2027: Yusuf free to defect as Kwankwaso did serially, says Shekarau

By : Murtala Adewale

Date: 6 January 2026 9:33pm WAT

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Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano State 1

Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano State 1

Former Minister of Education, Mal. Ibrahim Shekarau, has faulted accusations against the impending defection of Governor Abba Kabiru Yusuf to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), arguing that alignment and realignment are integral ingredients of politics.

Mal. Shekarau further kicked against those accusing Governor Yusuf of betraying his political godfather and founder of the Kwankwasiyya movement, Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, insisting that the same Kwankwaso could also be accused of betrayal, having defected serially to another party.

Shekarau, who spoke in an interview with an online platform, DCL Hausa, on Tuesday, monitored in Kano, posited that Gov. Yusuf is at liberty to move from the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) with or without his Kwankwasiyya supporters.

Shekarau, a two-term governor of Kano State, decried Kwankwaso’s comment, asking Governor Yusuf to relinquish the mandate of NNPP while defecting to APC and queried if Kwankwaso did the same when he left PDP for APC as a sitting governor.

According to Shekarau, Kwankwaso might have forgotten that he set such a political precedent in 2013 when he defected to APC with the mandate of PDP, insisting on why Kwankwaso failed to relinquish the mandate of PDP.

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

“Has he forgotten that he moved from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) during his tenure as governor without dropping the governorship seat?

“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 said.

Shekarau added that if such action is now being described as offensive, then the precedent was already established by Kwankwaso. The former governor also revisited events surrounding the formation of the NNPP in Kano, revealing that disagreements over power-sharing arrangements contributed to his eventual exit from the party.

He said that after he and Kwankwaso left the APC for the NNPP, several meetings were held in Abuja and Kano to agree on how elective positions and appointments would be shared among stakeholders. Shekarau disclosed that a committee had been agreed upon to work out the sharing formula, with Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf appointed as chairman because he was to take the governorship ticket.

“Abba spent about three months without delivering the assignment. Suddenly, a list came out and there was no single person from our side except me,” he said.

According to him, Kwankwaso openly queried the development in his presence, but the situation was not resolved, prompting Shekarau and his supporters to form a 30-man committee, which eventually recommended leaving the NNPP. “I rejected the arrangement because I could not take a senatorial ticket alone while my people got nothing,” he added.

Shekarau maintained that political decisions, including defection, should not automatically be framed as betrayal, especially when leaders consult their followers and act in what they believe to be their collective interest. “In life, one chooses for himself. If you have tangible reasons and the people you are with are okay with it, that is all,” he said.

He stressed that Governor Yusuf should be allowed to make his choice without being demonised, noting that Kwankwaso himself had defected multiple times — from PDP to APC, back to PDP, and later to NNPP. “If Abba has his own reasons and those around him agree, I don’t see any betrayal here,” Shekarau said.

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