<\/p>\n
Former Kano State Governor and Senator, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has directed associates serving in Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf\u2019s administration who are reportedly facing pressure over the governor\u2019s planned defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC) to align with the move, in what he described as a step to ease mounting tension in the state.<\/p>\n
Kwankwaso made the remark in a short video message shared on Facebook on Tuesday by his media aide, Saifullahi Hassan, amid reports of growing political strain between the former governor and his long-time prot\u00e9g\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Governor Yusuf\u2019s alleged plan to join the APC has reportedly widened cracks within the ruling structure in Kano, with Kwankwaso resisting calls to migrate alongside him.<\/p>\n
In the video dated January 13, 2026, Kwankwaso said he returned to Kano and was greeted with troubling reports that council chairmen, councillors, secretaries, and other officeholders were being compelled to submit written declarations on where their loyalty lies.<\/p>\n
He described the alleged development as unfair and capable of sparking deeper political division.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, 13th January 2026, I arrived in our blessed state of Kano\u2026 especially the policy forcing council chairmen, councillors, secretaries, and other office holders to write down who they are siding with, Kwankwasiyya or Gandujiyya. This is quite unfortunate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Attempts to obtain official reaction from the Kano State Government were unsuccessful as the Commissioner for Information, Ibrahim Waiya, did not respond to calls, while the governor\u2019s spokesperson, Sanusi Bature, was also unreachable as of the time of reporting.<\/p>\n
Kwankwaso, the leader of the Kwankwasiyya Movement, recalled the group\u2019s years of political rebuilding before its return to power in 2023, crediting grassroots mobilisation for the victory that brought Yusuf\u2019s administration to office.<\/p>\n
He said the mission of the movement was to deliver better governance, with emphasis on education, job creation, infrastructure and welfare.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe exercised patience and waited for 2023, when people came out with even stronger determination and voted for the present administration\u2026 with the hope of getting a better life,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n
Describing Kano\u2019s political contest in stark terms, Kwankwaso framed the current alignments as a struggle between two opposing paths, insisting the movement\u2019s guiding principles must not be compromised.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur movement is such that if you are in it, you will follow its blueprint. But if you deviate, you will have to defect from it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He also recounted the selection process that produced local government chairmen and councillors during the 2023 elections, noting that a committee he chaired handled the exercise with the involvement of key party and government figures.<\/p>\n
According to him, anxiety has intensified among elected officials and appointees since discussions of defection to the APC gained momentum.<\/p>\n
Kwankwaso claimed several officials had reached out to him, complaining of intimidation and emotional distress, as political pressure allegedly mounted on them to take a side.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany LG chairmen called me\u2026 likewise some councillors\u2026 many state assembly members intimated me about the situation\u2026 some of them having sleepless nights,\u201d he said, adding that some were reportedly in poor health as a result of the tension.<\/p>\n
In response, Kwankwaso said he had consulted stakeholders and decided to allow those feeling threatened \u2014 including council chairmen, councillors, and other political officeholders \u2014 to temporarily declare loyalty to the governor in order to stay safe and avoid escalation.<\/p>\n
He described the move as a practical step to calm the atmosphere while the broader political battle ahead of 2027 remains undefined.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that all the main politicking for 2027 has not even started yet. Our supporters should be on standby\u2026 I believe this will help douse tension in the state,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n
Kwankwaso also used the opportunity to praise his political allies for remaining committed, despite what he described as repeated attempts to lure them away over the last three years with promises that were never honoured.<\/p>\n
He further thanked Governor Yusuf for recently acknowledging the achievements of his administration and criticising past governance failures in the state.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a Kano-based political analyst, Dr Kabiru Sufi, described Kwankwaso\u2019s directive as a calculated long-term move aimed at preserving the strength of the Kwankwasiyya base while allowing flexibility for loyalists navigating immediate political pressure.<\/p>\n
Sufi argued that even if more officials move with Yusuf to the APC, the public may interpret it as temporary positioning rather than a collapse of Kwankwaso\u2019s support structure.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a strategic move to create flexibility within the movement\u2026 Kwankwaso has essentially allowed his supporters the liberty to navigate pressure while still keeping the option to follow his leadership in the future,\u201d the analyst said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Kano State Governor and Senator, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has directed associates serving in Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf\u2019s administration who are reportedly facing pressure over the governor\u2019s planned defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC) to align with the move, in what he described as a step to ease mounting tension in the state. Kwankwaso […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":239332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[287,1053],"class_list":["post-239331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-apc","tag-kwankwaso"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Rabiu-Kwankwaso.webp.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}