Who is Senator Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso

Sen. Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso is a Kano-born Nigerian politician and 2-term governor of Kano state, he has also been appointed as a Minister and later as an Ambassador. He has also served as a Senator. He is currently the national leader of the New Nigeria Peoples Party. Kwankwaso enjoys widespread support in Kano and North-western Nigeria; he has been viewed as a charismatic populist. He’s the arrowhead of the Kwankwassiya movement in Northern Nigeria. Sen. Kwankwaso has been confirmed as the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) for the 2023 general elections.

In the run-up to Nigeria’s 2022 Presidential elections. A wealthy businessman with a reputation for being thrifty, Mr. Peter Obi had defected from the main opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the platform of the Labour Party (LP) following a litany of accusations against his former party, the PDP. On the insistence of the party to engage heavily in money politics in its primary election on who clinches the Presidential ticket to represent the party during the 2022 Presidential Elections.

Who is Mr. Peter Obi

Mr. Peter Obi is an Anambra-born Nigerian politician and 2-term governor of Anambra state. He’s a wealthy businessman who has also worked on several economic teams of the Federal government.
Mr. Peter Obi before now had been encouraged by his supporters, the ‘Obidients’ – who are mostly young and active tech-savvy internet users to decamp from the opposition PDP to a smaller party, and he would still have their support.

After Mr. Obi’s defection to the Labour Party, LP his supporters urged their principal to seek out Sen. Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP to join forces with him and urge him to become his running mate in the 2023 Presidential elections due to Sen. Kwankwaso’s huge following in the North Western part of the country. But Sen. Rabiu Kwankwaso’s NNPP refused to pair up with Mr. Obi’s LP citing political experience and dexterity as reasons why the former Senator cannot be a running mate to Mr. Obi.

Now, here’s where the Contrast between Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and Sen. Joe Biden comes in.

Sen. Joe Biden is the current and 46th President of the United States (2021- ) and 47th Vice President of the United States (2009–17) in the Democratic administration of President Barack Obama, the first US President of African American heritage. He previously represented Delaware in the U.S. Senate, becoming Delaware’s longest-serving senator (1973–2009) a whooping 36 years long service.
Sen. Joe Biden was already 18 years old (1961) when Sen. Barack Obama was born. By age 29 (1972), he was already an attorney and an elected Senator to the US Senate, becoming the fifth youngest senator in history. While Sen. Barack Obama was just 11 years old then, probably in JSS1 at that time.

Sen. Joe Biden was a veteran Senator and political stalwart in US politics, as he won re-election into the US Senate more than 6 times from 1972 – 2009 (when he was sworn in as a Vice President to the Barack Obama Administration). Sen. Obama was elected into the Illinois senate in 1996, whereas Sen. Biden was on his 7th re-election to the US Senate then. When Sen. Obama was elected into the US senate in 2004. While Sen. Biden was already on a 9th re-election ticket to the US Senate.
Sen. Biden made his first attempt to clinch the Democratic Party Presidential nomination in 1988, but withdrew after it was revealed that parts of his campaign stump speech had been plagiarized from British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock without appropriate attribution. Whereas Sen. Obama was a Law Student from Harvard University’s Law school, where he later became the first African American to serve as president of the Harvard Law Review.

Sen. Obama gained national recognition and visibility in 2004 after delivering the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July of that year, while campaigning for the Senate. The speech wove a personal narrative of Obama’s biography with the theme that all Americans are connected in ways that transcend political, cultural, and geographical differences. The address lifted Obama’s once-obscure memoir onto best-seller lists, and, after taking office the following year, Obama quickly became a major figure in his party. A trip to visit his father’s home in Kenya in August 2006 gained international media attention, and Obama’s star continued ascending. His second book, The Audacity of Hope (2006), a mainstream polemic on his vision for the United States, was published weeks later, instantly becoming a major best seller. In February 2007 Sen. Obama announced at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, where Abraham Lincoln had served as a state legislator, that he would seek the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 2008. Whereas Sen. Biden’s 2008 Presidential campaign never gained momentum, and he withdrew from the race after placing fifth in the Iowa Democratic caucus in January of that year.
After Sen. Barack Obama amassed enough delegates to secure the Democratic presidential nomination, Biden emerged as a front-runner to be Obama’s vice presidential running mate.

