Rabiu Kwankwaso, former governor of Kano state, says the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has weakened it as an opposition.
The PDP chieftain said this on Friday in an interview with BBC Hausa.
Kwankwaso said the crisis is “heightened by those who are after leadership” of the party.
“Now the strength of the party has reduced and in the end what will happen is that it will tear us apart,” he said.
“You see the result will not help us since we do not have a president and we do not have many governors.
People like me have nothing to do with the crisis. I’m after what will bring development to people; every good leader should focus on that.
“The party chairman has only one month left. I think it’s better to wait so that we can emerge stronger.
But the crisis is heightened by those who are after leadership. They are not doing it for the betterment of their people.”
The opposition party has lost several key members to the All Progressives Congress (APC) as a result of its internal crisis.
Uche Secondus, the embattled national chairman of the PDP, has been under increased pressure to resign from office.
He was suspended after a high court in Rivers state granted an interim order restraining him from parading himself as the national chairman of the party.
Subsequently, the party’s national working committee (NWC) named Akinwonmi, the national deputy chairman (south), as the acting chairman.
Kwankwaso also spoke of his recent encounter with his successor, Abdullahi Ganduje, the current governor of Kano state, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.
The former governor said he had spent hours in the waiting room when he received information that Ganduje was also on his way to the airport.
“I said it’s okay, God has brought us all together. The place is like a park or station. Nobody can ask someone to come or not to. So he came and we greeted each other,” he said.
“We boarded the same plane and landed at the Kano Airport. I sat on the front seat, so I came out first. I greeted his people and made my way, while he too took his own way home.”