Sanusi Bature, the spokesperson to Kano State Governor Abba Yusuf, said on Wednesday that Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso is indirectly advancing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s interests ahead of the 2027 presidential election. In an interview with Arise News, Bature said he believes Kwankwaso is working for Tinubu behind the scenes and added that the former Kano governor also worked for Tinubu in 2023.
Bature said there are politicians who support the president openly and others who do so out of public view. He placed Kwankwaso in the second camp, saying, “There are those who are working with Tinubu openly, directly in the public space, and there are those who can work for Tinubu behind the scenes.” He added, “I believe whatever Kwankwaso is doing will favour Tinubu at the end of the day because Kwankwaso worked for Tinubu in 2023.”
The remarks land at a time when alliances in Kano are shifting sharply ahead of the 2027 vote, with questions growing over where Kwankwaso and the New Nigeria Peoples Party, or NNPP, will fit if the race hardens into a two-way struggle. Bature said the party is no longer strong enough to stand alone and argued that any arrangement with Peter Obi would not hold. “The NNPP is no longer a formidable platform for 2027,” he said. “There was an agreement among critical stakeholders, including Rabiu Kwankwaso, to find a lasting solution ahead of 2027 because the NNPP cannot fly on its own.”
He said key actors in Kano, with Kwankwaso’s consent, had already identified the All Progressives Congress as “Option A” for realignment and said that a possible role in the federal executive council was also discussed. Bature said Kwankwaso initially pushed for a direct meeting with Tinubu to discuss political negotiations, but later cancelled a scheduled appointment because of a trip to China and never rescheduled it. He also said a Peter Obi-Kwankwaso ticket would look out of place in Kano, arguing that Kwankwaso, a PhD holder, would not fit naturally as Obi’s deputy, since Obi holds a first degree.
That is the core of the political problem now facing Kano politicians: Kwankwaso’s personal vote strength is still real, but Bature argued that it would not automatically transfer into a new alliance in 2027. He said Kwankwaso alone under the NNPP secured over one million votes in Kano in 2023, but insisted that a Peter Obi-Kwankwaso ticket would not repeat that feat. “Kwankwaso alone under NNPP was able to secure over a million votes in Kano in 2023,” Bature said. “But believe me, in 2027, with Obi as presidential candidate and Kwankwaso as vice presidential candidate, that ticket cannot secure one million votes in Kano.”
The challenge for Kwankwaso is now plain: whether he can turn his influence in Kano into a viable national bargain, or whether the pressure around 2027 will push him toward the APC and away from the NNPP platform that delivered his last big showing. Bature’s comments suggest that, in Kano at least, the political ground is already moving under his feet.
