By Abubakar Salihu, PhD
Public Affairs Analyst Department of Public Administration Bayero University, Kano.
Political defection in Kano State is best understood as a historical constant rather than a contemporary anomaly. From the First Republic, Kano’s political landscape has been shaped by ideological divisions, elite bargaining, and strategic realignments.
The rivalry between the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) and the radical Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU), led by Mallam Aminu Kano, clearly demonstrated that political actors in Kano were willing to break ranks whenever interests diverged.
Aminu Kano’s departure from the conservative northern political establishment in pursuit of a populist agenda established an enduring precedent: party loyalty was often subordinate to ideology, access to power, and mass appeal.
This tradition of fluid political alignment persisted into the Second Republic. The People’s Redemption Party (PRP), which dominated Kano politics at the time, witnessed the defection of key actors to the National Party of Nigeria (NPN).
These movements weakened ideological politics and further entrenched political pragmatism as a defining feature of Kano’s political culture.
In the Fourth Republic, Kano has arguably emerged as the epicentre of high-profile political defections in Nigeria.
The movement of Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2014 fundamentally reshaped opposition politics at the national level and contributed significantly to the APC’s victory in the 2015 general elections.
His subsequent return to the PDP in 2018, and later the formation of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) in 2022, further underscores the fluidity of party affiliation in Kano politics. Similarly, prominent figures such as Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and Ibrahim Shekarau have crossed party lines multiple times.
Shekarau’s movement from the ANPP to the PDP in 2014, and his return to the APC in 2018, remains particularly instructive.
These examples illustrate that in Kano, political defections are rarely perceived as ideological betrayals. Instead, they are largely normalized as instruments for negotiating relevance, survival, and advantage within Nigeria’s highly competitive but weakly institutionalized party system.
Against this historical backdrop, recent reports and speculations surrounding Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf’s possible defection should not be viewed as unprecedented.
Kano’s political history suggests that such realignments are consistent with established patterns, especially when elite interests and centre-state relations are implicated.
It is also noteworthy that Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf has previously sought higher political office within the broader APC political framework, having pursued the Kano Central senatorial seat during the formative period of the APC.
This reinforces the argument that political identities in Kano are often cyclical rather than fixed, shaped more by shifting alliances than by permanent loyalties. As the popular maxim aptly states, in politics there are no permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interests.
Should Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf eventually align with the APC, Kano State could potentially derive tangible benefits commonly associated with alignment with the federal centre in Nigeria.
These may include improved access to federally funded infrastructure projects, enhanced bargaining power in budgetary allocations, and increased opportunities for strategic appointments of Kano elites into key national institutions.
Historically, political alignment with the centre has translated into accelerated road construction, expanded water and power projects, and strengthened security presence in many states.
Viewed within Kano’s long tradition of political defections and realignments, such a move would represent less of a rupture and more of a continuation of a pragmatic political culture one in which actors recalibrate their positions to maximize both personal influence and perceived state advantage.
