The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) presidential candidate, Rabiu Kwankwanso, on Monday, took a swipe at his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart, Atiku Abubakar, over his inability to unite his party ahead of the 2023 elections.
The PDP is currently embroiled in a protracted crisis over the refusal of its National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, to step down from the position.
Governors Nyesom Wike (Rivers State), Samuel Ortom (Benue State), Seyi Makinde (Oyo State), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia State), and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu State) boycotted the party’s preparations for the 2023 election to underscore their demand for Ayu’s resignation.
Kwankwaso, a former governor of Kano State, who spoke at the commissioning of Mgbutanwo Internal Roads in the Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State, dismissed the PDP’s chances in next year’s election.
The former PDP chieftain insisted that the inability of Abubakar to reconcile with aggrieved members of his party would cost him significant votes in Rivers, Lagos and Kano states.
He also claimed the All Progressives Congress (APC) is a worse than the PDP.
Kwankwaso said: “Any party that cannot control two of the three states – Kano, Lagos, and Rivers is out. Wike has been saying it and people have not taken note of it. Anyway, by now, with Kwankwaso out of that party, and Wike struggling to be there or not to be there, somehow things are moving, certainly, Lagos is not their own, and one begins to wonder how they will win the election of 2023.
“Many people have made so many mistakes; many people don’t understand. Some leaders are very rigid, rigid in the sense that whether they are failing or winning, they will stick to one idea, they will stick to one candidate not minding the consequences, not minding the feelings of the people involved.
“Unfortunately, some of us see what you, Wike, did not see in time. That was why we decided in 2013-14 to bring some changes in the political architecture of this country, that was why we formed the APC believing that the party was going to be a progressive party that will sort out the issues were concerned about at that time.
“Unfortunately, this party proved over time in the opinion of many people especially in the PDP that it is worse than the PDP itself.”