Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, the New Nigeria Peoples Party’s (NNPP) presidential candidate in the general elections of 2023, declared that judges who rendered decisions in subordinate courts in Nigeria would ” be sacked ” if the country were to become another country.
In addition, the NNPP candidate denied any discussions with President Bola Tinubu or anybody else about the Supreme Court ruling upholding Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf’s election to the position of Kano State governor.
In response to the claim that he had a deal with Tinubu before to the ruling, Kwankwaso made this statement.
On Friday, the Nigerian Supreme Court upheld the Court of Appeal’s decision to remove Governor Yusuf of the NNPP and recognized him as the state’s legitimately elected leader.
Reacting to a rumour that he reached an agreement with President Tinubu on the apex court ruling, Kwankwaso during an interview with BBC Hausa, said that “What happened at the Supreme Court is a lesson for all of us. I know that I mean well for everyone. Throughout the period, I have not done anything to anyone. And anybody would reap what he sows. To the best of my knowledge, I have not reached an agreement with anybody.”
According to him, “All I know is that President Tinubu is my contemporary. I joined politics at the same time as him in SDP. Then he was a senator and I was serving as the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives. In 1999, he was my colleague as the governor of Lagos State.
“We founded the APC together and we participated fully in the struggles which followed up. People should know that a lie has a short life. Despite the machinations those people staged, the judges have done what is right.
“There is no problem. They have their party; we have our own. We will work together where necessary. On the issue of joining the government, only time can tell.”
The former Kano State Governor also said that he would not lord himself over the Kano State governor, that he could only advise him.
“Kabir Yusuf is the governor. We can only advise. Even if he were a biological son, I can’t rule over him. I have given him pieces of advice even before the government came in. There are thousands of people like me. I can’t do it alone. When a governor or a president does well, the credit goes to him. If he does otherwise, the blame is directed at him.
“People misunderstand this. When I was a governor, I would pick suggestions kept by people even in dustbins. The same is on radio stations and newspapers. For everything has an appointed time. Those who succeed should be allowed to prove their worth.
“There were errors with the previous judgment, but the Supreme Court undid what the lower courts did. If it were in other climes, those who delivered the judgments in the lower courts would quit their jobs,” he said.
