Ahead of the 2027 election, Kwankwaso, who commands a cult-like following with his red-capped socio-political movement, Kwankwasiyya, is the darling of political parties.
Buba Galadima, a chieftain of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), has dismissed the possibility that the strongman of Kano politics, Rabiu Kwankwaso, would join forces with President Bola Tinubu for him to win a re-election in 2027.
Galadima, who boasted that the NNPP would decide Nigeria’s president in 2027, was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Monday.
“We are the people who will determine who will be the President of Nigeria in 2027,” he said.
According to him, the Tinubu presidency has treated Kwankwaso and the NNPP badly in Kano by backing the ousted Emir of Kano, Aminu Ado-Bayero, despite his removal by Governor Abba Kabir of the NNPP.
“How can a Kwankwaso be a friend of the APC with what they are doing to us in Kano? Appointing two emirs in one town? There is a Federal Government emir and a state emir. Who’s got the responsibility to appoint emirs and pay them their salaries?
“They have their emirs. They have not less than 40 pickup vehicles filled with mobile police guarding the Emir (Ado Bayero).
“In some localities in Kano, they are killing people and taking their handsets, and the police are tied down. Are they not ashamed?” he asked.
The politics of the ancient and prestigious Emirate of Kano have thrown up some controversial twists and turns in the last ten years. While not as dramatic and shocking as the popular American fantasy drama series, ‘Game of Thrones’, its latest twist is the stuff of a movie script, where either a centuries-old tradition or politics wins.
Two royal families have been in a supremacy battle in the ancient city: the Bayero and the Sanusi families. Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II beat Aminu Ado Bayero to succeed the latter’s father, Emir Ado Bayero, in 2014.
Three months shy of six years later, he would be deposed for his predecessor’s son, Aminu Ado Bayero, amid a fallout with the state governor at the time, Abdullahi Ganduje. Four years and a change of governor later, Sanusi, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), was reinstated as Kano emir by Governor Kabir on May 23, 2024.
However, Sanusi’s reinstatement has been contested in various courts, with security agents fully guarding his palace.
Galadima said a federal high court has no business delivering a judgment in a chieftaincy matter.
“In the first place, was it not Tinubu who canvassed for Sanusi to become emir? Let him come out and tell me that he didn’t, and I will give him instances,” he said.
The NNPP chieftain claimed the Federal Government is using the police and other security agencies to destabilise Kano.
According to Galadima, the Federal Government is keeping Emir Bayero because they think he would help them in the 2027 election.
Galadima said Kwankwaso has not told him that he would back the All Progressives Congress (APC) or Tinubu in the 2027 general elections.
“Let anybody come out and tell me that he met Kwankwaso and he canvassed or persuaded him or coerced him to join the APC.
“I assume if anybody talks to him about that, I ought to know.
“He is the strongest political Iroko in this country today because he dared the APC and defeated them at their game in Kano,” he said.
Quest For Kano Votes
Historically, since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999, the northern region of the country, especially Kano, has always had the highest voter turnout at presidential elections, making it a darling of politicians jostling for the Aso Rock top job.
For instance, in the 2023 presidential election, Kano had about 1.7 million cumulative votes. NNPP’s Kwankwaso scored 997,279, APC’s Tinubu polled 517,341 votes, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) got 131,716 votes, while Peter Obi of the Labour Party got 28,513 votes. Of the 44 local government areas in Kano, Kwankwaso won in 38 of them.
However, Kwankwaso secured 1,496,687 total votes and came in distant fourth in the election won by APC’s Tinubu, who garnered 8,794,726 total votes. Atiku came second with 6,984,520 while Obi came third with 6,101,533 votes.
At the moment, Kwankwaso’s godson, Abba Kabir of the NNPP, is Kano governor, but the APC controls two of the three senatorial districts in the North-West state.
Channels TV.
