Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
Former Kano State Governor and National Leader of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has vehemently dismissed claims that he is secretly working for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election in 2027, describing the allegations as the handiwork of “foolish people” and a desperate attempt to undermine his rising political profile. The denial came on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, during an interview with Global Television, following explosive allegations by the Kano State Government House spokesman, Sanusi Bature, that Kwankwaso was “indirectly or strategically” advancing the President’s interests behind the scenes. In a blistering rebuttal, Kwankwaso insisted that his sole political commitment is to the NDC and that any suggestion of a secret alliance with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is a fabrication. “I think only foolish people would believe that,” Kwankwaso said. “We are not working for anybody. We are only working for the NDC.”
The allegation by Bature, who serves as the spokesperson for Governor Abba Yusuf — once Kwankwaso’s political protégé — has laid bare the deepening rift between the former governor and the man he helped install in office. According to Bature, Kwankwaso’s recent political moves are ultimately designed to benefit President Tinubu. “There are those who are working with Tinubu openly in the public space, and there are also those who can work for Tinubu behind the scenes,” Bature said during an appearance on Arise News on Wednesday. “I believe whatever Kwankwaso is doing will favour Tinubu at the end of it because Kwankwaso has worked for Tinubu in 2023.” He further claimed that Kwankwaso had given Governor Yusuf consent to defect to the APC and had initially pushed for a direct meeting with President Tinubu to negotiate political roles for his loyalists in the federal executive council — an encounter that never materialised after Kwankwaso allegedly cancelled at the last moment, citing a trip to China.
The statement by Bature has been interpreted by political observers as a direct assault on Kwankwaso’s credibility, and it has drawn a fierce response from the Kwankwasiyya Movement. The movement’s spokesperson, Habeeb Saleh Mohammed, accused the Kano State Government of “desperation” and of trying to create false narratives. “What Sanusi Bature and the state government are trying to do is nothing short of desperation to discredit us and to create narratives they know are not true,” Habeeb said. He maintained that Kwankwaso has always been “frank and clear” about his political direction and that there is no hidden arrangement with the APC. “At any point in time, we have never reached out to the APC. If they have any evidence, they should bring it forward,” he added.
In a striking intervention, Kwankwaso himself chose to address the allegations head-on, framing the issue in stark personal terms. While acknowledging his long-standing friendship with President Tinubu, whom he described as his “senior brother and good friend,” he insisted that personal bonds should not be mistaken for political alignment. “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,” the former defence minister declared. He further argued that the President is not fully aware of the country’s crises because his aides are allegedly shielding him from the truth. “Normally, under the current circumstances, the president may not see what is happening. Unfortunately, most of the people around him are actually the ones creating the problems,” Kwankwaso said, delivering a sharp critique of the Tinubu administration even as he denied any secret pact.
The allegations and denials come amid a significant political realignment in the opposition space. On May 3, 2026, Kwankwaso and former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi formally joined the NDC, a party led by former Bayelsa State Governor Senator Seriake Dickson. The move has been widely interpreted as the foundation of a formidable opposition coalition ahead of the 2027 presidential election. Kwankwaso has publicly endorsed the party’s decision to zone its presidential ticket to the South and has affirmed his support for Obi as the best candidate from the region. “When we joined the NDC, we invited all our leaders from the six geopolitical zones, and we sat down and looked at the situations. We then decided to come together and work as a family,” Kwankwaso explained. “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.”
This NDC alliance, which has been described by political analysts as a potential game-changer for 2027, is precisely what Bature sought to undermine. The government spokesman argued that any Kwankwaso-Obi ticket would be “short-lived” and “unsustainable,” claiming that it would perform poorly in Kano. “A Peter Obi-Kwankwaso ticket in Kano is strange. Kwankwaso, a PhD holder, deputising Obi, who only holds a first degree, doesn’t look like the Kwankwaso we know,” Bature said. He added that such a ticket “cannot secure one million votes in Kano,” despite Kwankwaso having secured over a million votes in the state in the 2023 presidential election under the NNPP.
The public spat between Kwankwaso and the Kano State Government is the most dramatic episode yet in a feud that has been brewing since Governor Abba Yusuf defected to the APC in early 2026. The relationship between Kwankwaso and Yusuf — his former political godson — has been one of the most closely watched and fiercely contested dynamics in Nigerian politics. In 2023, Kwankwaso’s political machinery was widely credited with delivering the governorship to Yusuf on the NNPP platform. But cracks soon emerged over political direction, appointments, and the management of the state. By the time Yusuf announced his defection to the APC, the relationship had become irreparably strained. The Kano State Government’s allegations that Kwankwaso had secretly endorsed Tinubu’s re-election appear to be a calculated attempt to undermine his credibility within the opposition space and to justify the governor’s own switch to the ruling party.
With the 2027 general elections now less than eight months away, the battle lines are being drawn. For Kwankwaso, the allegations represent a direct threat to his political relevance and the viability of the NDC coalition. His swift and uncharacteristically blunt denial — calling his accusers “foolish” — signals a willingness to engage in a war of words to protect his political legacy. For the Kano State Government, the stakes are equally high: they must convince the electorate that their defection to the APC was not a betrayal but a pragmatic realignment, and that Kwankwaso — not Yusuf — is the one working for Tinubu. The outcome of this political drama will be decided at the ballot box, but for now, the former allies are locked in a bitter contest for the heart of Kano politics.
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