A former governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso, has opened up on how the North-Southeast political alliance within the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was formed.
Speaking on Monday during an appearance on Arise Television, he stated that northern political leaders conducted a deliberate assessment of potential allies before settling on Peter Obi.
He dismissed concerns about a hidden power struggle between his camp and Obi’s.
“I looked around together with our leadership in the north to say, okay, who do we think is capable? Who can come and work together with us honestly so that we can move this country? Along the line, we realised that Peter Obi is at the forefront of it. That’s why we all accepted to work together,” he said.
Responding to a question about whether the alliance concealed a quiet rivalry between the two camps, Kwankwaso argued that friction between principals and their deputies stemmed from greed, not structural tension.
“The problem people are having, especially leaders, is that they are too greedy to the extent that they begin to have issues. There is so much to do. You don’t have to fight your deputy,” he said.
He said his record as a former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, and later as governor of Kano State, showed that political partnerships could hold under pressure.
“I had an opportunity to work with my speaker, and we worked very well. I was in Kano for eight years despite the difficulty of my then deputy governor. We were able to work for eight years amicably to the extent that I handed over to him,” he said.
He grounded the alliance in Nigerian political history, tracing a lineage of productive North-Southeast partnerships from the first republic to the present.
“Right from the beginning, this sort of alliance has been in existence. Now we are going back to what Tafawa Balewa did during their time,” he said.
He was emphatic that the choice of Obi was not driven by regional sentiment alone.
“It wasn’t just because we are going to the South-West, just because of the South-West. No. We realised that Peter Obi is at the forefront of it and that’s why we all accepted to work together,” he said.