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By Chidiebere Onyemaizu
Cross River State Governor, Senator Bassey Edet Otu, has neither publicly nor privately given a hint about a 2027 presidential or vice presidential ambition. Instead, what is common knowledge in the state is that, having been adjudged by the generality of Cross Riverians to have performed creditably in the last two and half years of his governorship and, having been endorsed for a second term by a broad spectrum of political stakeholders in the state, including the Cross River caucus of his party, the All Progressive Congress (APC), Governor Otu, who was in the Seventh Senate, will be seeking re-election in 2027 and has indeed been quietly working towards realising the goal.
However, that notwithstanding, Calabar, the state capital, is buzzing with his alleged liaison with former Kano State Governor and the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in the 2023 election, Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso.
Following the former governor’s rare visit to the state on August 9, 2025, Kwankwaso/Otu 2027 permutations became rife in Calabar. Ironically, Otu was out of the country when Kwankwaso visited. He was received on behalf of the governor by the deputy governor, Peter Odey.
Despite dismissal of the insinuations trailing the visit by Linus Obogo by, the governor’s Chief Press Secretary and Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, critics are swearing with their lives that the Kwankwaso/Otu 2027 presidential ticket on the platform of the NNPP is in the offing.
Obogo had, in a press statement, described Kwankwaso’s visit as “an investment reconnaissance,” contrary to political undertones being ascribed to it by some Cross Riverians.
However, the allegation that the Kano politician was in Calabar to persuade the Governor to cross over to the NNPP and get set to be on the party’s presidential ticket with him for 2027 remains deep-seated.
For example, Obeten Okoi of “Central Voice”, insists that Otu and Kwankwaso may be plotting 2027 joint presidential ticket. In a social media post shared by Kenneth Etim Henshaw, PhD, Obeten argued that Kwankwaso is not a known investor and wondered why his visit was described as investment reconnaissance.
Obeten: “When exactly did Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso transform into an investor making state-by-state business reconnaissance trips?” He challenged the Cross River State Government to “provide the record of a single state in Nigeria where Kwankwaso has committed tangible investment, built industries, or created jobs outside the realm of politics?
This talk of an ‘investment reconnaissance’ in Cross River State is nothing but a smokescreen, carefully designed to distract the people from the real issue at hand…Let us not play on the intelligence of Cross Riverians,” he said.
Continuing, Obeten stressed: “The truth well known even on the streets is that Kwankwaso’s presence in Calabar has less to do with agriculture or enterprise, and more to do with the next chess moves on Nigeria’s political board.
“It is not hidden talk anymore: Kwankwaso is scouting for political alliances ahead of 2027. And at the centre of those whispers is a possible handshake across political divides, an APC Governor from the South, perhaps even Governor Bassey Otu himself, being courted as a likely running mate.
“We have seen this script before where politicians fly in under the cloak of one mission while their true agenda lurks beneath the surface.”
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Two loyalists of Governor Otu who spoke to Daily Sun on the condition of anonymity have however, pooh poohed the alleged correlation between Kwankwaso’s visit and a 2027 presidential ambition. One of them, a former House of Representatives aspirant said it is absurd for anyone to insinuate that Governor Otu will prefer an utopian vice presidential ticket to a sure re-election as governor. His words: “It is absurd and laughable for anyone to think that our Governor will leave the known for the unknown, certainty for uncertainty. It is true that high-impact risks sometimes birth high- impact successes but in this case, do you sincerely believe that Governor Otu will be so politically naive to commit political harakiri by trading re- election or second term which is within his grip for an utopian Vice presidency?
“Senator Kwankwaso is a high calibre politician and like every other Nigerian, has the guarantee of the constitution for freedom of movement and association, so he has the right to travel to any part of the country, Calabar inclusive but to suggest that his visit was to plot a 2027 joint presidential ticket with Governor Otu is a joke taken too far.”
Another loyalist of the governor and a chieftain of the APC in the state was more blunt. He said “ If Kwankwaso contests the 2027 presidential election, he will only win Kano just as he did in 2023, so it is ridiculous to think that Otu will agree to pair with him as VP candidate. Does Governor Otu look like someone chasing a nebulous title of ‘ex vice presidential candidate?”
