National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, has hinted that the ruling party may offer a political lifeline to former Kano State Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso—describing him as a “struggling fish in need of water”—amid growing signs of desertion from his political base.
Speaking to journalists after a closed-door meeting with the Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development, Yusuf Ata, at the APC national secretariat in Abuja, Ganduje implied that Kwankwaso could be absorbed into the APC for the sake of political survival and regional unity.
“When a fish is running out of water, that’s exactly what is happening. If the water is drying, the fish has to find its way to water,” Ganduje said in a metaphor-laden defense. “It is morally right to accommodate someone who has been abandoned. A friend in need is a friend indeed.”
The unexpected olive branch to Kwankwaso, a longtime political rival and leader of the opposition New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), has already triggered internal party discontent.
Minister Yusuf Ata, himself a strong APC stakeholder from Kano, openly opposed any move to welcome Kwankwaso into the party, warning that such a decision could ignite crisis within the Kano APC and reverse the party’s gains in the state.
“Kwankwaso is no longer relevant in Kano. He is not coming to APC because we invited him; he’s coming because he is politically stranded,” Ata said.
He pointed to diminishing public support for the red-cap movement, symbol of the Kwankwasiyya political structure, as evidence of Kwankwaso’s waning influence.
“Today, you can attend a mosque with 5,000 worshippers and struggle to spot 20 red caps. The movement is collapsing.”
Ata emphasized that President Bola Tinubu has “complete grassroots intelligence” about the situation in Kano and should be cautious about political overtures to the former governor.
The development exposes deeper tensions within the APC about how to manage former adversaries seeking political rehabilitation ahead of future elections.
While Ganduje’s comments suggest a possible strategy of political consolidation, Ata and other Kano loyalists appear determined to resist what they describe as opportunistic infiltration.
“Unless our father, the National Chairman, says otherwise, Kwankwaso stands rejected,” Ata declared.
Kwankwaso, a two-term governor, former minister, and 2023 presidential candidate, has remained a polarizing figure in Northern politics. Though his NNPP made electoral inroads in Kano last year, his grip on the state’s political architecture has since weakened amid defections and internal rifts.
As speculation swirls around a possible return to the APC, party insiders are watching closely how Ganduje, once Kwankwaso’s deputy and now one of his fiercest critics, balances reconciliation with the risk of rebellion in his own backyard.
