By Abdulmalik Suleiman
Nigerians have always wished for a third force that would challenge the dominant All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and they eventually got one early in the year.
Their dream came through late March when the immediate past Governor of Kano State, Engineer Musa Rabiu Kwankwaso teamed up with patriotic Nigerians of like minds to resuscitate the moribund, New Nigeria Peoples Party.
The efforts of these patriots were initially dismissed as a non-event by cynics who viewed it as an exercise in futility considering the fact that the two behemoths, I mean the PDP and the APC are too well entrenched for any new platform to challenge for power.
Events of the last few weeks have however come to prove the cynics wrong judging by the numerous political strides that the new reinvigorated NNPP is making in the Northern part of the country as well as the steady inroad it is making to some states of Southern Nigeria.
As at the last count, eminent politicians in the North that have found solace in the NNPP in recent times include, another former Kano State Governor, Senator Ibrahim Shekarau who joined the party alongside his teeming supporters. He left the ruling APC alongside some members of the Federal House of Representatives.
The gale of defections is also being felt at the grassroots as prominent other gladiators are dumping the ruling party in droves for the NNPP in a manner that has never been witnessed before with experts predicting that the APC would have become a mere carcass by the end of August as more and more supporters are leaving it in droves.
Apart from Kano, the NNPP has also secured major inroads into other parts of the North with scores of political heavyweights in states such as Jigawa, Katsina, Bauchi, Nasarawa, Plateau, Adamawa Gombe, Taraba, Kaduna, Kogi, Zamfara, Niger, Kwara, Borno, Oyo Yobe etc as well as Katsina where the incumbent deputy governor is expected to join the party.
Sources have even maintained that no fewer than 32 elected senators of the PDP and APC have also expressed their desire to join the NNPP but are only waiting for the outcome of their National Conventions before making the move.
Known for his grassroots appeal and political sagacity, Kwankwaso has put in a lot of zest and life into the NNPP to become a platform that is now attracting the high and mighty in the North.
The situation will no doubt rob the APC of its commanding presence in its traditional catchment area, the North as well as challenge the PDP in its traditional strongholds of the South.
No doubt, the next few months would offer an interesting scenario for political watchers to observe and make commentaries.