May 29 Inauguration: Why Tinubu met Kwakwanso, top secret revealed

TheCable says that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the incoming president, and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, who represented the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) in the election for president on February 25, met for four hours on Monday in Paris, France.

As Tinubu aims to build a “government of national unity” that allocates specific places to opposition parties, Telescope.ng learned that the discussion’s focal point was Kwankwaso’s prospective inclusion in the future administration.

Prior to the 10th National Assembly’s inauguration on June 13, concerns surrounding the election of the parliamentary leaders were also discussed at the meeting.

The two top positions in both chambers have been designated by the All Progressives Congress (APC), but some of its members are refusing to follow the plan and threatening to vote against it.

NNPP has two senators and 19 representatives, compared to 59 senators and 175 representatives for the APC.

To choose the top two leaders in each chamber, a simple majority of 56 senators and 181 representatives is required.

TheCable reported that officials of Tinubu had met with influential members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

According to insiders who spoke to TheCable, the meeting between Tinubu and Kwankwaso in Paris lasted from 12:30 pm to 4:45 pm.

The meeting was attended by Femi Gbajabiamila, speaker of the House of Representatives and presumed chief of staff to the president-elect, and Kwankwaso was accompanied by Abdulmumin Jibrin, an NNPP representative-elect and former head of a Tinubu campaign organization.

Salamatu, the wife of Kwankwaso, was welcomed by the senator and first lady-elect Oluremi Tinubu.

TheCable discovered that Tinubu and Kwankwaso talked about their friendship that began at the 1992 national assembly.

While Kwankwaso served as deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Tinubu was a senator.

According to TheCable, Kwankwaso agreed to join Tinubu’s cabinet in principle but only after negotiations with the relevant parties on both sides.

While Kwankwaso would do the same with his party leadership, Tinubu is anticipated to brief Kashim Shettima, the vice president-elect, the APC governors forum, and other party leaders.

TheCable discovered that Tinubu voiced concern over the tense relations between Kwankwaso and Abdullahi Ganduje, the departing governor of Kano state, and pledged to mediate a settlement.

Ganduje served as Kwankwaso’s deputy from 2011 to 2015 while he was governor of Kano, but the two soon fell out of favour.

With 8,797,726 votes, Tinubu defeated Atiku Abubakar of the PDP by a margin of two million to win the election.

Nevertheless, Kwankwaso garnered 1.5 million votes, which many observers say would have gone to Atiku if the former governor of Kano had not left the PDP.