security while Tinubu takes charge of the economy, a remark many viewed as a notice of an impending power struggle with his principal if elected.