2023 Presidency: Lawan begs Kano to swing in his favour

Senate President and one of the presidential aspirants on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, has appealed to the Kano State delegates to swing to his side during the forthcoming primary election of the party and subsequently during the next year’s general elections.

Lawan made the plea on Saturday night during his meeting with party delegates in Kano ahead of the party’s presidential primary scheduled for end of this month in Abuja.

Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, had in his welcome remarks described Kano as a swing state in party primaries and even in presidential elections and declared that the state would swing when it is ready to swing.

But Lawan, according to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Ola Awoniyi, said his mission was to interact with the party delegates on his presidential bid ahead of the primaries, appealing for minimum of 400 out of the 500 delegates from Kano.

He said: “I’m here to see and interact with all the 500 delegates from Kano state and I cannot agree more with my leader when he said this is the largest sub-national democracy in Nigeria. I imagine that it could also be the largest sub-national democracy in Africa.

“When His Excellency, our Governor was rounding up his speech, he said Kano is a swing state and it can determine not only the Primaries, with 500 delegates, but also the general elections. Your Excellency, it will swing to my side by the Grace of God.

“I want all the 500 delegates. Infact I need all the 500 delegates Your Excellency. If I can’t have the 500, please let me have at least 400.”

Earlier, the governor assured Lawan of “full cooperation” over his ambition to stand as the flag bearer of APC in the presidential election, commending his sterling qualities and contributions to the stability of politics and governance in the country.

Ganduje said, from Lawan’s antecedents, if he won the Presidency of Nigeria, there would be peace and stability both in politics and in governance.

“Your Excellency, I want to inform you that we are fully aware of your capacity. We are fully aware, the way you handle the National Assembly, the House of Representatives and the Senate, which you are the chairman.

“If we can recall with nostalgia what happened between 2015 and 2019, we are all living witnesses that we had a lot of instability, poor relationship between the Legislature and the Executive,” the governor stressed.

Ganduje dwelled in what made Kano so important in the political calculations of Nigeria.

He said: “Kano state has the largest number of delegates in the country. There is no gainsaying about that. This follows from the fact that we have the largest population in the country.

“So Your Excellency, this state is a very important state when issues of elections are concerned.

“We have 44 Local Governments, 484 wards. All our local government council chairmen are elected local government chairmen. Therefore, they are part of the statutory delegates in Kano state and in Nigeria.

“We have over 4,000 elected councillors in Kano state. And most of our 400 legislators especially House of Representatives, Senators, former Senators, principal officers of the state Assembly and National Assembly, Your Excellency, both of them, we are together and we are intact.

“So you can see the composition of our delegation, not only in terms of number but in terms of quality, in terms of capacity, in terms of capability and in terms of political dexterity.”