SAN FRANCISCO, July 29 (THEWILL) – Two former governors of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso and Ibrahim Shekarau, met Saturday night in Abuja after their last chance meeting at Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport Abuja in 2011.
The erstwhile political opponents discussed Kano politics, forthcoming state and national general elections and success of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP.)
Kwankwaso was among members of the All Progressive Congress (APC) who recently decamped to the PDP while Shekarau had decamped from APC to PDP in 2104 before the general election of 2015.
The Saturday meeting was held at Shekarau’s Asokoro, Abuja, residence and it was a prelude to an extended meeting with other party leaders without any official statement issued from ongoing manoeuvres.
Meanwhile, the presidency and the leadership of APC have reportedly kick-started an intensive lobby to woo the former two-term governor of Kano and Minister of Education, Shekarau, to the ruling party as part of efforts to check and diminish the influence of Mr Kwankwaso ahead of the 2019 general elections.
A presidency source who confided in PRNigeria in Abuja revealed that as part of the wooing plan, pending cases with anti-corruption agencies may be re-examined and stepped down to offer Shekarau safe landing.
Shekarau and former Governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa, were among the founding members of APC who decamped to PDP in 2014 after accusing the APC of giving the party’s structures in their states to governors who had decamped from the PDP.
Kwankwaso, a Minister of Defence during the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, joined the APC with other aggrieved PDP governors on November 23 2013.
Two months later (January 29 2014), Shekarau joined the Goodluck Jonathan government and was later appointed Minister of Education.
Incumbent Governor Abdullahi Ganduje was Kwankwaso’s deputy for eight years (1999-2003 and 2011 to 2015) but the two fell apart shortly after the 2015 election.
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