“We Had An Agreement For Gov Yusuf, Others To Defect To APC Before The Supreme Court Judgment – Kwankwaso

By Suleiman Anyalewechi

A frontline Kano politician and Chieftain of the ruling All Progressive Congress APC, Iliyasu Musa Kwankwaso, has described the spate of opposition to, and scathing criticisms against some Northern elements in the Federal Cabinet, particularly Bello Matawalle, the Minister of State for Defence and the National Chairman of the APC, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, as being targeted at President Bola Tinubu.

This is even as he has called on all patriotic Stakeholders from the North, irrespective of political party affiliations, to rally round the Federal Government to pull the country out of its present socio-economic predicaments.

The three-time Kano State Commissioner for Rural and Community Development, who spoke in Kano on Sunday, May 5, 2024, at an interactive session with the Media, warned that some misguided critics of the President Tinubu administration, particularly from the North, are doing a great disservice to the unity, growth and development of the country.

Alhaji Iliyasu Kwankwaso, the immediate past Kano State Commissioner for Rural Development, in Dr Ganduje’s regime, wondered where the later day Northern saints were when former President Muhammadu Buhari was in power, and why they never spoke out for the eight years he held sway .

The Kano APC stalwart, therefore,  appealed to the Northern Elders to re-focus their energy towards collaborating with the Governors of their various States to fashion out a blue print for the  economic emancipation of the region, just as President Tinubu is trying to pull the country out of the wood.

” Look, within the last one year he has been in office, the President has made so much positive impact. But those attacking him mischievously chose to close their eyes to the achievements .

“Are they now telling us that they were not in the country when Buhari was in charge of the country? Why didn’t they talk when many things were not going well during the era of President Buhari ?

“Now that power has shifted to the other side of the divide ,they have suddenly found their voices ,mounting unsubstantiated allegations and criticisms against President Tinubu,who instructively rallied round Buhari through out his two terms of eight years in office .

“There was an agreement that gave birth to APC as a strong party in the country and Buhari’s emergence was part of that agreement..

“Same agreement was what led to the emergence of Tinubu as president,.Those who are now at the forefront of criticizing President Tinubu and protesting were those that slipped out of the earlier agreements . And they are trying so hard to bring the President and his supporters down .

President Tinubu is working hard to resolve the challenges posed by insecurity in the North, and the result can be seen from the fact that people can now travel freely from Abuja to Kaduna without fear of being attacked as was the case before.” Kwankwaso stated.

The APC chieftain emphasised that instead of engaging in misplaced and misguided criticisms ,the Northern elders should rather support the President Tinubu administration to bring the dividends of democracy to the region.

“They should come out and call for the completion of the Abuja-Kaduna -Kano road,Abuja-Kano-Min na Rail line, AKK Gas Pipelines,Mambila Power Project,Bauchi/Gombe Oil Exploration and many others .Tinubu is ready to do all these and many others for the North .

“Get your Governors together and go for the development and progress of the region instead of engaging in mischievous criticisms” Kwankwaso admonished .

Alhaji Iliyasu Kwakwaso further revealed that there were some last minute agreements reached by all parties  on Kano political situation  before Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf was declared the winner by the Supreme Court .

“They (NNPP) accepted to join the APC, at the last minute and all agreements including power sharing in the State and Party were made at the last minute.

“They agreed to all the agreements reached, though behind their boss, for which he was not happy, but had no other choice than to accept ,with some conditions which even  himself knew cannot be acceptable to the other side .

“Now ,the situation is that they, NNPP, are yet to fulfill their own part of the agreement. They have asked for more time, precisely five months to meet their own part of the agreement,which also include joining the APC

“We loyalist members of APC are not against any opposition party members joining the party .Every body is welcomed to the canopy of the biggest party in Africa,so long as the person is ready to contribute positively to growth and development of the party” Kwankwaso stated.