From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
The presidential aspirant of New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) and a former governor of Kano State, Sen. Rabiu Kwankwaso, on Thursday visited the Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Lekan Balogun, Alli Okunmade II, over his 2023 presidential ambition.
Olubadan received him and his entourage at his private palace, Alarere, Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. Among the people that accompanied him to the palace is the party’s governorship aspirant in the state, Popoola Olukayode Joshua.
Oba Balogun, who once worked as a Research Fellow at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria and served as a Director of Kano-owned Triumph Newspaper, told his guest about his close relationship with the late Alhaji Aminu Kano, late Alhaji Abubakar Rimi and late Alhaji Balarabe Musa.
Aminu Kano had founded the defunct People’s Redemption Party (PRP), under which both late Rimi and Musa won elections as governors of both Kano and Kaduna States respectively, and it was through the same party the Olubadan cut his political teeth.
He recalled that he had always been very close to the trio of Kano, Rimi and Musa right from his studentship days in the United Kingdom. He added that the monarch said the presidential aspirant was very much at home as he prayed for his success both at his party’s primary, and the main election in 2023.
Kwankwaso, in his brief remarks, noted the contributions of Olubadan to the country’s political development since his entry into the game in 1983, when Oba Balogun contested the old Oyo State governorship election on the platform of the defunct Nigeria People’s Party (NPP) after defecting from the PRP.
According to him, “The coming into existence of the NNPP, which is an off-shoot of the old NPP during the reign of Your Imperial Majesty is a divine arrangement. Our party is imbued with ideas and people to drive the agenda for a new Nigeria where there would be life abundance for all, irrespective of status, religion, race or creed.”
The Kano-born Senator and two-term governor of Kano State, however, called on Nigerians to take seriously the issue of registration and collection of the Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs) with which they would cast their votes for the party when election comes, adding, “the expected change can only be effected through our votes which our PVCs would enable us to do.”
The party’s governorship aspirant in the state, Joseph, while reiterating the importance of PVCs said, “everybody is quite aware of what is going on in the state, which doesn’t make people happy. We want peace in the state and that’s what our party will pursue. To realise that, we need the people’s votes, which only the PVCs can guarantee.”