Kwankwaso in the race for President
BY TAIWO FAROTIMI
Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, former governor of Kano State is billed to declare his ambition to run for president Wednesday in Abuja. His campaign Organisation said the event will take place at Chida Hotel , Utako in the federal capital territory.
The venue was chosen after the initial approval for Kwankwaso to use the Eagle Square, a public facility was canceled. Usman Raji, the facility manager of the Abuja International Conference Centre & Eagles Square who communicated the decision to cancel the already booked facility cited disruption of “work flow”, the place being close to the federal secretariat.
But the Kwakwanso campaign team suspects that the cancellation has political undertone, perhaps to destabilse the plans of the senator who recently decamped from the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC to the opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP. A source said the suspicion was informed by the fact that the letter of refusal was sent in two days to an event for which venue had been paid for well over one week.
Kwankwaso was the closest rival to President Muhammadu Buhari at the APC presidential primaries where the latter got the ticket to run for the 2015 election. Since he decamped to the PDP, where he is seen as a major contender , the rift between Kwankwaso and Governor Ganduje , his successor in Kano and former deputy has escalated. Ganduje who is a strong supporter of President Buhari has warned the senator against organizing a campaign rally in the state Kwankwaso had ruled for two terms. There had also been attempts at embarrassing the man at public places with shouts of “Sai Baba”, a slogan to reference the president.
