As part of continued political realignment, New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) presidential candidate in 2023, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, met with immediate past governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, on Thursday in Abuja.
Kwankwaso had gone to visit El-Rufai at the Abuja residence. Pictures of the meeting emerged on social media platform X, where pictures and short video showed Kwankwaso exchanging pleasantries with El Rufai and some of his associates.
This is just as the All Progressive Congress and the President General of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), Yerima Shettima, have in separate conversations with LEADERSHIP Weekend, reacted to the meeting.
Confirming the meeting however, Kwankwaso in his X post said “Pleased to pay a cordial visit to my former colleague, H.E Nasir El-Rufai, at his residence in Abuja today.”
Details of their conversation are yet to become public but a source close to them hinted that it was “part of the building of old ties and alliances that could culminate in a political alliance ahead of the 2027 general election.”
However, an APC chieftain, who pleaded anonymity, said the meeting was “nothing short of a meeting of aggrieved persons, seeking to regain relevance.”
This however is the first public meeting between Elrufai – a key campaign for President Bola Tinubu in 2023- and Kwankwaso – the fourth placed runner in the same election – after the last presidential election.
Although El Rufai remains an All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, he since fell out with the party’s establishment shortly after his ministerial appointment was torpedoed by the Senate.
El-Rufai and Kwankwaso are currently locked in political battles in their states.
The raging tussle over the Kano Emir seat and the prosecution of the immediate past governor of state, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, escalated the long battle between Kwankwaso – leader of the NNPP-led Kano government- and Ganduje – the APC national chairman.
In Kaduna, the rift between El-Rufai and Governor Uba Sani, his successor and political benefactor, culminated in an indictment against the former governor by the Kaduna State House of Assembly over alleged siphoning ₦432bn, a claim that the latter is challenging in court.
Elrufai has embarked on a series of political visits in recent weeks. He recently paid a courtesy call on former President Muhammadu Buhari in his Daura country home in Katsina State.
He also met the Emir of Daura, His Highness, Alhaji Umar Faruk Umar; paid condolence visits to His Highness, Alh. Abdulmumini Kabir Usman, the Emir of Katsina, condolence visit to Lawal Sani Sade, MD of Duke Oil, in Daura.
The former governor also visited Governor Dikko Umar Radda at the Government House, Katsina.
El-Rufai’s visit to Buhari came barely 24 hours after former Vice President and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in 2023, Atiku Abubakar met the immediate past president in Daura.
Besides Buhari, Atiku had earlier met former military president Gen Ibrahim Babangida; and former head of state, Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar.
However, before this round of visits, the former Kaduna governor, in March this year, held meetings with the leadership of Social Democratic Party (SDP), sparking rumours of an imminent exit from APC.
But a former Senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District in the 8th National Assembly, Shehu Sani, described Atiku and El-Rufai’s visits to Buhari, as a plot to unseat Tinubu in 2027.
However, reacting to the Thursday meeting between Kwankwaso and El-Rufai, president general Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) Yerima Shettima, said “Well, elrufai has the fundamental right to relate and visit whoever he chooses. However, the visits which are being embarked upon by the opposition party members certainly have political undertones.
“Recall that El-Rufai also visited the Social Democratic Party (SDP) sometime ago, so the recent visits to former President Muhammadu Buhari and lately to the 2023 Presidential candidate of the NNPP, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso certainly has political motives apparently to possibly unseat the incumbent president. But whether such visits and perhaps many more to come will yield political results, only time will tell,” he said.
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