According to a report by Arise News, on Wednesday May 20, 2026, the rumored political marriage between the National Leader of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, and the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Peter Obi, has suffered a massive blow from within Kwankwaso’s own home state.…....
Sanusi Bature, the official spokesperson for the Governor of Kano State, Abba Kabir Yusuf, has alleged that Kwankwaso’s alignment with Obi has severely fractured and weakened his political standing across the core North, particularly in Kano.
Bature painted a bleak picture of the potential alliance, asserting that the ticket is dead on arrival across the conservative voting blocs of northern Nigeria.
He argued that Kwankwaso’s calculations to use Obi to attract minority and non-indigene votes within Kano State are statistically flawed and culturally tone-deaf.
“Kwankwaso has lost a lot of his support base in Kano after moving to bring Obi. He did that so that he can secure the support of some of the non-indigenes votes in the state,” Bature claimed during the broadcast.
“But even at that, when you look at it, it might not amount to up to 25% of the total votes, because Kano is a conservative state. You cannot really override the thinking of a typical Kano man.”
The spokesperson was unsparing in his regional assessment, naming key frontline northern states where he believes the former Anambra State governor holds absolutely no political sway, thereby rendering Kwankwaso’s national ambitions mathematically impossible under this arrangement.
“Kwankwaso cannot fly anything with Obi because Obi can never be accepted in places like Kano, Jigawa, and Katsina. So therefore, I do not see that flying,” Bature stated flatly.
Beyond the immediate electoral math, Bature raised a deeper, more cynical possibility regarding the underlying motives behind the partnership.
He suggested that Kwankwaso’s real role in the 2027 race might no longer be about securing a genuine path to the presidency.
Instead, the spokesperson hinted that the strategy may simply be a spoiler game designed to fracture the wider opposition, scattering vital votes across multiple fragmented platforms to ensure that no single challenger can consolidate enough strength to successfully threaten the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
