Former governor of Kano state and a bigwig of the ruling APC, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, has said that as a candidate of the opposition PDP, he would defeat President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 elections.
Kwankwaso, an aggrieved member of the ruling party, made this known while picking the former ruling party as the only one that can defeat Buhari in next year’s polls.
The immediate past governor of Kano has often claimed credits for helping Buhari win 1.9 million votes in the highly populated state.
In an interview with veteran journalist Dele Momodu, the former governor said, “I’m a free man now and available to try my luck elsewhere but I know that PDP is the biggest party and as long as they follow democratic principle, Buhari will easily be defeated, but if they handpick and force any candidate on the party, they will fail.
“PDP needs someone from the 3k States: Kano, Katsina and Kaduna to win the next election. That’s where the votes are. It would be difficult to win if they pick someone from any other zone…” he said.
“I can guarantee them that I will beat Buhari if given the chance.”
Kwankwaso’s latest challenge against his party comes barely a week after he shunned the party’s national convention in Abuja.
And there is increasing speculation that the former Minister of Defence, who was elected as governor of Kano on the platform of the PDP, could rejoin the country’s main opposition ahead of the forthcoming elections.
The senator is not on good terms with his successor in Kano, Abdullahi Ganduja, whom he claims he helped become governor of the state. Ganduja was Kwankwaso’s deputy until May 29, 2015.
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