Controversy over Ganduje’s Condemnation of Tinubu’s Meeting with Kwankwaso

Ibrahim Shuaibu in Kano

Controversy has trailed the condemnation of the recent meeting in Paris, France, between the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, and the President-elect, Bola Tinubu by the Governor of Kano State, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje.
Ganduje has lamented the recent meeting between the Tinubu and Kwankwaso, in Paris, France.

Tinubu and Kwankwaso met for hours in France to discuss a wide range of issues, including the possibility of the NNPP presidential candidate joining the incoming cabinet.
A few days after the meeting, the audio of a phone call between Ganduje and Ibrahim Kabiru Masari, a former placeholder vice presidential candidate of the APC, leaked.

In the audio, the governor was heard lamenting being treated unfairly by the president-elect in the meeting with Kwankwaso.
The governor started the audio conversation by saying there was noise all over Kano over the meeting between Tinubu and Kwankwaso.
Ganduje said even though Masari had told him of the possibility of such a meeting, there was nothing he could have done to stop it.
“But at that time, you could have spoken with him (Tinubu). You can (sic) call him and talk to him,” Masari told Ganduje.

The governor was then heard saying “what could I have told him? Now he (Tinubu) is seeing Kwankwaso as an alternative to us? No problem. Because we don’t have a government? And it’s even because of him (Tinubu) we lost the government in any way.

“Even if he will see him (Kwankwaso), he ought to have called us too. Or don’t you understand, even if symbolically,” Ganduje added.
In the audio, Masari, an ally of Tinubu, was then heard pacifying Ganduje and urging him not to be angry over the development.
He asked the governor to remain calm until he visits Tinubu.

“And all these things are from God. And the calculation that he is doing is not even accurate… And this man, how did he end up with Jonathan?” Ganduje said.
The governor reportedly left Kano for Abuja late Friday and might have met Masari over the weekend before the former would meet with the president-elect, who returned to the country yesterday.

But in a swift reaction to the leaked audio, the Kano State Government has described it as a mischievous attempt by social media and online publications in the country to lift a story from what it described as a purported phone conversation between Ganduje and Masari which involves his political relationship with Tinubu.

The state Commissioner for Information and Internal Affairs, Malam Muhammad Garba in a statement issued yesterday, stated that the exaggerated publicity on the purported audio clip was the handiwork of paid agents trying to twist the so-called conversation to cause disaffection between the two political gladiators.
He explained that some people who are not comfortable with the long cordiality Tinubu, Ganduje, and Masari enjoy are bent on exploiting the situation to their advantage.

Garba also maintained that the governor and the President-elect have since realised this mischievous attempt to cause disaffection between them, and would not allow this sound working relationship which has been waxing stronger, particularly at this critical time to be destroyed by some self-centered individuals.
The commissioner called on members of the APC and the public to disregard such attempts and remain calm and loyal to the party to ensure the successful inauguration of the President-elect.