Political activist, Baba Yusuf, has stated that the defection of Kano State Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf<\/strong>, from the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) is driven by political survival rather than ideology.<\/p>\n Abia Radio News<\/strong> reports that Yusuf made this known during an interview with ARISE Television, citing an incident that happened during the swearing-in of Yusuf.<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement\n<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n According to him, members of the Kwankwasiyya movement accused Kwankwaso of exerting excessive control over Governor Yusuf.<\/p>\n He said, \u201cIt is pure and simple self-preservation. A few months after his swearing-in, there were chants across Kano saying, \u2018Aba ya tsaya da kansa\u2019 meaning, \u2018Aba, stand on your own feet.\u2019 That was the beginning of what we are seeing today.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThere was an overbearing hold on the Governor by Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. This is a classic template of godfatherism playing out between a godfather and a godson.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Yusuf noted that Governor Yusuf initially relied heavily on Kwankwaso\u2019s political machinery but ultimately chose to break away.<\/p>\n He stated, \u201cHe had no independent political structure. He leaned on the Kwankwasiyya structure, which we must give credit to Kwankwaso built a movement that resonated deeply with the masses of Kano.<\/i><\/p>\n \u201cAba Kabir Yusuf used the opportunity created by that overbearing influence and Kwankwaso\u2019s political overreach to free himself.\u201d\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement\n<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Assessing the impact of the defection on Kwankwaso\u2019s national standing, Yusuf said the effect would be mixed, but that the former governor would resurge politically.<\/p>\n Yusuf noted that the erosion of Kwankwaso\u2019s influence at the grassroots is not yet decisive.<\/p>\n He added, \u201cIn the short to mid-term, this has weakened him. But in the mid-to-long term, Kwankwaso could resurge politically in Kano. Kano is a very interesting state. If you go back to history, we are masters of protest votes.<\/i><\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement\n<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cTo be honest with you, the erosion of Kwankwaso\u2019s value at the grassroots is not significant. What remains to be seen is how this plays out in voting patterns, and how Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf delivers dividends of democracy between now and 2027.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Political activist, Baba Yusuf, has stated that the defection of Kano State Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf, from the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) is driven by political survival rather than ideology. Abia Radio News reports that Yusuf made this known during an interview with ARISE Television, citing an incident […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":240758,"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":[309,287,835,1022],"class_list":["post-240757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-abba-yusuf","tag-apc","tag-nnpp","tag-rabiu2019u-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\/Kano-Governor-Abba-Yusuf-and-President-Bola-Tinubu.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240757","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=240757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}