- Presidency refutes Buhari’s link in the crisis
The battle for the soul of Kano political milieu which was launched by Governor Umar AbdulLahi Ganduje against former Governor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, now a senator in the National Assembly has continued unabated.
First incumbent Governor Ganduje moved to cut off loyalists of the former Kano State Governor out of the State Executive Council. The next salvo was on the structures of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to eliminate any known loyalist of the former governor.
Thereafter Ganduje set out to dismantle or discredit the Kwankwaso legacy in Kano State.
Reports from Kano revealed that the rift between Ganduje and Kwankwaso has been depleting the fortune of APC in the state.
Several stakeholders in Kano had expressed perturbation that the Ganduje salvo against Kwankwaso was a political battle to frustrate Kwankwaos’s presidential ambition and make Kano safe for President Muhammadu Buhari.
Kwankwaso was a political principal of Ganduje from 1999 to the time Ganduje succeeded him as Governor of Kano State in 2015. Ganduje was deputy governor to Kwankwaso in between 1999 to 2003 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). When the PDP lost Kano in 2003 to the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Kwankwaso appointed Ganduje Special Adviser when he was appointed Minister of Defence by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Wining the Governorship election for the second time in 2011 to 2015, Kwankwaso retained Ganduje as deputy governor, and subsequently endorsed him APC governorship candidate in 2015.
Meanwhile, the removal of Alhaji Umar Doguwa as State Chairman of Kano APC deepened the rift between Ganduje and Kwankwaso as well as the suspicion of Buhari’s involvement.
Indeed, the common belief in Kano is that Ganduje is being reinforced by the President in his fight against Kwankwaso and attack on the former governor’s political dynasty.
However, Malam Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, cautioned against dragging the name of President Buhari into the political conflict in Kano State.
National Daily gathered that a political support group “Concerned Members of the APC in Kano State”, had at a press conference in Kano, accused the president of meddling in the politics of Kano State and being behind the attack on the former governor by the incumbent governor.
Shehu had in a statement in Abuja described as false, the accusation that Buhari was behind the removal of the erstwhile APC chairman in Kano State.
Shehu had contended that at no time did the president involve himself in the internal conflict of any APC chapter in the country, and would never do so.
He had declared; “President Buhari would not risk his integrity to support one side against the other in the affairs the APC or any other political party anywhere in the country.
“Anybody who knows the president’s principles would not believe any allegation linking him (Buhari) to interference in the election or removal of party leaders across the country”.
Shehu insisted that it was ironical that the president would now be accused of abandoning those principles to order the removal of the chairman.
“I am 100 per cent convinced that this group, which is being associated with the respected senator representing Kano, Rabiu Kwankwaso, did not seek his permission before dragging President Buhari’s name into this matter.
“Kwankwaso knows President Buhari too well to reduce him to this level,” the President’s SSA had stated.
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