TheCable

Rabiu Kwankwaso, former governor of Kano, says the “Integrity Group” comprising governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is taking the right step regarding the crisis in the party.

At a meeting in Lagos on Sunday, the group comprising five PDP governors — Nyesom Wike of Rivers, Seyi Makinde of Oyo, Samuel Ortom of Benue, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu — dubbed the G5, was described as the “Integrity Group”.

The governors have been at the forefront of calls for Iyorchia Ayu to step down as national chairman of the PDP, on the grounds that the presidential candidate and chairman cannot be from the same region.

Speaking on Monday at the inauguration of the Mgbutanwo internal road in Rivers, the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) presidential candidate said the PDP governors are doing the right thing.

“I believe they are people of integrity and of course, posterity will judge them based on the action they take, and I’m so happy that they are doing the right thing by consulting, talking,” Kwankwaso said.

The former Kano governor also spoke on why he left the PDP and APC.

Kwankwaso had joined the APC after dumping the PDP in 2013. He, however, rejoined the PDP in 2018 but dumped the party in March 2022, after which he joined the NNPP.

Speaking on his experience in the PDP and APC, the NNPP presidential candidate said joining the APC was in the effort to bring change, but that the move did not yield the result he expected.

“It’s unfortunate that we found ourselves in a party that we helped to build. I was in PDP like you. In 1998, I had the opportunity of being part of the founding fathers of the PDP and we [did] extremely well, especially in our first eight years. Unfortunately, as time went on, many things started to go wrong,” he said while addressing Wike.

“And unfortunately, some of us saw what you didn’t see in time. That was why we decided in 2013/2014, to bring some changes in the political architecture of this country.

“That was why we formed the APC, believing that the party would be a progressive party that would sort out the issues that we were concerned about as Nigerians at that particular time.

“Unfortunately, this party proved over time, in the opinion of many people, especially in the PDP, to believe that it is worse than the PDP itself.

“And that was how they were putting their eggs in one basket, believing that the election was going to be between bad and very bad.

“But even then, we had some islands. We were part of the islands in Kano, and we performed extremely well. Of course, one of the islands is Rivers state where we have a very distinguished leader who believed in his people.

“Anytime I come to Rivers, I find brand-new projects and programmes. This is somebody who has worked so much in education. And when we were coming to this venue, he showed me the law school that was commissioned recently. And you can go on and on in terms of projects and programmed.

“And that it is why not only the people of Rivers state that call him Mr Project; all of us also acknowledge him as Mr Project in this country.”