Former Kano State Governor and Nigeria Democratic Congress Vice-Presidential Candidate Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso has defended the Kwankwaso Obi alliance with NDC presidential candidate Peter Gregory Obi, saying national balance, equity and the need for political change influenced the decision, while declaring former Kano governors Ibrahim Shekarau and Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, alongside incumbent Kano State Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, politically finished in the state.

Kwankwaso made the remarks during the News Agency of Nigeria Personality Interview Series in Abuja on Sunday, offering a detailed account of the political calculation behind his decision to run as Obi’s running mate in the 2027 presidential election.

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The former Kano governor said his experience with Obi since the 2023 election had changed his assessment of the former Anambra State governor and convinced him that both politicians could work together.

“People learn every day, and that is why experience is very important,” Kwankwaso said, explaining that he had learnt more about Obi over the past four years and had become convinced that they could work together in the national interest.

The partnership represents a striking change from the 2023 election, when Obi and Kwankwaso contested separately and finished third and fourth respectively.

Obi secured 6,101,533 votes nationally, while Kwankwaso polled 1,496,687 votes, according to the declared results.

The alliance also carries particular weight in Kano, where Kwankwaso retains a substantial political base. In the 2023 presidential election, he won Kano with 997,279 votes, representing 58.59 per cent of the state’s recorded votes, while Obi received 28,513 votes.

Kwankwaso said consultations with members of the Kwankwasiyya Movement, supporters of the New Nigeria Peoples Party and the Obidient Movement helped shape the decision.

According to him, those discussions pointed towards a ticket capable of combining northern and southern support while presenting what he described as a balanced alternative to the ruling establishment.

The former defence minister also pointed to insecurity, declining agricultural productivity, economic hardship and deteriorating infrastructure as factors behind his support for political change.

He argued that farmers, particularly in northern Nigeria, had been badly affected by rising costs and worsening conditions in the agricultural sector.

For Kwankwaso, the argument was not simply about securing another political office.

He said public office should be understood primarily as an opportunity to serve.

“To me, being in government is to serve. I don’t have to be president. I don’t have to even be vice president,” he said, stressing that political positions were ultimately in the hands of God.

A central element of the arrangement is the question of presidential rotation.

Kwankwaso said the agreement provides for Obi, who is from the South-East, to serve one four-year term from 2027 to 2031, after which political power would return to the North.

The claim is not merely based on an informal understanding. Kwankwaso previously disclosed in July that he and Obi had signed written agreements covering the arrangement. He said one document was made for the party and another between the two politicians.

“I personally believe him,” Kwankwaso said of Obi’s commitment, adding that he did not expect the former Anambra governor to change his position when the time came.

Obi has separately explained his choice of Kwankwaso as running mate in terms of a shared interest in reducing poverty and expanding educational opportunities.

The emerging ticket follows a turbulent period in Nigeria’s opposition politics.

Obi and Kwankwaso initially became part of a broader opposition realignment around the African Democratic Congress before the two politicians moved to the Nigeria Democratic Congress in May 2026.

Their move disrupted earlier attempts to create a single opposition platform ahead of the 2027 election.

Kwankwaso’s latest comments, however, were as much about Kano as they were about Abuja.

The former governor took aim at political associates who, in his view, abandoned the political structure that helped build their careers.

His sharpest criticism was directed at Ganduje, his former deputy who succeeded him as Kano governor in 2015 after the pair had governed the state together for eight years.

Kwankwaso argued that Ganduje’s political fortunes deteriorated after their relationship collapsed.

“If you can even see the issue of Ganduje, who we came together and supported, and became governor free of charge. The day when he started fighting was the beginning of his problem,” he said.

Ganduje later became national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, but resigned from the position in June 2025, with the party confirming that the resignation took immediate effect.

Kwankwaso also revisited his complicated relationship with Yusuf, whom he supported as the NNPP candidate in the 2023 Kano governorship election.

Yusuf ultimately became governor, but the relationship between the two men later deteriorated. The dispute became more consequential when Yusuf left the NNPP for the APC on January 26, 2026, taking 22 members of the Kano State House of Assembly and nine members of the House of Representatives with him.

Kwankwaso accused Yusuf of distancing himself from the political movement that helped him secure the governorship.

He suggested that Yusuf was attempting to establish an independent political base in Kano rather than remain within the structure that had supported his rise.

The criticism comes against a broader backdrop of political realignment in Kano.

Yusuf’s defection significantly strengthened the APC’s position in the state, while also deepening the fracture within the political network historically associated with Kwankwaso.

Former governor Ibrahim Shekarau has previously challenged Kwankwaso’s interpretation of political loyalty.

In January, Shekarau argued that Yusuf’s possible or eventual movement to the APC should not be treated as betrayal, pointing out that Kwankwaso himself had left the PDP for the APC while serving as governor in 2013.

That history adds another layer to the current dispute. Kano’s political landscape has repeatedly been shaped by alliances that later fracture, often leaving former allies competing for the same grassroots networks.

Kwankwaso acknowledged that such political ruptures are not unique to Kano.

He recalled former political relationships involving President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, including those with former Lagos State Deputy Governor Kofoworola Bucknor-Akerele and former Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.

He said his experience over more than two decades had taught him that political influence could be temporary and that alliances built around personal loyalty could eventually unravel.

Yet Kwankwaso also left room for reconciliation.

In an earlier interview, he said he would welcome Yusuf or other former allies who sought to rebuild their relationship with him, arguing that forgiveness remained an important part of political life.

That softer position sits alongside the unusually blunt language used against his former allies in the latest interview.

For the 2027 contest, however, the larger question is whether the Obi-Kwankwaso partnership can translate its combined regional appeal into a national electoral coalition.

Their political bases are different but potentially complementary. Obi’s 2023 campaign demonstrated significant strength in the South-East and parts of the South, while Kwankwaso’s strongest showing came in Kano and parts of the North-West.

The challenge will be converting that geographical complementarity into a coherent national movement, particularly amid competition from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and other opposition figures.

For Kwankwaso, the calculation is straightforward: the country needs a ticket that combines regional balance with competence and a credible promise of change.