Former Governor of Kano State, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso Kano has dismissed rumours that he is secretly working for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Laughing off insinuations that President Tinubu has engaged him as his ‘secret weapon’ to disorganise the opposition parties, Kwankwaso said: “Only foolish people believe that.
The former presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) in the 2023 general elections, said to set the record straight, his political efforts are focused on the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) rather than backing the current administration that has inflicted so much suffering and untold hardship on Nigerians.
Senator Kwankwaso, who clarified his position Wednesday night in an interview on Global TV, noted that the rumour had been circulating since his time in the NNPP and is nothing new but just mere propaganda by political opponents currently disturbed by the rising profile of NDC.
His remarks are coming against the backdrop of claims by Sanusi Bature, spokesperson to Governor Abba Yusuf, that the former NNPP National Leader is secretly working for secretly working for Tinubu to retain the presidency come 2027 polls.
According to Kwankwaso: “I think only foolish people would believe that. We are not working for anybody. We are only working for NDC.
“Bola Tinubu has been my senior brother and good friend up till now. But that doesn’t mean we shall pull all our political ideologies together with him. He is doing his own and I am doing my own.”
Kwankwaso also said President Tinubu is not aware of the issues plaguing the country because those around him are not telling him the truth.
He stated, “Normally under the current circumstances, the president may not see what is happening. And unfortunately, most of the people around him are actually the ones creating the problems.
“So, in those circumstances, it is difficult to see who will advise him or tell him the obvious situation. What they normally tell and what they are doing is to pick governors. I think going by the number of governors now, APC is number one.”
Kwankwaso, while defending his decision to support Peter Obi, said the former Anambra State governor and 2023 Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate is the best candidate from the south for now.
Furthermore, the former Minister of Defence said: “When we joined the NDC, we invited all our leaders from the six geo-political zones and we sat down and looked at the situations. We then decided to come together and work as a family.
“The party, in its own wisdom, decided to zone the presidential ticket to the south. We looked around across the zones and we realised that Peter Obi is the best candidate. That was our assessment at that particular time.”
Meanwhile, available reports in the media had quoted Sanusi Bature, spokesperson to Governor of Kano State Abba Yusuf, as alleging that Senator Kwankwaso is secretly advancing the interest of Tinubu ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
Bature, who spoke in an Arise News interview on Wednesday, said: “There are those who are working with President Tinubu openly, directly in the public space, and there are those who can work for Tinubu behind the scenes.
“I believe whatever Kwankwaso is doing will favour Tinubu at the end of the day because Kwankwaso worked for Tinubu in 2023.
“I’m a member of the APC; I have been the opposition spokesperson in Kano, and I know what happened in 2023. I believe Kwankwaso is working for Tinubu in 2027 behind the scenes.”
It has been in the public domain that Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf’s defection from NNPP to the ruling APC severely fractured his decades-long political relationship with former godfather Rabiu Kwankwaso.
Clearly, the political split has resulted in intense public fallout, with Senator Kwankwaso expressing deep shock and feelings of betrayal over the move.
Trust political commentators, many of them have not failed to point out that the story of Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and his former loyal protégé, Governor Yusuf reads like a classic script of a high-stakes political thriller.
For over four decades, the bond between both men was almost unbreakable. Affectionately known in political circles as “Abba PA” for his long service as Kwankwaso’s personal assistant, Yusuf rode to power in Kano State on the crest of the formidable Kwankwasiyya Movement and its signature red-cap ideology.
However, as is the case in Nigerian politics, the student always eventually seeks the throne and the turning point arrived when Governor Yusuf, maneuvering for better federal leverage and political survival, decided to sever ties with the embattled NNPP and cross over to the APC.
For Kwankwaso, who had sacrificed immensely to build his godson’s gubernatorial mandate, this was the ultimate betrayal and the veteran leader found himself expressing public bewilderment, likening the loss of his political structure to the opposition as a living nightmare.
For a long time, the governor absorbed the punches in silence, choosing not to bite the hand that once fed him. However, the simmering tension recently boiled over. When Kwankwaso continually dismissed the 63-year-old governor as a “small boy” in politics, and Yusuf, no longer able to contain the barrage of attacks, finally fired back.
In a dramatic power shift that fiercely showed a defiant stand, the governor warned his former mentor “enough is enough,” asserting his independence as the undisputed leader of Kano State.
