Tobias Sylvester
The presidential candidate of New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso has held a closed-door meeting with the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, in Paris, France.
Tinubu, who had travelled to Europe, met with Kwankwaso for four hours in Paris, on Monday, to discuss issues around the election of the legislative leaders ahead of the June 13 inauguration of the 10th national assembly.
According to TheCables, the speaker of the house of representatives and presumptive chief of staff to the president-elect, Femi Gbajabiamila was also present in the Paris meeting between which commenced at 12:30 PM and concluded at 4:45 PM.
Gbajabiamila reportedly attended the meeting while Abdulmumin Jibrin, an NNPP rep-elect and former leader of a Tinubu campaign organisation, accompanied Kwankwaso.
Additionally, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, the wife of the president-elect, welcomed Kwankwaso’s wife, Salamatu.
TheCable learned that Tinubu and Kwankwaso reminisced about their longstanding relationship, which dates back to their time in the National Assembly in 1992 when Tinubu was a senator and Kwankwaso served as the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives.
In principle, Kwankwaso agreed to join Tinubu’s government, pending consultations with stakeholders on both sides, the NNPP and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Tinubu is expected to brief 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 their discussion, Tinubu expressed concern about Kwankwaso’s strained relations between Abdullahi Ganduje, the outgoing governor of Kano state, pledging to mediate and reconcile their differences.
Ganduje previously served as Kwankwaso’s deputy when he was the governor of Kano from 2011 to 2015, but they have since parted ways.
Meanwhile, Godswill Akpabio had decribed Bola Tinubu as “God’s own choice” for leading the country.
