President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu recently had a significant meeting in Paris with Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, the representative of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) in the previous presidential election, News About Nigeria reports.
The primary focus of their discussion was Kwankwaso’s potential role in the upcoming administration, as Tinubu aims to form a “government of national unity,” which involves offering positions to opposition parties.
One of the key topics addressed during the meeting was the election of legislative leaders before the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly on June 13.
As previously reported, the All Progressives Congress (APC) had assigned top positions in both chambers based on zoning.
However, certain party members expressed discontent with this arrangement and threatened to form an alliance with the opposition to undermine the proposed formula.
The APC currently holds a majority of 59 Senate seats and 175 seats in the House of Representatives, while the NNPP has two senators and 19 representatives.
In order to obtain the highest two leadership roles in each legislative house, it is necessary to have a basic majority of 56 senators and 181 representatives.
Insiders revealed that the Paris meeting between Tinubu and Kwankwaso lasted for four hours, from 12:30 p.m. to 4:45 p.m.
Femi Gbajabiamila, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and presumed Chief of Staff to the President-elect, was also present, along with Abdulmumin Jibrin, an NNPP representative-elect and former leader of a Tinubu campaign organization, who accompanied Kwankwaso.
Additionally, Oluremi Tinubu, a senator and the President-elect’s wife, welcomed Kwankwaso’s wife, Salamatu.
Kwankwaso has reportedly expressed a willingness, in principle, to join Tinubu’s government, pending consultations with stakeholders on both sides.
Tinubu plans to provide updates to Kashim Shettima, the Vice President-elect, the APC Governors Forum, and other party leaders, while Kwankwaso will do the same with his party leadership.
During the meeting, Tinubu expressed concerns about the strained relationship between Abdullahi Ganduje, the outgoing governor of Kano State, and Kwankwaso.
Tinubu assured that he would mediate and work towards fostering peace between the two politicians.
Notably, Ganduje previously served as Kwankwaso’s deputy during his tenure as Kano governor from 2011 to 2015, before their political paths diverged.
Tinubu emerged as the winner of the presidential election with 8,797,726 votes, defeating Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by a margin of two million votes.
However, analysts speculate that Kwankwaso’s 1.5 million votes could have potentially gone to Atiku if the former Kano governor had not defected from the PDP.
