Rabiu Kwankwaso, a former presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), was recently welcomed by Abia State Governor Alex Otti to his Nvosi country residence in Isiala Ngwa South Local Government Area (LGA).
Speaker of the House of Assembly Emmanuel Emeruwa, a number of the governor’s advisers, and representatives of the powerful Kwankwasiyya Movement were among those present during the weekend visit.

Although Kwankwaso claimed that his main goal in visiting was to express his sympathies to Governor Otti on the recent death of Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, the first governor of the former Abia State, rumors soon circulated that Kwankwaso and Otti, the only Labour Party (LP) governor in Nigeria at the moment, might form a political alliance.

On Friday, Dr. Onu was buried in Uburu, his hometown in Ebonyi State’s Ohaozara LGA.

Kwankwaso’s visit also fell on a day when Governor Otti threw a special reception for 15 Abia State natives who had just finished their training at the Nigeria Police Academy in Kano.

The allegations of a planned political partnership were further fueled by this noteworthy convergence of events.

Following Kwankwaso’s visit, political experts speculated that the meeting might have been spurred by attempts within the Labour Party section led by Peter Obi to form coalitions with other opposition parties in anticipation of the general elections in 2027.

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Remember that 2027 is not far off. Without discussing the upcoming presidential race, do you think the two men would still meet as they do now? “It’s not feasible,” one of them informed The Nation.

According to another, Kwankwaso and Otti were “well aware that a strong alliance is the only way to remove President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the All Progress Congress (APC) from power.”

They are aware that this is the ideal moment to begin discussing strategies for defeating those at Aso Rock. And I think that’s the main purpose for the visit.