While Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi of the Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party respectively are challenging the outcome of the February 25 presidential election, Rabiu Kwankwaso, the flag bearer of the New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP, is mending fences with President-elect, Bola Tinubu.
Ahead of Tinubu’s inauguration, Kwankwaso was in Paris, France on Monday to discuss salient issues bordering on official appointments for the incoming administration in line with the plan of the President-elect to form a “government of national unity.”
It was gathered that the former governor of Kano State agreed to join Tinubu’s government subject to consultations with the party leadership on both sides.
The politicians also talked about the ongoing leadership tussle in the legislature pertaining to the office of the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives ahead of the June 13 inauguration of the 10th national assembly.
The meeting which lasted for four hours also had Tinubu’s wife, Senator Oluremi; the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila; Kwankwaso’s wife, Hajiya Salamatu and Abdulmumin Jibrin, an NNPP lawmaker-elect in attendance.
Kwankwaso finished fourth with 1,496,687 votes in the presidential election which was won by Tinubu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Unlike Atiku and Obi who has refused to concede defeat and are contesting Tinubu’s victory in court, Kwankwaso did not involve himself in the legal tussle though his party had initially called for the cancellation of the election due to widespread irregularities including voter suppression, violence, vote buying and the use of an “unrecognisable” NNPP logo on the ballot paper.
Meanwhile, Tinubu, who left the country on Wednesday, May 10 for Europe to “fine-tune his transition plans and programmes” and “engage with investors and other key allies” is expected to return soon for preparations for his official swearing-in as president on May 29 – in 13 days.
