March 30, (THEWILL) – Former Governor of Kano State, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has revealed why he dumped the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and registered as a member in preparation for the 2023 general election.
Kwankwaso, who obtained his NNPP membership card during a brief ceremony in Abuja, said he left the PDP because of the failure of its leadership and lack of internal democracy.
According to him, in 2021, he was sidelined from the activities of the party and he waited for the leadership of the party to talk to him for over one year, but got no response.
Kwankwaso, who was a presidential aspirant on the platform of the PDP in the 2019 general elections said that his defection from PDP to NNPP was historic and has opened a new chapter in the political life of Nigeria, adding that only NNPP has what it takes to take Nigeria to the Promised Land.
He said PDP and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have failed Nigerians and are not good alternatives in 2023, therefore he asked other well-meaning Nigerians to join his new party to attain the change Nigeria needed.
“We had a situation in April last year, where zonal positions were being shared among the states and all leaders in the six other states were given the opportunity to nominate. But in Kano, some people felt I wasn’t that important, so they had to do what they did.
“That is what triggered the issue (defection) and I spent almost a year now waiting for PDP to talk to me, even the new leadership, to come and talk to me; they didn’t want to talk to me.
“For that reason, I felt there are irreconcilable differences between my humble self and many other leaders and they are mainly based on ideology.
“I have just received my membership card and of course, I’m the newest member of the NNPP. I’m so delighted that I’m now a member of the NNPP in Kano”, he added.
THEWILL had reported that Kwankwaso on Tuesday, formally dumped the PDP, declaring his exit from the party in a letter to his ward chairman.
“It is with a deep sense of responsibility that I write to notify you that as a result of some serious and irreconcilable differences, I have reached the conclusion that my continued stay in the PDP is untenable and, therefore, effective from Tuesday the 29th day of March 2022, I have withdrawn my membership from the People’s Democratic Party, PDP”, the letter to Kwankwaso’s Ward chairman of PDP read.
The former Minister of Defence, who was a founding member of the PDP in 1998, at a news conference in Abuja on Tuesday, said he joined his ‘friends, brothers and sisters’ in the APC in 2014 to foster a democratic change when it became necessary.
He said he was, however, disappointed when the desired change for a better Nigeria was unrealisable, hence his return to the PDP.
“Earlier today, I resigned and withdrew my membership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and now, I just registered as a member of the NNPP.
“I have to say that I’m very delighted especially, going by what we are seeing from both parties. I’m sure you know I was one of the founding members of PDP in 1998 and by 1999, I was a governor and so on.
“By 2014, we noted that PDP was derailing and therefore we decided with my friends, brothers and sisters, people that share the same belief with me at that time that democratic change at that time was necessary.
“We succeeded in 2015 to bring change, which we believe will bring the desired change for the better in the country. Unfortunately, many of us were disappointed. We had to get out and quit, even though lately.
“The only option we had at the particular time was to come back to PDP in spite of all the issues, you know what happened in 2019, while we did all we could to ensure there was another change, God knows better we still have leadership as it were.
“The good thing in 2019, our main target was to change government in Kano. We also tried all we could, but as pressmen, you were witnesses to what happened especially in Kano.
“We won the election; unfortunately the powers that be decided that government had to be imposed on Kano state”, Kwankwaso said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
Kwankwaso said that they were opening a completely new chapter, of which those who believe in the masses and the country, would not only congratulate them, but join the movement to have a new Nigeria.
His frontline candidates, Abba Kabir Yusuf and Aminu Abdussalam Gwarzo, had on Monday, officially defected from the PDP to NNPP.
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