The rift in the ruling New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, in Kano has deepened as Governor Abba Yusuf snubbed meetings and refused to pick the calls of his godfather, Rabiu Kwankwaso.
A political slogan, Abba Tsaya da Kafarka — Abba, stand on your feet, or, more bluntly, Abba, part ways with Kwankwaso — is gaining prominence in Kano as calls from within and outside the party for the governor to be independent intensified.
DAILY NIGERIAN gathered that the political war and scheming to abandon Mr Kwankwaso were launched from several fronts.
While some political foot soldiers are neck-deep in negotiation with the ruling APC at the top, others have already obtained a court order to take control of the NNPP from Mr Kwankwaso.
On November 1, an Abia State High Court perfected one of the plans by granting an order returning the control of the party to erstwhile leader, Boniface Aniebonam.
Observers view the legal fireworks as a plan to create faction in the party and prepare ground for the governor’s eventual defection to APC.
The arrowheads of the rebellion are the secretary to the state government, Baffa Bichi; the state commissioner for Transport, Mohammed Diggol; the state commissioner of Education, Umar Doguwa; the senator representing Kano South, Kawu Sumaila; a member representing Rano/Bunkure/Kibiya Federal Constituency; a member representing Dala Federal Constituency, Ali Madaki and; some members of the Kano House of Assembly.
Insiders told this newspaper that the governor had already heeded the call to be independent of Mr Kwankwaso’s control in order to personally chart a course for his administration.
“Abba does not want to denigrate Kwankwaso, but he truly wants to be independent. Ninety percent of the commissioners were imposed by Kwankwaso, and Abba is still working with them. This shows he still respects him.
“For a long time, Abba wanted to drop some commissioners who are either incompetent or disloyal to him, but out of respect for Kwankwaso, he reluctantly accommodates them for peace to reign,” said an insider close to the governor.
According to sources, the governor was fed up with his godfather’s alleged meddlesomeness, particularly in the local government affairs.
DAILY NIGERIAN learnt that the simmering crisis between the duo began to manifest in March this year when Mr Kwankwaso single-handedly appointed the caretaker local government chairmen, allegedly without recourse to the governor for input.
Piqued by Mr Kwankwaso’s alleged interference and taunts of being a lapdog, the governor began to distance from the local government affairs in protest.
But on September 19, the governor wielded the big stick and sacked the caretaker chairmen – a week after the Kano State House of Assembly, allegedly on Mr Kwankwaso’s order, approved a two-month extension to them.
The frosty relation worsened after Mr Kwankwaso recently handpicked the new council chairmen, their deputies, secretaries, councilors and supervisory councilors without the governor’s input.
Sources told DAILY NIGERIAN that plan is afoot by the internal “Abba Tsaya da Kafarka” campaigners in cohort with some APC leaders, to obtain an order at the Federal High Court in Kano to direct police to eject the elected LG chairmen, and direct the CBN, banks and Federal Ministry of Finance to recognize the list of the chairmen reflected in Justice Simon Amobeda’s election-eve order.
If the above plan failed, the second plan is to sever the 44 local government councils’ umbilical cords from Miller Road by using the Supreme Court local government autonomy judgement as an excuse to abolish the office of the commissioner for Local Government and establish “Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs Bureau” under the governor’s office.
The cat and mouse game
With the exception of the governor’s appearance at Mr Kwankwaso’s birthday celebrations on October 21, where the godfather used the opportunity to corner the governor at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport lounge, the duo has not met or spoken in recent months.
As the crisis brews over time, Insiders told DAILY NIGERIAN that the governor shunned meetings convened by Mr Kwankwaso at his Miller Road and Maitama residences in Kano and Abuja respectively, without giving any excuse.
“He (Governor Yusuf) earlier agreed to attend the Miller Road meeting at night but he kept Kwankwaso waiting through midnight and refused to come,” an insider said.
The cat and mouse game played out again in Abuja as the governor left Kano the following morning. Sources told this newspaper that Mr Kwankwaso swallowed his pride as the governor’s godfather to fly back to Abuja to meet him. “It was like a cat and mouse game as Abba still refused to meet Kwankwaso in Abuja,” said an insider.
As Mr Kwankwaso’s efforts to meet or speak directly with the governor met a firewall, the NNPP leader allegedly on some occasions made further futile attempts through the governor’s ADC and private secretary.
When attempts to see the governor failed, the NNPP leader allegedly sent an emissary to convey his directive to sack the SSG, who is believed to the architect of the rebellion and chief negotiator of the defection talks.
After Mr Kwankwaso’s directive for Mr Bichi’s sack fell on the governor’s deaf ears, the chairman of the NNPP in Kano, Hashimu Dungurawa, on October 14, announced the dismissal of the SSG and commissioner for Transport over alleged anti-party activities.
The Kwankwasiya implosion
DAILY NIGERIAN observed that amidst growing rebellion against Mr Kwankwaso, there is overwhelming call for the governor to “stand on his feet”.
On Sunday, a member representing Dala Federal Constituency, Ali Madaki, announced his exit from the Kwankwasiyya movement and called on all his supporters not to wear red caps. While pledging loyalty to the governor, the lawmaker called on the governor to be independent and part ways with Mr Kwankwaso.
As Mr Madaki announced his exit, his Rano/Bunkure/Kibiya Federal Constituency counterpart also parted ways with Mr Kwankwaso’s political movement and pledged loyalty to Mr Aniebonam’s NNPP leadership.
More NNPP members of the National Assembly are also expected to publicly renounce the Kwankwasiya movement and pledge allegiance to the new movement.
Sources familiar with the situation said out of the NNPP’s 26 members of the state House of Assembly, only three members representing Madobi, Nassarawa and Kiru are not part of the “Tsaya da Kafarka” movement.
Efforts to speak with Mr Kwankwaso proved abortive, but sources close to him blamed the governor for leading the rebellion against his godfather, to whom he swore oath of lifetime allegiance.
“Kwankwaso has his own problems as a human, but he did not deserve this treatment. In order to make Abba governor, Kwankwaso parted ways with his close friend Aminu Dabo, and top political associates such as Rabiu Sulaiman Bichi, Yunusa Dangwani and Yusuf Bello Dambatta” said the source loyal to Kwankwaso.
Spokesman for the governor, Sanusi Dawakintofa, declined comment on the matter.