Rabiu Kwankwaso, the foremost Kano politician, has said his NNPP and Labour Party are in talks to form an alliance ahead of the 2023 presidential elections.

Mr Kwankwasao, in an interview with the BBC that ran on Saturday, said the merger talks are particularly important because the ruling APC and main opposition PDP did not field a vice-presidential candidate from Mr Obi’s South-East.

The former governor of Kano State said their collaboration was especially important as the APC and PDP had not fielded an Igbo vice-presidential candidate, the BBC reported.

“We are really talking to Peter Obi, or at least saying that the committee is working to look into the matter (and cooperate with him), and friends and family are coming to talk to us about it,” the former Kano governor added.

Mr Kwankwaso did not clarify the status of the ongoing talks, and expressed little optimism that they will work out ahead of the final nomination deadline in a few weeks.

Mr Obi named Doyin Okupe his running mate on Friday evening, which opened the ticket to criticisms of fielding Christian-Christian, southern-southern politicians.

But Mr Okupe later retracted the intention of his nomination, saying it was only done as a stopgap measure to beat electoral office INEC’s deadline of June 17. He said ongoing talks with NNPP and other political groups could still alter the ticket’s makeup.