By Jude Opara

It is no longer news that the alliance talks between the Labour Party (LP) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) have collapsed. The two opposition parties had muted the idea of working together so as to be able to confront the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the forthcoming 2023 general elections.

The bone of contention that led to the outright collapse was the question of who between the presidential candidates of the two parties that should become the running mate.

Following the collapse of the merger talks, Peter Obi has already named Sen. Datti Baba-Ahmed as his running mate. The LP candidate last Friday in Abuja unveiled the economist and educationist as the man that will pair with him in the presidential contest. 

Kwankwaso himself was the first to fire the first salvo when he told a television station that he was offering Peter Obi the golden opportunity to become his running mate.

Speaking in Gombe State during the inauguration of the state office of NNPP 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 the limelight within a short time.

Kwankwaso confirmed that his party had been in talks with the Labour Party for a possible merger but the main issue of who becomes the presidential candidate hindered a further progress.

“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 criteria in terms of age, qualification, offices held, performance and so on.

“Of course, the other side wouldn’t want that. Most of the people from there believe that the presidency has to go there (South East).

 “If now I decide to be a 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.

Kwankwaso said he was not against the presidency going to any part of the country but it must be done based on “strategy, political calculation and equation.”

He went on to say that the South-Easterners are good in business and are well talented but they should learn politics; “in politics, they are at the bottom line.”

He stated that the zone had lost out on the presidential and vice-presidential candidates of both All Progressives Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) but had a chance with the NNPP.

He stated that those saying “even if my friend (Peter Obi) wants to accept vice presidential candidate, some people in the South-East will not accept, that is not strategic.”

He said Bola Tinubu was strategic to have supported the APC in 2015 and “today he is the presidential candidate of the APC.”

According to Kwankwaso, the best option for the South-East was for the zone to partner with NNPP, “this is a golden opportunity, if they lose it, it will be a disaster.”

He added, “We have options in the NNPP in the South to pick a good vice president and one of them is the Labour Party man you are talking about.”

The above statement made by Kwankawso only exposed his level of arrogance and sense of entitlement. He claimed he should be the candidate because he is older, more educated and with huge working experience. He spoke as if the most intelligent people are always the eldest. And talking about of education, he was also among those who installed the incumbent, President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 despite the fact that many issues had been raised about his educational qualifications. But he chose to support him against Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.

The whole reason for his actions then in 2015 and his claim today is nothing but a reinforcement of the belief that power should always remain in his part of the country because they have the population. If not why will Kwankwaso who is from Kano state be angling to take over from President Buhari who is from next door, Katsina state?

In 2015, one of the reasons adduced by Kwankwaso who had to dump the PDP for the APC was that power should return to the North. Recall that after the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua in May 2010, his Vice, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan took over. Jonathan was to contest and win the election in 2011 but by 2015, many people from the North argued that power should return to the region. Their argument was that since 1999 when the country returned to constitutional democracy, President Olusegun Obasanjo from the South did eight years; Yar’Adua only did about two years before dying while Jonathan had done about six years. So they were vehement in claiming that powers should return to the region.       

In his futile attempt to justify the unjustifiable, Kwankwaso inadvertently made some condescending comments on the South East region when he described them as only good business but always at the bottom of politics. Yes, the region may be at the bottom of politics because of the attitude of people like Kwankwaso who have started pretending that the issue of zoning should not matter because the table has changed. In 2015, he was among those shouting zoning.

A careful analysis of the infamous Gombe statement clearly shows that kwankwaso was either knowingly or unknowingly taking a bashing on the entire South East region. He was gleefully explaining how the PDP and the APC had dumped the region and the only opportunity left for them to be part of governance of their own country was for Obi to accept to be his running mate; so that after his presidency “may be,” they would be considered. He also concluded that it would be a disaster for the region if they miss the “golden opportunity” he was offering them.

If not for the arrogance and a false sense of entitlement, how would Kwankwaso believe that the presidency should come to him before the entire South East region that was yet to have the opportunity for decades? How would he believe that the NNPP which was formed just few months ago would be more acceptable to Nigerians than the LP that has been in existence for several years?

Yes, it is true that power is never given but when it appears that there is a consensus among some segments of the country to share it between them, it may take extra divine grace for another region to have it, and that is why the two main political parties handled their presidential primaries the way they did. While the PDP jettisoned the zoning formula which is even enshrined in their own constitution, the APC who managed to zone their to the South refused to micro zone it to the South East with the flimsy excuse that the party is not well entrenched in the region, but they ignored the fact that they control two states in the region just like the PDP.        

It could only be imagined how the likes of Kwankwaso who could not bear another four years of Jonathan serving as president that he defected to the APC to ensure that power returned to the North would have taken it if any Southern politician would have been eying the presidency after another had done eight straight years.

Well, Peter Obi and the Labour Party have moved on and we expect Kwankwaso to still demonstrate that love and interest he has in the South East by appointing another person from there as his running mate, after all with him as the presidential candidate of the NNPP, the party is almost sure of victory.

Anything short of that will only show that he only wanted to ride of the soaring popularity of Peter Obi to the presidency. Because of the sense of entitlement, he wanted to be the candidate despite the fact that he does not command the acceptability which Obi currently commands especially among Nigerian youths.