The presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso, on Saturday, revealed why he can’t be the running mate of the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, in the forthcoming presidential election.
AbaCityBlog reports that there has an ongoing negotiation between the party to form alliance against the ruling APC and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP come 2023 election.
However, addressing journalists yesterday in Gombe State, during inauguration of the state office of NNPP, Mr Kwankwaso, a former governor of Kano State, who met with elected members of the party, said accepting to be running mate to Mr Obi or any other presidential candidate would lead to the collapse of his own party, the NNPP.
He said his political profile built over the years and his wealth of experience, having served in various capacities in the country, had helped in bringing NNPP to limelight within a short time.
Confirming that his party had been in talks with the Labour Party for possible merger, Mr Kwankwaso said the main issue hindering progress is the issue of who becomes the presidential candidate of such an alliance.
He said: “From the discussion with Labour Party, the main issue was who becomes the president if the parties merge.”
“At the end of the day, some of our representatives thought that there should be a criteria in terms of age, qualification, offices held, performance and so on,” the NNPP candidate said.
“Of course the other side wouldn’t want that. Most of the people from there believe that presidency has to go there (South East).
“If now I decide to be vice presidential candidate to anybody in this country; NNPP will collapse, because the party is based on what we have built in the last 30 years.
“I served for 17 years as a civil servant; we are talking of 47 years of very serious hard work that is what is rarely holding NNPP now,” he said.
The national leader of the NNPP said he was not against presidency going to any part of the country but it must be done based on “strategy, political calculation and equation.”
On the choice of his running mate, Mr Kwankwaso said “we have options in the NNPP in the South to pick a good vice president and one of them is the Labour Party man (Peter Obi) you are talking about.”
-PremiumTimes
