Kwankwaso, Shekaru pose no threat, already losing membership to APC, says Ganduje

Kano State Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has dismissed any threat by New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2023 general election in Kano.

Speaking on Channels TV “politics today” on Sunday, Ganduje who was confident of the overwhelming capacity and control of APC in the state, assured the presidential candidate of his party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu will record a landslide victory in Kano.

Responding to the question of how APC will actualize the promise for Tinubu when the presidential candidate of NNPP, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, also controls a significant percentage of followers in Kano, Ganduje countered the claim, insisting that Kwankwaso was losing membership strength to APC.

Ganduje, however, challenged Kwankwaso to march his supporters to rally to compare strength with the mammoth crowd of supporters that turn out for the Tinubu/Shettima’s one-million march in Kano a few days ago.

Also, reacting to whether the exit of Senator Ibrahim Shekaru from the APC would cripple the fortune of the party in the state, the governor said APC has won elections in the recent past without Shekarau.

Ganduje, who referred to Kwankwaso and Shekaru as ‘nomadic politicians’ who lose followers while moving from one party to another, believed APC remained the party to beat in Kano.

“Let me assure you that APC has overwhelming control in Kano. We are fully on the ground. On the issue of Kwankwaso, I can assure that many of Kwankwaso’s loyalists are now in APC. If Kwankwaso think he can win the presidential ballot in Kano, let him hold a similar march like ours and see if he can match us.

“On Shekaru, we won our election without him (Shekaru) and later we invited him into our party and he decided to leave to join Kwankwaso’s party. Later he left Kwankwaso’s party to PDP where he originally belong. You can see that these are nomadic in politics, who lose followers at every points.

“Majority of Shekaru’s followers are in APC and others in NNPP. So let see what he make out of where he’s now. Exit of Shekaru in APC will not cast any doubt to the victory of APC, after all, he was part of those that engage in anti-party activities against APC in the last election in order to create gap,” Ganduje explained.

On the wave of followers the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi presently enjoyed nationwide, Ganduje said the emergency of LP candidate is rather a good omen to the ruling party adding that APC is not jittery of any threat by LP.

The governor declared that, if there will be any room for fear with the emergence of Obi, the PDP should be in the best position to be afraid and not the APC.

“The emergence of Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi is a good omen to APC because we would no longer have major contender which is the PDP. Now, even if we want to consider our political investment in the South East, the votes from Nassarawa Council in Kano State, is much higher than the votes APC got from the entire five states of the South East.

“So you can see that if there is any problem politically in the South East, it is the PDP that would suffer the consequences. Hence, the emergence of Obi will only snatch PDP votes and it already snatching it away.

“Now, the attention of PDP is being diverted, apart from their internal crisis of G5 governors, the Obi factor is another problem for them. Any political analyst will know that Labour Party is minus for PDP and by extrapolation it is a plus for APC.”