Former state governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso has said that even though he is in talks with the New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP, he is still a member of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP).
Kwankwaso said the new party is for people who believe that there is a need to change the system introduced since 1999 to one that will benefit Nigerians.
According to him, there is a need to study what the country can change to and get a new focus, but he insisted that he is still in the PDP.
“As we speak, I am still in the PDP. We started the movement step by step. The first is to withdraw to the background, thinking some people within the party will want to hear our grievances, but the party didn’t do anything, we joined the group and still nothing was done by the party, now we are at the level of a political party.
“Even as I speak with you, we are still between a group and a political party, and I have not left the PDP, but this group has linked up with the NNPP. Whenever I am quitting the PDP you will be among the first to know because we are carefully following our programme,” he said.
Kwamkwaso said that it is not as if he is running with the hare and hunting with the hounds in his relationship with the NNPP and PDP.
“The issue is not about Rabi’u Kwankwaso or Kwankwasiyya movement. It is about ‘The National Movement’ and we are many in it, and most of the people in the movement are big people, so I can’t take any decision alone.”
Asked about the reported dissolution of the NNPP leadership even before they joined, he said: “Actually, the party is not ours, but they want us to be involved. That was why they want to bring their representatives and want us to do the same.
“And their tenure has lapsed and they have all stepped down, including the person that registered it more than 20 years ago. So it is a fresh arrangement that they are making to involve all of us, because in most states they don’t have anybody.”
