•Ganduje and Yusuf
Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano state today Friday, January 26, said he has no plans to dump the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) on whose platform he won the governorship polls.
Yusuf was responding to an invite by the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, to join the APC, reports The Nation.
Governor Yusuf, whose election was affirmed by the Supreme Court penultimate week, is the only NNPP governor in Nigeria.
However, Ganduje yesterday wooed Yusuf and his godfather Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso as well as Ibrahim Shekarau of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), asking them to join APC, according to him, in the interest of Nigerians and the country.
During the party’s stakeholders’ meeting in Kano, Ganduje said: “I am appealing to Governor Yusuf, along with his members from the NNPP, to defect to the ruling APC at the national level to ensure massive political growth of the state.
“We are working very hard to ensure more members of the National Assembly from Kano State and others from other political parties join hands with the progressives as doors of the party remain opened to all.”
According to Ganduje, the APC would commence e-registration and the target is to get the highest number of membership from the state and also have a one party state.
He added: “We will provide an enabling environment for all defectors for the overall political growth of our party and state,” disclosing that “some opposition governors and National Assembly members will soon join the ruling party.”
In his reaction, Yusuf however, rejected Ganduje’s invitation, telling the APC national chairman he would not exit from NNPP.
The governor spoke in a statement by his media director, Sanusi Bature Dawakin Tofa.
The statement reads: “We heard that he (Ganduje) is begging the Governor to join the APC. What is surprising is, that Ganduje as a former governor and former deputy governor, knows better than anyone the right channel to send a message to a sitting governor.
“Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf does not have plans to leave his party and will not leave the party. Changing a political party is like changing a house. You just cannot wake up, pack your bags, and say I have left my party. There are things to be done before you decide to change your house.”
During the meeting held at the APC secretariat in Kano, Ganduje also said the Kano state APC has accepted the Supreme Court judgment in good faith, hailing President Bola Tinubu for his love for the state chapter of the party.
Ganduje said talks have reached an advanced stage such that other smaller parties nationwide, including governors and lawmakers, would soon dump their political parties and join the ruling APC.
Ganduje explained that the coming of the Kano governor (Yusuf) to APC will strengthen the ruling party in Kano and at the national level, driving developments to the state.
