Why I Asked Atiku To Step Down For Obi — Kwankwaso

Vice-presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Rabiu Kwankwaso, says he asked former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar to step down for Peter Obi in the 2027 presidential race because of their long political history and the need for a new political arrangement.

Kwankwaso, who spoke on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday, confirmed he wants Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), to withdraw and support Obi, the NDC presidential candidate.

When asked if he was insisting that Atiku should abandon his ambition, Kwankwaso replied: “Well, yes.”

He said he recently told a group of Fulani leaders who visited him in Kano to speak to Atiku when they return to their communities.

“I had some people, coincidentally, a group of Fulanis from across the country who came for a courtesy visit to my house. And I thought it was an opportunity for me, really, to talk to them and ask them that they should create time before they go back to their towns and villages to talk to him,” he said.

Kwankwaso said the appeal was not out of animosity, but because of a relationship dating back to 1993 under the late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua’s political family.

“His Excellency Vice-President Atiku Abubakar is somebody that I know fairly well. And we have done so much together with him in the past. In fact, more than anybody who is around him today,” he said.

“In 1993, he was in our group under the leadership of General Shehu Musa Yar’adua and he was our choice for the presidential candidate of the SDP. We supported him. We did everything possible to make him our candidate of the SDP.”

He recalled how they also pushed for Atiku to get the vice-presidential ticket then, and later worked together in 1999 when Olusegun Obasanjo emerged as president.

“I was Governor-Elect of Kano when we elected His Excellency Olusegun Obasanjo in Jos… he was Vice-president, and we were very happy,” he said.

Kwankwaso added that Kano gave Atiku almost 90% of its votes in 2007 when Atiku was in the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and that they both contested the APC presidential ticket in 2015 where Buhari came first, himself second, and Atiku third.

“What I’m trying to say is that we are not against him. The two sides, we’ve worked together with him so everything has time,” Kwankwaso said.