Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso

Biography

Water engineer, deputy speaker, two-time governor of Kano, defence minister and senator — Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso leads one of the most loyal political movements in Northern Nigeria, the red-capped Kwankwasiyya. For 2027 he is Peter Obi’s running mate.

Career history

1. 1975

   From 1975 he worked for the Kano State Water Resources and Engineering Construction Agency for 17 years, rising to principal water engineer.

2. 1985

   He trained as an engineer at Kaduna Polytechnic and then in the United Kingdom, at Middlesex Polytechnic and Loughborough University, where he earned a master’s degree in water engineering in 1985.

3. 1992

   He entered politics with the late Shehu Musa Yar’Adua’s People’s Front, and in 1992 was elected to the House of Representatives for Madobi under the SDP, becoming Deputy Speaker.

4. 1993

   The Third Republic legislature was dissolved after the 1993 military takeover.

5. 1999

   Kwankwaso won the Kano governorship in 1999 on the PDP platform but lost his re-election bid in 2003 to Ibrahim Shekarau.

6. 2011

   He returned as governor in 2011 and served until 2015.

7. 2013

   Kwankwaso joined the APC in 2013–2014 as part of the “new PDP” bloc and came second to Muhammadu Buhari in the APC presidential primary in December 2014.

8. 2015

   He was elected Senator for Kano Central in 2015, returned to the PDP in 2018, and in 2022 took his movement to the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).

9. 2023

   As NNPP presidential candidate in 2023 he received nearly 1.5 million votes and finished fourth, while his party won the Kano governorship with his protégé — and son-in-law — Abba Kabir Yusuf.

10. 2026

    In May 2026 he and Peter Obi left the ADC together for the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), and Obi named him as his running mate.

Quick facts