Supreme Court Ruling On Kano: Kwankwaso Denies Agreement With Tinubu
BY YUSUF IBRAHIM – The candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) in the February 25, 2023 presidential elections, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has denied having any agreement with President Bola Tinubu or anyone as it relate to the Supreme Court ruling on the Kano State governorship poll petition.
Kwankwaso, who leads the popular Kwankwasiyya Movement, was reacting to the insinuations that he entered into an agreement with President Tinubu to have the judgment tilted in favour of the NNPP flag bearer and incumbent Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf.
According to the former Kano State Governor; “What happened at the Supreme Court is a lesson for all of us. I know that I mean well for everyone. Throughout the period, I have not done anything to anyone. And anybody would reap what he sows. To the best of my knowledge, I have not reached an agreement with anybody.”
Kwankwaso, who spoke with BBC Hausa Service, further stated thus; “All I know is that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is my contemporary. I joined politics at the same time as him in SDP. Then he was a senator and I was serving as the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives.
“In 1999, he was my colleague as the Governor of Lagos State. We founded the APC together and we participated fully in the struggles that followed. People should know that a lie has a short life. Despite the machinations those people staged, the judges have done what is right.
“There is no problem. They have their party; we have our own. We will work together where necessary.”
“On the issue of joining the government, only time can tell”, Kwankwaso said, stressing that Nigeria needs all well-meaning individuals to move it forward in the right direction.
Maintaining that he has no intention of lording it over the Governor Yusuf in the typical Nigerian godfather attitude, the former Minister of Defence said his position would only be advisory if called upon to do so, adding; “Kabir Yusuf is the governor. We can only advise. Even if he were a biological son, I can’t rule over him.
“I have given him pieces of advice even before the government came in. There are thousands of people like me. I can’t do it alone. When a Governor or a President does well, the credit goes to him. If he does otherwise, the blame is directed at him.
“People misunderstand this. When I was a governor, I would pick suggestions kept by people even in dustbins. The same is on radio stations and newspapers. For everything has an appointed time. Those who succeed should be allowed to prove their worth.”
On the apex Court ruling that finally secured Governor Yusuf’s electoral victory, Kwankwaso insisted that; “There were errors with the previous judgment, but the Supreme Court undid what the lower courts did. If it were in other climes, those who delivered the judgments in the lower courts would quit their jobs.”
Forefront News reports that the Supreme Court on Friday, January 12, 2024, affirmed the NNPP’s Abba Kabir Yusuf as the duly elected governor of Kano following the series of litigations handled by the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal (GEPT) and the Court of Appeal