Notedly, not a few Southerner see Kwankwaso as lacking broad national outlook politically. Many say he has not made conscious efforts to project national leadership traits as his politics is largely what they describe as “Kano-centric”. Though he picked a South-South Pentecostal Bishop to run with him in the 2023 presidential election on the platform of little known NNPP, Kwankwaso only campaigned in select northern states and put up feeble campaign shows in one or two Southern states.
Political analysts believe his participation in the 2023 Presidential election was not really to win and become President but to demonstrate to his political opponents in the North, particularly Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, former APC National Chairman and his estranged godson who deputised him as Governor and who also held sway as Kano Governor until May 29, 2023, that he was still a political force to reckon with. And Kwankwaso did prove that as the NNPP ousted the APC, sweeping Kano polls and producing the Governor and virtually all National and State Assembly members.
Kwankwaso’s ally and member representing Kiru/Bebeji Federal Constituency of Kano State in the House of Representatives, Abdulmumin Jibrin recently hinted the possibility of the former governor’s return to the APC and multiple sources within his faction of the NNPP also confided in Daily Sun that if indeed Kwankwaso will return to the APC, it will be to play a prominent role in the party- possibly to challenge President Bola Tinubu for the APC presidential ticket-and not as a mere bystander as he will be returning with the entire NNPP structure.
Given the foregoing, some observers believe that Kwankwaso may have gone to Calabar to seek Governor Otu’s support for his next political move within the APC. A social affairs commentator, Wilfred Ita shares this view: “Even if Kwankwaso was visiting the state with a political undertone, why can’t people see it that he is visiting a leader of the ruling party in southern Nigeria to consolidate on his possible defection to APC? Fifth columnist must always fabricate something.”
Meanwhile, Obogo has decried what he described as needless hysteria, idle conjectures, and mischievous insinuations trailing the visit. According to him, Governor Otu remained focused and would not be distracted by naysayers in his determination to give quality governance and new lease of life to the people of the state.
According to him, “it has become necessary to address, in the strongest and clearest of terms, the needless hysteria, the idle conjectures, and the mischievous insinuations trailing the recent visit of former Kano State Governor, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, to Cross River State. That visit, made on August 9, 2025, was no more than an investment reconnaissance by a prominent Nigerian who, like many others before him, has seen in our rich agrarian soil and vast natural endowments, a fertile ground for enterprise and growth.
“To attempt, therefore, to clothe such a straightforward mission with the robes of political conspiracy is not only irresponsible but also an insult to the intelligence of discerning Cross Riverians. The notion that Governor Bassey Edet Otu, a man whose political convictions are as clear as daylight and whose fidelity to his mandate is beyond reproach, is ‘romancing’ the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) on account of this harmless visit, is as laughable as it is idiotic. It is the product of idle, demented minds and mischievous tongues, no less than flies buzzing around the banquet of progress, desperate to contaminate what they cannot create.”
Governor Otu, he said “is, at this moment, in Algiers where he is leading Cross River State to global platforms, engaging the 5th Afreximbank Sub-Sovereign Business Forum to attract meaningful investment into our state. In his absence, the Deputy Governor, Rt. Hon. Peter Odey, did the most honourable and courteous thing—receiving Senator Kwankwaso, as has been done with other distinguished Nigerians, who have similarly visited the state. These courtesies are not about political parties, they are about respect, hospitality, and the pursuit of development.
“It must therefore be said without equivocation that Cross River State under Governor Otu remains open to all investors, irrespective of political colouration or geographic origin. To read partisanship into such an open-handed visitation is to demean the state’s dignity and to betray a warped understanding of governance. Mischief-makers who peddle these insinuations are no more than merchants of confusion, merely stirring muddy waters in the hope of feigning depth.
“We deprecate in the strongest terms this brazen mischief, this attempt to sow seeds of discord, to distract from the noble vision of the ‘People First’ administration, and to cast shadows where only light shines. The public is urged to dismiss such insinuations with the contempt they deserve. Governor Otu’s focus is firm: to build a prosperous Cross River State, not to indulge in the empty chatter of political jesters.”
