Kwankwaso: Between political expediency and principled politics – crossing the red line

By Abba Hikima

In 2013, when Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso defected from the PDP to the APC, many, myself inclusive, justified his decision on the grounds of public interest. The PDP having ruled for over a decade has failed so many people and was beginning to show all signs of political fatigue and internal decay.

Then came the APC, a party which presented itself as a fresh coalition with reformist energy and the promise of rescuing Nigeria from a complacent one-party dominance. Kwankwaso, also justifiably, joined the new party claiming that the PDP had become irredeemably factionalized and unreformable. But in 2018, he reversed course, returning to the PDP due to mounting disillusionment with the APC’s governance style, broken promises, and internal intolerance. No much comments to make about this particular defection.

Fast forward to 2022, Kwankwaso exited the PDP again for the NNPP, due understandably to unfair treatment and lack of a level playing ground. Since then, Kwankwaso made publicly scathing comments about both PDP and APC describing the PDP as “dead” and the APC as “a failed party no person of conscience should associate with.”

Now, with growing rumors of a potential return to the APC, the unavoidable question Kwankwaso must answer is: What has changed? Has the APC corrected the ills he once condemned? Has public interest improved under the party’s reign? Or is this a moment not of ideological realignment but of political expediency masquerading as strategy? If 2013 was about rescuing democracy, what is 2025 about?

Those of us who voted for Kwankwaso and openly advocated for him in the last presidential election did so not because he had the strongest chances of winning. In truth, his chances were the slimmest among the major contenders. But we supported him because we believed that in spite of his endless cross-carpeting and apparent political backpedaling, he possessed the most coherent political ideology, the clearest image of pro-masses leadership, and the strongest reformist features. We cast our votes in the hope of triggering a long-overdue shift in Nigeria. A shift from the politics of party loyalty to the politics of values, competence, and character. We envisioned a country where leaders with track records and integrity could emerge based not on godfathers or party platforms, but on merit. We believed Kwankwaso had the moral standing to lead that fateful and necessary journey.

Should Kwankwaso now leave the NNPP and return to the APC, and do so at a time when the APC’s popularity has visibly declined, when the economy is battered, when insecurity is still widespread and making strong comeback even in areas where sanity had began to return, and when, Idris Abdulkareem’s new song -Country Hard- is trending accross Nigeria with acceptability, it will become painfully clear that those of us who saw a leader in Kwankwaso, who wanted to use his example to trigger the much needed political revolution,were wrong and mistaken.

This is more so that Kwankwaso is approaching the golden age of 70. It would not only be ill-timed; it would be tragic. At that age, a man ought to consolidate legacy, not squander it.

The over one million votes Kwankwaso secured in Kano duriing the last election were not merely from red-cap-wearing adherents of Kwankwasiyya. They were from Nigerians young and old who saw in him a flicker of hope and voted based on character, record, and integrity.

If Kwankwaso now switches allegiance once more, I believe many of those who followed him with clear eyes and open minds will walk away and leave him to journey on with only his loyal but blinded followers.

I call on Kwankwaso the soon-to-be septuagenarian, to prioritize legacy, political integrity and faith over convenience, expediency and personal interests.