How To Defeat Kwankwaso

As a politician, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s strength and future will depend on his ability to maintain his domineering influence over the politics of Kano. That would mean toppling Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf and the APC in the February 2027 elections.

And Kwankwaso knows it. On Thursday, he appeared on Channel Television’s Politics Today to discuss the politics of Kano and the governorship candidacy of Aminu Abdulsalam. Unfortunately, he wasn’t asked about it.

Forget Adamawa. Forget Bauchi. Forget Kwara, Rivers, or even Oyo. The governorship election in Kano was always going to be the most hotly contested race, where Governor Yusuf of the APC is going up against his former deputy, Aminu Abdulsalam of the NDC

Back in 2023, Yusuf did not lift a finger to win his election on the NNPP ticket. It was Rabiu Kwankwaso who did most of the campaigning. He did most of the financing, and his reputation was at stake.

But it was Abba Yusuf’s name that was on the ballot. His main opponent was then the APC’s Deputy Governor Nasiru Gawuna. But it was really a contest between then-Governor Abdullahi Ganduje and Rabiu Kwankwaso.

This time around, the names on the ballot are Yusuf and Abdulsalam. But it is really a contest between Yusuf and Kwankwaso. And even before the first vote is held, which is about 100 days away, Kwankwaso has already been defeated.

It’s now the norm. The easiest way to deafest a formidable opponent in an election is to disqualify him from the election.

It started in 2019, when the Supreme Court disqualified the ruling APC from all elective offices in Zamfara and Rivers, at a time when the court was at odds with the executive arm and its Chief Justice had just resigned under threat of force.

But the days when the Supreme Court and the Executive conflict are long gone. Rather, the courts have been accused of serving the executive. And in that sense, it is opposition candidates facing threats of disqualification.

And INEC has effectively disqualified Abdulsalam from the governorship election after failing to publish his name as the NDC candidate. The commission has cited section 77 of the Electoral Act as the basis for disqualifying several candidates.

Section 77 requires that parties submit their membership registers to the commission and that contestants have been party members for at least three weeks before the primaries.

The problem with this particular case is that Abdulsalam resigned from ADC on 1 May 2026 and joined the NDC five days before INEC’s deadline for parties to submit their registers.

He was named the party’s candidate on 29 May, a day before the deadline for party primaries for governorship candidates.

Even though INEC hasn’t given a reason for his disqualification, an administrative error by INEC, as NDC officials suggest, should take hours to clarify.

And without Kano in his hands, Kwankwaso’s political standing will be forever altered, and his chances of mounting a successful presidential run will significantly diminish. That is, unless the courts take his side with or he is elected Vice President in January.