President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is currently in a closed-door meeting with the Governor of Kano State, Abba Kabir Yusuf, at the State House, Abuja.
The Kano governor, dressed in his signature flowing white babanriga and a red Kwankwasiyya cap, arrived at the Presidential Villa at 4:13 pm on Monday and was led towards the President’s office by the Chief of Staff to the President, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila.
The meeting comes amid heightened speculation over Governor Yusuf’s planned defection from the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), a move that has been postponed multiple times since early January.
The governor’s visit to the Villa is his first known audience with President Tinubu since returning from Abu Dhabi, where the President attended the 2026 Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week.
Sources familiar with the negotiations had earlier told our correspondent that the defection stalled because the APC leadership refused to grant Yusuf’s demand for a documented assurance of an automatic gubernatorial ticket for the 2027 elections.
The governor is also reportedly seeking the right to nominate a minister to represent Kano State in the Federal Executive Council and the authority to replace Kano-based federal appointees with his loyalists.
According to reports, Yusuf’s demands have placed him on a collision course with powerful figures within the party, including Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin, who is believed to be harbouring governorship ambitions for 2027.
It will be recalled that the national leader of the NNPP, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, had earlier dismissed reports suggesting that he approved or endorsed any planned defection by the Kano State governor, insisting that no such consent was given.
Yusuf’s political godfather has publicly described the planned defection as an act of betrayal and warned that the governor would face consequences in 2027 if he proceeds with the move.
The NNPP national leader’s son, Hon. Mustapha Kwankwaso, and other cabinet members loyal to Kwankwaso have reportedly vowed to resign immediately if the governor officially joins the APC.
The speculation has also reportedly deepened tensions between some of Governor Yusuf’s supporters and loyalists of his political mentor, Kwankwaso.
A lawmaker and APC chieftain in Kano, Alhassan Ado Doguwa, claimed in a viral video that President Tinubu had directed that the APC’s ongoing e-registration exercise be suspended in Kano until Governor Yusuf formally joins the party. According to Doguwa, the President wants the governor to be the first to e-register in the state.
In a birthday statement on January 5 to mark Yusuf’s 63rd birthday, Tinubu lavished praise on the Kano governor, highlighting his infrastructural achievements and commitment to grassroots development.
“Governor Yusuf’s leadership experience, particularly his years as commissioner managing strategic portfolios in Kano State, may have prepared him for the kind of infrastructural changes now witnessed in the state,” the President said.
“He has embarked on urban renewal programmes, building bridges and road networks, including five-kilometre roads in each local government in the state,” he added.
Tinubu also noted improvements in Kano’s education sector, stating, “I also understood that his declaration of emergency in education has engendered a marked improvement in the performance of Kano students in NECO exams.”
The President described Kano as “the bastion of progressive politics in the North,” adding that Yusuf’s regime “re-echoes the commitment to grassroots development and ameliorating the plight of the Talakawas as championed by the late Mallam Aminu Kano.”
A video posted on the governor’s official Facebook account days earlier showed him presiding over the first State Executive Council meeting of 2026 in the Kano State Governor’s Lodge, Abuja, on Friday.
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