Vice-presidential candidate of the National Democratic Coalition, NDC, Rabiu Kwankwaso, has claimed that the United States government is now more concerned about the prospect of another Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket in the 2027 general elections than allegations previously made against him.

Kwankwaso made the remark while speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday.

He said concerns surrounding his name had been resolved, adding that he now has a “clean slate” in the United States.

“I think we have passed that level now. You know, realities will always prevail. We have enemies here. Everybody has enemy, including your good self.

“So people have decided to send my name here and there, but realities have now come out, and that issue is gone. It’s no more an issue.

“I believe the issue is cleared. It’s cleared. I now have a clean slate in America,” he said.

Kwankwaso further argued that attention had shifted to the possibility of another Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket ahead of the 2027 elections.

“I think America is more worried about Muslim-Muslim tickets now than the issue of Kwankwaso.

“Those who know me, they know they are talking about the wrong person. I have no business in all those things.

“I think Muslim-Muslim ticket is going to be a thing in 2027. Well, it has to be,” he added.

An All Progressives Congress, APC, chieftain, Osita Okechukwu, has urged former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to step aside from the 2027 presidential race and embrace the role of a statesman.

The APC chieftain is arguing that Atiku’s decision to contest the 2023 presidential election against the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, zoning arrangement weakened the opposition and Nigeria’s democracy.

Okechukwu made the appeal while speaking on Arise Television’s Prime Time on Monday.

According to him, Atiku’s emergence as the PDP presidential candidate in 2022, despite calls for the party to zone its ticket to the South, triggered a crisis that continues to affect the party.

“I’m talking in the interest of our country. His Excellency Atiku Abubakar, a man I respect a lot. He was very close to some of my big brothers, the late Dubem Onyia and late Chuba Okadigbo. I’ve great respect for him.

“And what I’m appealing to him is that he should consider the interest of Nigerian State, our fledging democracy.

“About three years ago he (Atiku) did the same thing by breaching the rotation convention, and the collateral damage is heavy.

“Heavy in the sense that, luckily for the Nigerian state, democracy remained, the country remained, but the destabilisation of the PDP had its own collateral damages that it cannot be quantified.

“In fact, the damages got to his backyard because if in 2022 he had acted a statesmanship, which I’m pleading with him, it’s not too late to become a statesman in a country like ours.

“If he had said that in 2014 I walked away from the PDP, telling them that it’s the turn of the north, and joined the APC, and ran.

“I think it was when we were less than one year old when they joined us in protest, and he contested for presidency with us, and came third. He came third, and he went back to PDP.

“And in 2018 presidential primaries of the PDP. No southern aspirant participated.”

Okechukwu argued that Atiku’s decision to contest the PDP ticket in 2022 contributed significantly to the party’s internal crisis and weakened its position as the main opposition.

He added that Atiku’s criticism of President Bola Tinubu over alleged moves toward a one-party state ignored the role the PDP’s internal decisions played in its current challenges.

“So what am I saying? I’m saying that when he breached it in 2022 the consequences in the PDP has made…

“Most of the time, I will see him talking about one-party state, accusing President Tinubu of generating one-party state. He forgot, or deliberately, maybe deliberately, he grossed it over and swept it under the carpet that if he had allowed a Southerner to contest against President Tinubu, even if the PDP had lost, PDP could have remained strong,” he said.

By Cynthia Alo

LAGOS—Former governor of Kano State and vice-presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, Rabiu Kwankwaso, said yesterday he believed the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, would honour his pledge to serve only one four-year term if elected in 2027, revealing that both men signed a written agreement to that effect.

Kwankwaso, who disclosed this in an interview on Channels Television, said both of them signed a written agreement on this. According to him, the agreement provides that power will return to the North after a single four-year tenure of Obi.

On whether he believed Obi would honour the agreement, the former Kano governor said he had no reason to doubt the former Anambra State governor.

He said: “Oh yes, I personally believe him and I don’t think, based on what I now know about him, he will change his mind when the time comes, and we are all gentlemen, even though we have accepted to put it on paper.”

While reiterating that the agreement signed by both of them was sacrosanct, Kwankwaso also said they equally signed a separate agreement with the party on the issue.

“We have done one for the party, and we have done another one between the two of us,” he said.

Explaining the contents of the agreement, he said: “The agreement is what you said, that after four years we will work together, team together as a group, as a party, as friends, brothers and so on so that after his term, or our term, of four years, 2027 to 2031, then it comes back to the North, and that is the general agreement.”

On why he accepted the vice-presidential slot, despite previously pursuing the presidency, Kwankwaso said the current political circumstances supported a four-year southern presidency before power returns to the North.

He added: “Together we felt that the presidency should go to the South for four years; thereafter it will come back to the North.

“We believe that should be the consensus of everybody in this country, so we can move together as a family, both North and South.”

When asked if he planned to contest the presidency in 2031, Kwankwaso said the party was focused on its immediate objective while keeping future plans in view.

He said: “We have a short-term plan which we are executing now and, of course, we also have our medium- and long-term plans for the country, and that is what we are working on now.”

Recall that Peter Obi had severally declared he would serve only one term of four years if elected president in 2027.

“I want to be a one-term president because of stability. I would not stay a day, with a gun to my head, longer than four years,” Obi had said.

His declaration drew criticism from opposition political parties, which argued that the NDC presidential candidate would not keep his promise if elected president in 2027.