Sanusi Bature, Director-General of Media to Kano State Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, has dismissed a potential Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and Peter Obi alliance for the 2027 general elections as politically unviable, declaring that such a joint ticket cannot secure 1 million votes in Kano State and that whatever political moves Kwankwaso makes will ultimately benefit President Bola Tinubu.
Speaking on Arise TV on Wednesday, monitored by NEWSNGR Bature described the former Kano governor as politically weakened and ideologically misaligned with the former Labour Party presidential candidate, suggesting that the partnership between the two opposition figures is less a genuine electoral strategy and more an exercise in vote-splitting that would favour the ruling All Progressives Congress at the national level.
“Whatever Kwankwaso is doing will favour Tinubu,” Bature said, in what amounted to one of the most direct assessments of the former governor’s political trajectory from within the Kano establishment.
Bature argued that Kwankwaso, who secured approximately 1m votes in Kano during the 2023 presidential election, has since shed significant support in the state and is now pursuing an alliance with Obi primarily to consolidate non-indigenous and Christian votes.
He said even that calculation would fall short.
“When you look at it, it might not be up to 25 percent of the total vote, because Kano is a conservative state,” he said.
“You cannot really take away that thinking of a typical Kano man.”
He was equally dismissive of Obi’s prospects in the northwest, arguing that the former Anambra governor carries no electoral currency in Kano and its neighbouring states.
“Obi can never be accepted in places like Kano, Jigawa and co. So therefore, I don’t see that flying,” Bature said.
“The only assignment he has probably been given is just to scatter the opposition and ensure that some of the votes go here and the other goes there so that the president benefits.”
When pressed directly on whether a Kwankwaso-Obi joint ticket could deliver Kano, Bature was categorical.
“A ticket cannot secure one million votes in Kano. Cannot. And time will come, we’ll see,” he said.
Bature also challenged claims of massive popular support for Kwankwaso, questioning reports that 5m supporters had gathered at the former governor’s residence.
He described the venue as a location incapable of holding more than two thousand people and noted that even the largest public space in Kano, the Sani Abacha Stadium, has a capacity of only 16,000.
“You cannot gather 5 million people at a particular destination,” he said, adding that a crowd figure, however large, could not be equated to the voting population of an entire state.
The remarks represent a significant escalation in the war of words ahead of the 2027 electoral cycle in Kano, which is shaping up as one of the most consequential political battlegrounds in northern Nigeria.
