RismadarVoice Reporters, June 9, 2026
Veteran politician and founder of the Kwankwasiyya movement, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has signalled his readiness to mend fences with Kano State Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf, saying their fractured political relationship can still be repaired provided Yusuf takes the first step back.
The former Kano governor made his position clear during an interview on BBC Hausa, maintaining that despite Yusuf’s controversial departure from their political fold, his personal feelings toward his one-time protégé remain warm.
“I still love Abba and I didn’t reject him he is the one that left,” Kwankwaso said, drawing a clear line between the personal and the political. He added that his forgiving disposition extends beyond Yusuf alone: “If anyone who left comes back, I won’t be unforgiving.”
To illustrate his point, the senator invoked his long and turbulent history with former Kano governor Abdullahi Ganduje a relationship marked by repeated fallouts and reconciliations — as evidence that political rifts need not be permanent.
The rift between Kwankwaso and Yusuf deepened earlier this year when the governor defected from the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) the platform on which he secured his 2023 election victory to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). The move drew swift condemnation from loyalists of the Kwankwasiyya movement, who viewed it as a betrayal of the coalition that had powered Yusuf’s rise to power.
Kwankwaso was unsparing in his assessment of that decision. He argued that the movement’s grassroots machinery was the decisive factor behind Yusuf’s victory, and questioned the rationale for abandoning a winning side. “We picked Abba to contest under the NNPP and we won, but he left to join the people we defeated,” he said, dismissing speculation that fear of electoral defeat may have driven the switch.
Interestingly, the senator revealed that Yusuf was not selected for the 2023 ticket based on seniority or academic credentials, but rather as a calculated move to test the movement’s political muscle at a critical moment.
He said that forgiveness is not merely a personal virtue but a prerequisite for effective leadership. Without it, he suggested, the movement would not have survived its many trials.
