The proposed visit of a Nigerian senator, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso to Kano state next Saturday is aimed at spiting President Muhammadu Buhari, the senator’s kinsman, Musa Iliyasu Kwankwaso, has said.

Mr. Kwankwaso, a former governor who the brother claims has not visited Kano since May 2015, is set to visit Kano next Saturday.

The kinsman, who is Kano State’s Commissioner for Rural and Community Development, in a statement said the ex-governor deliberately shunned the recent official visit of President Buhari to Kano.

He said Mr. Kwankwaso shunned Mr. Buhari’s visit because he wants, “to test his popularity with Buhari in his Saturday visit.”

“Out of the three Kano senators, only Kwankwaso deliberately shunned Buhari’s visit. Senator Barau Jibrin of Kano North and his colleague of Kano South, Kabiru Gaya did not only attend the gathering, they played their roles in ensuring the successful hosting of the President,” he said.

He said the sole aim of Mr. Kwankwaso Saturday’s visit is to show the world that he is more popular than Mr. Buhari in Kano state, “even when the reverse is the case.”

“But we want to remind him (Kwankwaso) of how Buhari defeated him in the All Progressives Congress (APC) primary in Lagos, even Kano delegates who were his then voted for Buhari. Nothing has changed since then,” he said.

The commissioner said no matter the resources channeled towards the visit, “Kwankwaso’s outing can never match that of Buhari because come sun, come rain, Kano remains that of Buhari.”

He urged Mr. Kwankwaso to forget his presidential ambition and “appeal to the Kano state governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje in order to retain his senatorial seat come 2019.”

“Vibrant people are eyeing Kano central senatorial seat because of Kwankwaso’s abysmal performance at the Upper Chamber. How many times has he spoken on the floor of the Senate ? How many bills has he sponsored since 2015 when the Senate was inaugurated ? And how many projects has he attracted to Kano from federal level? The answer is zero.”

However, countering the allegations against her boss, the spokeswoman of the senator, Binta Spikin, said the former governor was simply coming to Kano strictly as his constitutional right to visit his State.

“Why must everything be about Kwankwaso being against Buhari. Are they saying the Senator is a political threat to Buhari’s second coming. They should know that Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso is coming home, moreso there is an election into the local governments and he has every right to ensure that those contesting adhere to his Kwankwasiyya political ideologies,” she said.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This post has been updated to reflect the information we received that the Kano Commissioner is not former Governor Kwankwaso’s brother, but his kinsman.