Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the president-elect, and Rabiu Musa
Kwankwaso, who flew the flag of New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) in the
February 25 presidential election, met for four hours in Paris, France, on
Monday.
TheCable reports that at the centre of the discussion was
the potential involvement of Kwankwaso in the in-coming administration as
Tinubu plans to form a “government of national unity” — which means giving
certain positions to opposition parties.
The meeting also discussed issues around the election of the
legislative leaders ahead of the June 13 inauguration of the 10th national
assembly.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has zoned the two top
positions in both chambers but some of its members are kicking against the
formula and threatening to go into an alliance with the opposition to torpedo
the arrangement.
While APC has 59 senators and 175 members of the houses of
reps, NNPP has two and 19 respectively.
A simple majority of 56 senators and 181 reps are needed to
elect the top two leaders in the respective chambers.
Tinubu’s representatives have also been meeting with key
figures in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), TheCable confirmed.
The Paris meeting between Tinubu and Kwankwaso started at
12.30pm and ended at 4.45pm, insiders revealed.
Femi Gbajabiamila, speaker of the house of reps and
presumptive chief of staff to the president-elect, attended the meeting while
Abdulmumin Jibrin, an NNPP rep-elect and former leader of a Tinubu campaign
organisation, accompanied Kwankwaso.
Oluremi Tinubu, senator and wife of president-elect received
Kwankwaso’s wife, Salamatu.
TheCable also reported that Tinubu and Kwankwaso reminisced
on their relationship dating back to the national assembly in 1992.
Tinubu was a senator while Kwankwaso was deputy speaker in
the house of reps.
It is also reported that Kwankwaso, in principle, agreed to
join Tinubu’s government subject to consultations with the stakeholders on both
sides.
Tinubu is expected to brief Kashim Shettima, the
vice-president elect, APC governors forum and other party leaders while
Kwankwaso will do same with his party leadership.
TheCable also reports that Tinubu expressed concern over the
strained relations between Abdullahi Ganduje, outgoing governor of Kano state,
and Kwankwaso, and promised to broker peace between them.
Ganduje was deputy to Kwankwaso when he was governor of Kano
from 2011 to 2015 but they have soon parted ways.
Tinubu polled 8,797,726 votes to win the presidential
election, beating PDP’s Atiku Abubakar by a margin of of two million.
However, Kwankwaso polled 1.5 million which many analysts
believe were votes that could have gone to Atiku if the former Kano governor
had not defected from the PDP.
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