Habibu Mohammed is the spokesperson of the Kwankwasiyya Movement. In this interview monitored on Arise Television, he speaks on allegations that ex- Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso is working for President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2027 elections and other issues, EVINCE UHUREBOR reports
They say Kwankwaso is working for President Tinubu, and that he is simply deceiving Peter Obi. They also say he will not be able to make any significant impact in terms of votes across the states, and that he will not perform well because northerners will not accept Obi. What’s your take on these assumptions?
First, let me take on the issue of confusion and I believe it is his principle, the governor of Kano State, and the entire people that decided to leave a movement that has given them an opportunity to be in the limelight, to serve from personal assistant to governor.
Somebody who took decisions all your life, decisions on your behalf, and yet you end up not recognising that particular fact because you have an opportunity to be at the national limelight. You are confused because at that particular time, your eyes are actually covered with greed. You cannot actually compare the moment when our principal decided to pick the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), a relatively unknown political party, leaving the well-structured PDP.
As at that particular time, he was not confused. He believed that decision was sound, and he also followed my principal to a very relatively unknown political party, yet that decision turned out to be the reason why he is the governor. Kwankwaso is not a stranger to taking decisions that are not within the known norms of the North.
So, for somebody who has followed him, for somebody who has served for 43 years under you, under your tutelage, and you’ve never found anything wrong, you have never found him to be confused in decisions he has taken, even when those decisions sound strange to others, I believe the Nigerians will be able to know who truly is actually confused.
And talking about my principal working for Tinubu; everybody knows why my principal left PDP at a particular time. It was because of the crisis within the party at the zonal level, when his candidate was not given a chance, when people from the NorthWest establishment believed that Kwankwaso should not be allowed to present a candidate that should be their own leader in that zone, even when that particular position was zoned to Kano State.
He decided to unilaterally prove to the entirety of those people that on his own, he can make a decision, owing to his belief that the people of Kano State are with him, not because they simply like his pace, but because he was able to prove to them that individual aspirations of the young men and women who do not have anybody to actually propel them to positions that are only being propelled by the bigwigs, those dreams can only be realised when they are together with Kwankwaso.
They have seen the fruition of his scholarship, his political belief in individual abilities and in the abilities of those that needed only a push for them to be able to recover their own potential. So, it’s not just about working for anybody. At that particular time, he believed that he has what it takes, and he has proven consistently to work with all parts of this country. Remember, he was at the forefront of actually working for Presidentw Olusegun Obasanjo then.
That is why I was laughing when he said Kwankwaso is against the Southern Yoruba presidency. In fact, it was part of his belief in Obasanjo that cost him the second term. Yet he has not budged. He went ahead and continued to maintain the relationship because he believed that Nigeria is just beyond one ethnic nationality and one religion. And he has consistently displayed his support when he supported several other people and when he has a lot of established relationships even with Tinubu.
Everybody knows that they have a longstanding relationship. They have worked at the National Assembly, as governors, and also as the key people that actually even brought the APC to life. Collectively, they have known themselves far better than anybody, not even the PA to Kwankwaso, can be able to know or even talk about their relationship. And I believe if Kwankwaso wanted to work with Tinubu, he doesn’t need anybody to push him to do that. This is a guy that is just going to make a phone call and they sort themselves out.
But the irony is that Kwankwaso was only in the villa and met Tinubu only once throughout the life cycle of this administration in any capacity. And you cannot deny the fact that they have that relationship, and as a president, you can call him and discuss whatever issue you wish to discuss. That does not mean that he is actually working for him because he believes that they can agree and disagree.
The allegation that was made is that Kwankwaso went to meet President Tinubu on issues pertaining to movements from NNPP to APC, and that the governor was not carried along. Why did the engagement need to be conducted in secrecy?
You misunderstand my point. I have never told you, not once, that Kwankwaso ever discussed any issue of defection with the President on behalf of NNPP or the movement as well. I told you earlier, in the early years of this administration, the President invited Kwankwaso.
Nobody knows the content of the discussions. As a friend of the President, we believe that he has the right to be there. And at that particular time, it was only an offer by the President for Kwankwaso to serve in his administration and I think Kwankwaso has never hidden that particular fact.
He has discussed with everybody why he was there. But at the end of the day, he decided he’s not going to work with the administration. But that does not mean that the fact that he’s been to the villa or has any discussions with Kwankwaso, discussions that he has never made, often this is at the context of our discussions, will be reduced to discussions of defection.
I think the issue of defection even comes up later as the government goes on. And at that particular time, when the issue of thinking of what to do, looking at the present political situations and the circumstances in the country, our leader make it often that they are open to any discussion alliances, but it has to be very clear what exactly it is going to be to the Kwankwasiyya movement.
If our ideology will be ingrained or accepted by anybody they are actually going to have any discussion with. And I want to be very clear here. There was never any discussion with either the President or the APC who has that capacity, who can talk on behalf of APC on issues of defection with our national leader, or with any member of the Kwankwasiyya movement.
And the only issues was that there were a lot of discussions on the ground by Obi group and at the same time with other elements in African Development Congress (ADC), which eventually led to the earlier defection into the National Democratic Congress (NDC). Remember that even before that defection into NDC, there was already an established relationship between Obi and Kwankwaso, which I believe we, the members of Kwankwsiya and the Obidient Movement have continued to push for such an alignment, looking at the present realities of the country and looking at the fact that our principles are actually on the same fight, even when they could not understand that particular fact way back in 2023 election.
And I want to make it also very clear to Nigerians that in 2023, it is true that our principal and Peter Obi, there was an effort for them to actually work together. But if we are going to be very honest and fair to all of them, remember Kwankwaso left PDP before Peter Obi, he moved to NNPP, began to build that party, establishing structures and even getting people from across the nation that truly wanted to actually partake in the election cycle.
Later Obi left PDP, moved to Labour, gave him the platform, and the time is too short for the two people to even understand themselves and even to know whether they are on the same page or not. I believe that was one of the reasons that led to whatever argument that was there. Also, remember taht if you are trying to actually work together, everybody should present his point of strength. And that was why our principal was asking what criteria he is going to serve as vice president to Obi and what have you.
Are you saying that it is not possible for the Kwankwasiyya Movement to join forces with the APC?
Yes, that is crystal clear. First, in Kano State, we have known the antecedent of all those people that belong to APC. We know their modus operandi. And we know in any convergence of ideology, there has to be certain sacrifices. We don’t think that in Kano State we can actually meet together and actually work together with anybody in APC because we know what APC represents in Kano State.
It simply represents thuggery. It simply represents a host of so many things that are actually directly harmful to the masses, to people that are down-trodden, which our ideology seeks to protest.
And also, even at the national level, we can see from the policies rolled out by the APC, we can see the grandstanding of even the commander-in-chief, where he does not have an inch of feeling as to what happened when he rolled out policies.
They have never had an opportunity to do what is called the kind of a policy risk assessment and what have you. Now, these are the people that feel they own Nigeria. These are the people that feel that whatever they throw out, you must take it.
And these are the people that we can never work actually well, no matter the tones of opportunity presented by whomever. We know that the governor has his own baggage. We know why he moved there. Time will come when we’ll be able to spit it out. But the truth is that we have found home in our relationship with Obi. The years in between have allowed us to be able to actually integrate and understand ourselves.
