2023: Kwankwaso taunts Atiku, Tinubu, says he's more qualified to be president

The presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso, has taunted his main rivals Bola Tinubu of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), saying he is better qualified than the two to be Nigeria’s president.

He said he holds a doctorate, which the other candidates do not have.

He stated with his experience in government, he has more reasons to contest than the “others.”

Mr Kwankwaso, a former governor of Kano State, stated this during an interview with Alfijir Radio in Katsina on Tuesday.

The NNPP candidate said he was in Katsina State to sympathise with the family of Dahiru Mangal over his brother’s death, Bashir Mangal, the CEO of Max Airline.

Atiku, a retired Nigeria Customs Service officer, was vice president of the country from 1999 to 2007. He has two Diploma certificates and is also believed to hold a master’s degree in International Relations.

Mr Tinubu is a trained accountant and was Lagos State governor between 1999 and 2007. He had earlier been a senator in the Third Republic.

When asked by the interviewer to indicate who is a better candidate between Atiku and Mr Tinubu, Mr Kwankwaso, instead responded that he is better than the two.

He taunted Atiku for being vice president, saying the position is merely “a spare tyre.”

“…. I’m repeating myself that if anyone among the two (Tinubu and Atiku) and even those you didn’t mention, is better than me in educational qualifications…For instance, we’re talking of educational qualifications and you’re mentioning people that we don’t even know if they attended secondary school…

“And somebody has a Diploma. I’ve a PhD. I’m a civil engineer, a trained water engineer and I’ve spent 17 years on dams, working and connecting water to the populace in Kano State before I joined politics.

“Now, I’ve been in politics for thirty years and held various offices. If you ask them now, they’ll say “I was a governor, I was vice president. That one…..is vice president a serious position? A spare tyre what would you do without the required experience,” he said.

Mr Kwankwaso also mocked Mr Tinubu for not answering questions posed to him at Chatham House in London recently.

He said he is unlike “a presidential candidate who went and failed to present himself and let his boys do it.”

Mr Tinubu was recently in Chatham House where he answered four questions and allowed some of his campaign team members to answer the remaining four questions.

Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna State and former governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, were some of Mr Tinubu’s allies who answered questions on his behalf at the forum.

When told by the presenter that it could be Mr Tinubu’s style, Mr Kwankwaso said “No please, it’s not like that. If you’re sick, you’re sick, if you can do it you can do it, if you can’t do it then you can’t do it. People are doing this to sabotage efforts in this country…… You can’t do it..you can’t do it, haba….”

The NNPP flagbearer said he would soon be at Chatham House to speak and answer questions on his candidacy.

He said, “I’ll go to London..this Chatham House has also invited me. Where a candidate went to recently but he failed to say anything reasonable and instead asked his boys to speak on his behalf. If you want to be president but you can’t address the public then why did you join the race in the first place?”

Mr Kwankwaso, a former minister of defence, said he has been discussing with leaders of European countries how best to tackle insecurity using modern technology.

He said he had not only been invited to the White House, the French Government also reached out to him and he had discussed “a lot with their president.”