When the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) taunted “we move” in reaction to rife reports that two ranking members of its Kwankwasiyya flank are about being pouched by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the logical question to ask is moving to where? Unless the movement is towards reconciling with the political titans in Kano politics to avert what would vicariously hurt the electoral fortunes of the NDC standard bearer, Peter Obi.

NDC seems not to be headed in that direction considering the tone of yesterday’s tweet by the party’s Director of New Media and Strategic Communications, Theo Abu Agada, which hits as throwing the hands in surrender without even putting up a fight. Coming a day after the Deputy Senate President, Jibrin Barau accompanied Senators Rufai Hanga and Kabiru Gaya to the Aso Villa for a meeting with President Bola Tinubu, Agada posted on X, “This is extremely painful but we move.”

The National Chairman of the APC, Prof Nentawe Yilwatda, had met with the senator and the former lawmaker in their homes. Barau described the meeting they had with President Tinubu at the Villa as “fruitful.”

At some point with the APC and the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP), the party leader, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso used the NDC primaries to dislodge Gaya and Hanga for other loyalists. This is despite that Gaya maintains ties across Kano Central’s 15 local government areas, encompassing Kano Municipal, Tarauni, Dala, Nassarawa, and Fagge.

The friction between Hanga and Kwankwaso became public recently when, in a radio interview in Kano, he accused Kwankwaso of betrayal for allegedly denying him a return ticket to the Senate or to serve as the NDC deputy governorship candidate.

Hanga said the party leader cited his age and a leg condition to justify bypassing him, but he dismissed this, insisting that he is healthier than Kwankwaso. “How can Kwankwaso cite my age and health condition to deny me the chance? As of today, I am healthier than Kwankwaso. His frequent references to my leg condition are nothing but a sham… Regarding age, he is two years older than I am,” Hanga had said.

The NDC vice presidential candidate has explained that he refrained from replying his longtime ally because he (Hanga) was in a mood, so he was waiting for him to blow off steam before engaging with him. Similarly, Gaya, an ex-governor of Kano and a four‑term former senator, sought the NDC’s Kano South Senatorial ticket but was unsuccessful after the party settled for a consensus candidate backed by Kwankwaso’s political camp ahead of the 2027 general election. 

Receiving the disgruntled NDC chieftains at the State House on Sunday ahead of elaborate welcome-back ceremonies in the works, Tinubu was upbeat that their return would bolster APC’s position, describing their defection as a significant boost to unity, cohesion and political progress in Kano State and across the country.

It would seem that the Kwankwasiyya political camp aren’t applying the wisdom in the adage, “once beaten, twice shy”. After losing a personage as consequential as the incumbent Kano governor, Abba Yusuf, the least expected of it was to ensure it doesn’t keep bleeding political top-guns, especially as it knows that the APC is waiting in the wings to lure them over. If these politicians aren’t good enough for the tickets and positions they had sought in the party, some efforts should have been made to appease them in some ways after the primaries. 

For them to have stayed around until now is enough window for the NDC leadership to have moved in quickly. Even if Hanga and Gaya are expired politicians who can’t win their polling units as some claim, their ambitions should have still been massaged since politics is a game of addition, not subtraction. 

To be taken seriously by Nigerians and to stand a chance at the polls, opposition parties must stop exposing their members as lame ducks to be swooped on by the hawk. Should their defections materialise, NDC’s grassroots structures in Kano State would be depleted, as both men control extensive ward‑level machinery that cannot be ignored. Hanga, once a close ally of Kwankwaso, commands loyalty in Kano Central. His departure would deprive the movement of a strategist capable of mobilising the metropolitan axis.

On the other hand is former governor Gaya with an influence in Kano South that stretches across traditional institutions, business elites, and rural communities. His return to APC would mean that NDC loses one of its most paramount figures in the region, leaving the Kwankwasiyya movement exposed in an area where it historically asserted dominance.

The question begging for answers remains, given that virtually all the heavyweights politicians in Kano including ex-governor Ibrahim Shekarau have coalesced into the APC against Kwankwaso, how would the NDC “move” into the North for votes in the 2027 election? This is even as it has been said repeatedly that the influence of the party’s vice-presidential candidate doesn’t go beyond Kano State. How come the NDC is not protecting its flanks and giving up bigwigs so easily?

Well, some may say it’s good riddance rather than having disgruntled elements around implementing their anti-party schemes. What do you think?