The Kano State Governor, Abba Yusuf, on Monday met with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, in a development that has intensified speculation over his possible defection from the New Nigeria People’s Party to the ruling All Progressives Congress.
Yusuf, dressed in a white babanriga and red Kwankwasiyya cap, was sighted entering the President’s office at about 4:13pm, marking his first known meeting with Tinubu since the President returned from the 2026 Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week in the United Arab Emirates.
Sources close to the talks told Platform Times that discussions around Yusuf’s political future had been ongoing for weeks, though his defection, earlier expected in early January, had reportedly stalled over unresolved demands.
A party insider disclosed that the APC leadership was reluctant to grant the governor a written assurance of an automatic governorship ticket for the 2027 election.
“The governor is also pushing for the right to nominate a minister for Kano State and replace some federal appointees with his loyalists, but these demands have created tension within the APC,” the source said.
The source added that Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, who is widely believed to be nursing governorship ambitions, is among key figures uneasy with the negotiations.
Days before Monday’s meeting, Yusuf had presided over the first Kano State Executive Council meeting of 2026 at the state government lodge in Abuja, further fuelling political intrigue in the state.
Meanwhile, the leader of the Kwankwasiyya movement and former Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, has accused the current administration in Kano of forcing local government chairmen and other officials to publicly declare their political allegiance.
Speaking in Hausa in a video circulated online, Kwankwaso described the development as “painful and troubling,” warning that no true lover of Kano State would endorse such political pressure.
According to him, officials were being compelled to indicate whether they aligned with the Kwankwasiyya movement or the Gandujiyya faction, led by former Governor and ex-APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje.
“This is something that causes pain, something that no lover of this state of Kano, even if not a supporter of ours, would be happy with,” Kwankwaso said.
The accusations come amid mounting rumours of Yusuf’s imminent defection, a move that could significantly reshape the political landscape in Kano ahead of the 2027 general elections.
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