Yusuf free to emulate you on defection, Shekarau tells Kwankwaso

• Chieftain recognises Kano gov as NNPP leader, faults alliance talks
Former Minister of Education, Ibrahim Shekarau, has faulted the rejection ofthe impending defection of Kano State Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), arguing that alignment and realignment are integral ingredients of politics.

He tackled those accusing the governor of betraying his political godfather and founder of the Kwankwasiyya movement, Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, insisting that the same Kwankwaso could also be accused of betrayal, having defected serially to another party.

Shekarau, in a live interview yesterday, submitted that Yusuf is at liberty to move from the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) with or without his Kwankwasiyya supporters.

The former two-term governor, who decried Kwankwaso’s comment asking Governor Yusuf to relinquish the NNPP mandate while defecting to the APC, queried if Kwankwaso did the same when he left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the APC in 2013 as a sitting governor.
CURIOUSLY, National Vice Chairman (North-West) of the NNPP, Sani Danmasani, has asserted that Yusuf, not Kwankwaso, is the legitimate leader of the party.

Danmasani explained that, according to the NNPP constitution, the sitting governor automatically assumes leadership of the party.

According to him, Kwankwaso, who contested as NNPP’s presidential candidate in 2023, is no longer officially linked to the party following the expiration of the Memorandum of Association between the NNPP and his Kwankwasiya Movement.

His clarification comes amid reports that Kwankwaso has been engaging in political alliance talks under the NNPP banner.

Danmasani dismissed the discussions as illegitimate, adding, “Negotiations for 2027 alliances involving Kwankwaso and the Kwankwasiya Movement are acceptable only if they are not conducted under the NNPP platform.

“Only Dr Boniface Aniebonam, founder and life member of the Board of Trustees, and the National Executive Committee, led by Dr Agbo Gilbert, are authorised to negotiate on behalf of the party. Any other arrangements are null and void.”