Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso is a Nigerian politician who previously served as the Kano State governor and the minister of defence in the country’s past administration. He was born on October 21, 1956. He graduated from Kaduna Polytechnic with both his National and Higher National Diplomas. During his time in school, he was a prominent student leader and a chosen representative of the Kano State Students Association. He also pursued postgraduate studies at Middlesex Polytechnic in the UK from 1982 to 1983 and at the Loughborough University of Technology, where he graduated with a master’s in water engineering in 1985. In 2022, he also earnd a PhD in water engineering from Sharda University in India.
In 1992, he entered politics under the banner of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). He was a part of the SDP’s People’s Front fraction group, together with General Shehu Yar’adua and other well-known politicians, including Atiku Abubakar and Bola Tinubu. He served as Kano State’s governor twice, from 1999 to 2003 and again from 2011 to 2015. Following his defeat in the contest for reelection in 2003, Olusegun Obasanjo, the former president, appointed him as the first Minister of Defense of the Fourth Republic, despite having no prior experience in the military. He served in this capacity from 2003 until 2007. Later, in 2015, he was elected to the Senate, where he represented Kano Central Senatorial District for one term while running on the All Progressives Congress (APC) platform.
Kwankwaso aims to challenge political dominance in Nigeria.
As a charismatic socialist, he is held in high regard throughout Kano and the rest of north-western Nigeria, where he enjoys significant levels of support. In 2011, following his victory in the state’s gubernatorial reelection, he went on to become a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2014. In 2015, Kwankwaso sought to compete for the presidential primaries candidacy of the rival All Progressive Congress, but Muhammad Buhari eventually defeated him. In 2018, he made his way back to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), where he had previously been a member, and ran for the party’s presidential nomination, but he was also defeated by Atiku Abubakar.
Furthermore, After several defeats, Kwankwaso established the National Movement on February 22, 2022, to create a political movement that would compete with the All Progressives Congress and the People’s Democratic Party, which are the country’s two most prominent political parties. He co-founded the New Nigeria Peoples Party(NNPP) as the political arm of the revolution, and on March 30, 2022, he became one of the national leaders of the party. Additionally, he has been declared as the presidential aspirant of the Party (NNPP) for the national elections in 2023.
A plan to actualise a new Nigeria and improve the country is unveiled.
Speaking at the inauguration of the Presidential Campaign Council RPK PCC, which consists of 1,053 men in Abuja, he expressed optimism about the prospects for a new Nigeria in 2023. He spoke of a new Nigeria in which all citizens would have equal access to high-quality educational opportunities and advanced medical services. To secure the NNPP’s success in the February presidential election, he urged the party’s PCC members, volunteers, as well as followers in all 36 states and the FCT, to keep up the good work. He maintained the NNPP is Nigeria’s most prominent and fastest-growing political party and that its leadership team is made up of selfless, loyal, hard-working individuals who fear God and have compassion for their fellow citizens.
Moreover, he stated his intention to advance educational reform. If elected as president, his administration will work to change the education system so that students of all backgrounds have better access to high-quality education. More particularly, they intend to round up over 20 million children who are not in school and place them in one of the 500,000 classrooms that will be built throughout the states of the nation. All entrance, employment, and other entrance exams will be provided at no cost, including the NECO, NBIAS, NABTEB, WAEC, JAMB, and others. A moratorium will be placed on JAMB for four years so that students can continue to use their test scores to enter our universities. Improve and strengthen all colleges of education, polytechnics, and universities to global standards.
He promises to halt insecurity and instability impeding the nation.
In addition, he stated that he would end the problem of insecurity that has been afflicting the country recently. He further stated he would address the instability in some parts of Nigeria and said he would appreciate every Nigerian life as president. In Osun, when he was paying a courtesies visit to Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ooni of Ife, he made this announcement. He said that his administration would do everything it took to ensure that every child in the country had access to quality education and that his visit to the state was part of a larger effort to spread his learning transformation agenda across the nation. He also emphasized the need to increase school safety measures so that more students would feel safe to stay enrolled.
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