Amidst mounting uncertainty surrounding Governor Abba Yusuf’s defection, the All Progressives Congress (APC) chapter in Kano State has started accepting new members online. Yusuf has repeatedly delayed the date of his anticipated move to the ruling party.
The state’s APC officials had previously scheduled the e-membership registration to begin on January 15, but the governor reportedly requested that the exercise be put on hold indefinitely.
According to a source aware with the situation who spoke to Daily Nigerian, Yusuf informed Vice President Kashim Shettima of the situation when he realized the Kano APC was getting ready to move forward with the registration.
The source claims that the vice president then ordered Yilwatda Nentawe, the national chairman of the party, and Abdullahi Ganduje, the former governor of Kano, to wait until the governor officially defected before initiating the exercise.
At first, the APC had anticipated that Yusuf would defect on January 5, which was also his birthday. However, because many state APC leaders were either on vacation or making the Umrah pilgrimage, the date was suddenly changed to January 12.
The announcement was once more rescheduled for January 16, to be made soon after an off-site, widely reported Executive Council meeting in Abuja, as January 12 drew near.
But following the council meeting, the expected proclamation did not come to pass, disappointing party leaders.
The governor allegedly set January 20, one day after his meeting with President Bola Tinubu, as the date after the delay on January 16.
However, when the date drew near, a senior party official who wished to remain anonymous stated that the governor had asked the party leadership for “more time in order to widen consultations.”
Following a covert meeting between Yusuf and Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, his political godfather, at the latter’s Miller Road home in Kano, there was doubt about the governor’s defection.
According to sources, the purpose of the meeting was to defuse the controversy surrounding Yusuf’s alleged intention to leave Kwankwaso and join the APC.
Insiders claim that the governor promised Kwankwaso that no action would be taken until he met with President Tinubu in France and communicated Kwankwaso’s “terms and conditions” for joining the APC.
Yusuf finally met Tinubu on Tuesday at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, following last week’s failed attempts to visit the president in Paris and Abu Dhabi.
A day after Yusuf’s visit, Tinubu was supposed to host Kwankwaso, but the meeting was allegedly “put on hold,” according to sources.
The Kano APC had previously established an e-membership registration committee, which was co-chaired by Baffa Babba-Dan’agundi, the Director-General of the National Productivity Center, and Rabiu Suleiman-Bichi, the Managing Director of the Hadejia-Jama’are River Basin Authority, despite the ongoing uncertainty.
Registration has now begun throughout the state, despite reports that a “001 membership card” was set aside for Governor Yusuf in his Diso Ward in Gwale Local Government Area.
