By Peter Omopo
Chieftain of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Buba Galadima, has ruled out the possibility of his party’s leader, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, forming an alliance with President Bola Tinubu’s All Progressives Congress (APC).
Speaking in reaction to the ongoing Kano Emirate crisis, Galadima questioned how Kwankwaso could be friendly with the APC when, according to him, the Federal Government was undermining the state.
“How can Kwankwaso be a friend of the APC with what they are doing to us in Kano? Appointing two emirs in one town? There is a Federal Government emir and a state emir. Who has the responsibility to appoint emirs and pay their salaries?” Galadima asked in an interview with Channels Television on Monday.
He accused security agencies of being used to support one emir while failing to tackle worsening insecurity across Kano communities.
“They have not less than 40 pickup vans filled with mobile police guarding the Emir (Ado Bayero). Meanwhile, in some localities in Kano, people are being killed and robbed, and the police are tied down. Are they not ashamed?” he lamented.
Galadima dismissed claims that Kwankwaso was in talks with Tinubu, insisting that the former governor remains a formidable force in Nigerian politics.
“Let anybody come out and say Kwankwaso has been persuaded or coerced to join the APC. If anybody talked to him about that, I ought to know. He is the strongest political Iroko in this country today because he dared the APC and defeated them at their game in Kano,” he declared.
He further accused Tinubu of “double politics” in the emirate tussle, alleging that the President once supported the emergence of Muhammadu Sanusi II as emir.
“In the first place, was it not Tinubu who canvassed for Sanusi to become emir? Let him deny it, and I will provide instances,” Galadima alleged.
The NNPP stalwart maintained that the Federal Government’s actions in Kano were aimed at weakening Kwankwaso’s movement ahead of the 2027 elections, but vowed that the party would not play second fiddle.
“We are the people who will determine who becomes the President of Nigeria in 2027,” Galadima said.
The Kwankwasiyya Movement, led by Kwankwaso, continues to command strong grassroots support across the North, particularly in Kano, positioning the NNPP as a potential kingmaker in the next general elections.
