The comments credited to the former Governor of Kano State and presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, that northerners would not vote for the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi or any south-easterner, was very unfortunate. Kwankwaso was quoted as saying said that northerners would not vote for Obi if he is made the standard bearer of the merger of the two parties. He claimed that as a former Senator and former minister that he has more experience than Obi.
But he has never utilised his so-called experience to promote any national cause. He only deploys his experience to play ethnic politics and divisiveness. His utterances showed that his presidential aspiration is empty and divisive. Kwankwaso has demonstrated that he has nothing to offer Nigerians except to ride on ethnic sentiments to seek for the highest office in Nigeria in every election cycle.
Unfortunately for him, he met his match in Obi who responded appropriately. According to Obi, “it is because of leaders like Kwankwaso that Nigeria today has over 100 million Nigerians living in poverty, 18 million children out of school and about 52 per cent of Nigerians either unemployed or under employed, because rather than vote for competent leaders, we will rather vote for incompetence due to a primitive belief of religion and ethnicity.
“Currently, Nigerians cannot travel from Abuja to Kaduna by road or rail; is it because someone from the South-east is in charge? People cannot travel to Minna by road; is it because someone from the South-east is in charge? A few days ago, bandits attacked the presidential convoy in Katsina; is it because someone from the South-east is in charge? Show me where people are prospering in the North or South,” Obi said.
Kwankwaso is blindfolded by the perceived massive votes of Kano. But when the presidential result was declared in 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Umar Ganduje polled 1,464,768 votes (78.9 per cent) while Atiku Abubakar and Kwankwaso only scored a paltry 391,593 (21.1per cent). Kwankwaso’s governorship candidate, Abba Kabir Yusuf, was floored by Ganduje. Kwankwaso, who has demonstrated that he is an ethnic chauvinist, overrates himself because of his Kwankwasiyya supporters, who have never won any election outside Kano State.
