From January 23rd, 2026, when Governor Abba Kabiru Yusuf of Kano State finally decided to quit the NNPP, severing the over four decades of political relationship and friendship with his benefactor, Engr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, the political landscape in Kano has been in turmoil.
While the NNPP leader, Kwankwaso, described the day as “Betrayal Day” and a day that “should be permanently recorded in history to ensure global awareness of betrayal and the breaking of trust”, the embattled Governor felt it was a move for survival in the usually peculiar and murky waters of Kano politics.
What hitherto started as a rumour became a glaring fact when the governor left the Party, the platform and the age-long political affiliations that brought him to power. And the Kwankwassiya Movement finds this very disconcerting. It was a heavy blow and an implosion within the political family in the most unkindest form.
But that is Kano Politics for you: considering the almost sure destination of Governor Yusuf, which is the ruling APC, one can only imagine the intrigues and awe of a Governor Yusuf working in the same political bloc with the former governor, Alhaji Ganduje with whom he has played the avowed critic and tormentor-in-chief.
Just as the popular Columnist and political analyst, Mahmud Jega describes, Governor Yusuf seems to have taken a “gamble” if he finally joins the APC. Just recently, some APC Chieftains have started agitating against an automatic ticket to an “outsider” instead of those who have been sponsoring and keeping the party structure over time. So, his possible entrance into the APC may likely breed more disaffection within the Party hierarchy than peace which they badly need at this point in time.
It is common knowledge that the present Deputy Senate President, Senator Jibrin Barau, is eyeing the gubernatorial position of the APC, not to mention the immediate past APC governorship candidate, Alhaji Gawuna, with whom Governor Yusuf contested keenly until he got victory from the courts in the last election.
It is against this backdrop that one begins to imagine the fireworks, debauchery, intrigues and political demagoguery that Abba Yusuf, the one known as “Gidan-Gidan” may meet in the days to come. This is what makes Kano Politics peculiar to Kano, nonetheless.
Meanwhile, despite the mass movement of the governor’s loyalists, which cut across the House of Assembly members and LGA chairmen, the Kwankwassiya Movement is said to be regrouping, boasting of its organic followership at the grassroots.
In the last 2023 governorship election in Kano State, the NNPP’s Abba Yusuf powered by the Kwankwassiya Movement, polled 1,019,602 votes, representing 51.55 per cent of the total votes cast and clinched the victory, against the rival Nasir Gawuna of the APC who polled 890,705 votes, representing 45.03 per cent.
This may be big but a small margin to overturn by an opposition given the quantum of humongous resources and deplorable power associated with political incumbency in our clime. But that’s only if the governor gets the ticket, though.
Nevertheless, the loss of key Kwankwassiya mobilizers like Kawu Ismaila and Abdulmumin Jibrin Kofa has dealt a big blow to the Movement. This becomes a tough litmus test for Rabiu Kwankwaso and his red-cap adherents as they navigate what seems to be the greatest existential threat to the group since its inception.
