As Kwankwaso Loses Godson, Gov Yusuf

This is not the best of times for the Kwankwasiyya movement, a powerful political group led by a former Governor of Kano State and national leader of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.

The group, which Kwankwaso uses to maintain his political supremacy in the politics of Kano, is on the verge of losing the state governor, Abba Yusuf, who has concluded arrangements to defect from the NNPP to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Yusuf is set to join other political heavyweights, including the Deputy Senate President, Senator Barau Jibrin and former Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, who is the immediate past national chairman of the APC and Kwankwaso’s sworn enemy.

Yusuf’s defection will significantly alter Kano’s political equation and weaken Kwankwaso’s grip on the politics of the state.

Kwankwaso had described Yusuf’s planned defection to the APC as an act of betrayal.

“This is a lesson to all of us. We thought everyone had understood. We never expected betrayal.

“The most painful thing is that after everything we did to rescue Kano from Ganduje and the APC, you have now handed the governorship back to him free of charge,” Kwankwaso lamented.

However, many believe the former Kano State governor is paying for his sins against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Kwankwaso had defected from the PDP to the APC while serving as governor without vacating his office.

Reacting to Kwankwaso’s remark that Governor Yusuf should relinquish his mandate before defecting to the APC, a former Kano State governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, insisted that Yusuf should not be accused of betrayal if he defects to the APC because Kwankwaso set the precedent.

“I listened to my brother, Kwankwaso’s remarks. To me, Kwankwaso has either forgotten what happened in the past or he thought people have forgotten,” Shekarau said.

“When he was in PDP, he also left with the governorship seat to APC. Why didn’t he drop it for PDP? The way he took PDP’s seat to APC is likely the same way Abba will take the NNPP seat to APC,” he stated.

Reacting to the development, a political analyst said that all the PDP leaders, who defected prior to the 2015 general election, and worked against the party, have been paid in their own coins.