This is Where Sen Kwankwaso Missed it

Now, as a veteran Senator and a political stalwart with more political experience than Sen. Obama and even older than Sen. Obama with 18 years, Sen. Biden would have out rightly rejected his nomination to become a Vice and running mate to Sen. Obama, but he didn’t do such he humbled himself and went ahead to work with and for Sen. Obama. This is where Sen. Kwankwaso missed to take an example from, as his support for Mr. Obi would have been his surest bet to the Presidency after Mr. Obi’s tenure had ended.

On August 23 2000, Sen. Obama officially announced his selection of Biden as the Democratic Party’s vice presidential nominee, and on August 27 2008, Sen. Obama and Sen. Biden secured the Democratic Party’s nomination. On November 4 2008, the Obama-Biden ticket defeated John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, and Sen. Biden also easily won reelection to his U.S. Senate seat. Biden resigned from the Senate post shortly before taking the oath of office as vice president on January 20, 2009. In November 2012, Obama and Biden were re-elected for a second term, defeating the Republican ticket of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.
As Vice President, Sen. Biden played an active role in the administration, serving as an influential adviser to Sen. Obama and a vocal supporter of his initiatives. In addition, he was tasked with notable assignments. He helped avert several budget crises and played a key role in shaping U.S. policy in Iraq. In 2015 his eldest son, Beau died from brain cancer; Sen. Biden recounted the experience in Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose (2017). Several months later, Sen. Biden—who enjoyed high favourability ratings, partly due to a candour and affable manner that resonated with the public—announced that he would not enter the 2016 presidential election, noting that the family was still grieving. Instead, he campaigned for Hillary Clinton, who ultimately lost the election to Donald Trump.

Sen. Biden’s close relationship with Sen. Obama was evident when the latter surprised him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, with distinction, on January 12, 2017, just days before they left office. When Sen. Obama presented the rarely given honour, he referred to Biden as “my brother.” Later that year Sen. Biden and his wife established the Biden Foundation, a charitable group involved in various causes.

Sen. Biden remained involved in politics and was a vocal critic of Pres. Donald Trump. Amid growing speculation that he would run for president in 2020, Sen. Biden announced his candidacy in April 2019, joining a crowded Democratic field from which Sen. Biden immediately became a front-runner, and eventually won the election with Kamala Harris as his running mate. Two weeks later, amid a massive security presence, Sen. Biden was sworn in as president.

From the foregoing, you can see that Sen. Biden was a more experienced politician than Sen. Obama, but he was humble enough to accept to become his Vice-Presidential running mate in the 2008 US Presidential elections. And after they have been elected into office, he worked very hard for the success of their administration which also gave him more national admiration.

Now, I believe Sen. Kwankwaso was supposed to learn from history and follow in the footsteps of Sen. Biden and join forces with Mr. Obi to clinch the Presidency. After Mr. Obi’s tenure, he can then vie for the Office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. But, I think Northern arrogance got the better part of Sen. Kwankwaso as the only reason his committee from the NNPP gave to Mr. Obi’s committee in the LP is that of political experience.

Well, it turns out that Sen. Kwankwaso’s refusal to merge forces with Mr. Obi was actually good for the ‘Obidient Movement’, (this term is used to describe Mr. Obi’s supporters), as Mr. Obi finally picked Sen. Datti as his running mate and the love, the South-East politician has been getting from Northern commoners has been beyond the expectations of the current political Nigerian establishment as it has disrupted the set perceptions of the old generation establishment politicians that common Northerners won’t accept to vote for a politician of South-East extraction.
Hopefully, Mr. Obi and Sen. Datti win the 2023 Presidential election, and Sen. Kwankwaso gets to count his loss due to his unbridled arrogance and lack of foresight.

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