Amid early permutations ahead of the 2027 general elections, Yusuf Sharada, an ally of Rabiu Kwankwaso, the 2023 presidential candidate of the New Nigeria’s People Party (NNPP), has confirmed that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has been making efforts to get the former Kano governor to be on the side of President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 election.
While speaking with newsmen on Tuesday, Sharada, the National Coordinator of Project Save Nigeria said the APC has lost its popularity in Kano, a state with high voting strength in Nigeria, and has since begun shopping for Kwankwaso, and his socio-political movement, Kwankwasiyya.
He said, “They have been wooing Senator Kwankwaso to join them in the APC knowing his antecedents and his mass followership. Of course, it is their political permutations.
“Senator Kwankwaso stayed away from the APC because he is not in tandem with what they are doing as a government. They have been insisting that they want him to join them. Politics is about numbers and they know that he has the numbers, especially from Kano and the core North-Western part of the country.”
The Kwankwasiyya members said the resignation of Kwankwaso’s political opponent Abdullahi Ganduje as APC National Chairman might be part of the permutation by the ruling party to snatch Kwankwaso from the NNPP.
“Maybe the APC has perfected their plans. They are looking for the numbers because of their anti-masses policies; the masses of Nigeria are no longer with them.
“So, they now want someone that the masses of this country have hope in to join them so that they have those numbers, especially from that part of the country,” he said.
Sharada said Kwankwaso’s cult-like followers known as Kwankwasiyya members are loyal to the ex-presidential candidate and await directives from him on the party to support in the 2027 presidential election.
“One thing that people should understand about the followers of Senator Kwankwaso is that they value him more than any platform or party that he is in because of his antecedent and the way he impacted so many lives in that part of the country. So, people listen to his opinion; they are waiting for him to give directives for them to follow,” he said.
Historically, since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999, the northern region of the country, especially Kano, always had the highest voter turnout at presidential elections, making it a darling of politicians jostling for 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 distant third won by Tinubu who garnered 8,794,726 total votes. Atiku followed with 6,984,520 and Obi polled 6,101,533.
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.
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