Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) announced the defection of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) members to his party Tuesday. This comes barely 72 hours before the commencement of general elections in 2023.
Kwankwaso, who served as governor of Kano state from 1999 to 2003 and from 2011 to 2015, tweeted, “On Sunday, my running mate, Bishop Isaac Idahosa, and other party leaders welcomed the entire state structure of the PDP in Kano, including 36 state executive members, over 700 local government executives, 8,000 ward executives, and 1,452 ward delegates into the NNPP.”
“Although I congratulate our new members on this wonderful achievement, I urge them to work diligently in the NNPP to guarantee we fulfill our mandate of winning the upcoming General Elections,” he added.
During his first stint as governor, he constructed Kano’s first and only state university, the Institute of Science and Technology in Wudil, which endeared him to the Kano state polity (1999-2003).
In his second term, the national leader of the NNPP established the North West University, Kano, the second state institution in Kano (2011 to 2015).
Also, he established 26 academic and manpower development training institutes that educated and empowered more than 360,000 young men and women. He is the first governor in Nigeria to provide primary school children with free school meals and uniforms. By the time he left the government in 2015, enrollment in schools had increased from 1 million in 2011 to over 3 million.
