Kwankwaso Hints On Atiku Alliance — Despite Differences That Forced His Exit From The ADC Alongside Peter Obi
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Former presidential candidate and ex-Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has declared his readiness to support Peter Obi or any other presidential candidate produced by the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) ahead of the 2027 general elections, insisting that the party’s decision would be supreme, while confirming that the NDC has already agreed to zone its 2027 presidential ticket to Southern Nigeria for a single four-year term.
Kwankwaso, who recently aligned with the opposition coalition in the NDC alongside former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi after their joint exit from the African Democratic Congress (ADC) on May 3, made the wide-ranging declarations during an appearance on the Arise TV PrimeTime programme on Monday, where he also hinted at a possible future alliance with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, criticised the country’s governors for relying on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for political survival, and argued that the 2027 election would be largely driven by young Nigerians seeking a new direction for the country.
In a definitive statement on his readiness to play second fiddle to a Southern candidate, the former Kano State Governor made it clear that the party’s decision would be supreme.
“If the party decides that I will be anybody’s running mate from the South, I am ready,” he affirmed.
Kwankwaso confirmed that the decision to zone the 2027 presidency to the South was reached after consultations with party leaders and stakeholders across the country.
“Right from day one, we sat down together and we looked at the situation on the ground in the country and we decided to take a major decision, including zoning the presidency to the South for four years and after that, the Presidency will return to the North,” he added.
He added that many northern politicians who joined the party accepted the arrangement because they believed it was the best way to address long-standing political tensions over power rotation.
“We believe that the best place to take it is to the South so that we can eliminate the confusion that emanated from the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. What is key now is not the Presidency from the North or South, but rather to have quality leadership, people who are enthusiastic, determined and committed to give the country the leadership it deserves,” he said.
Kwankwaso revealed that he and Peter Obi had already held discussions on tackling insecurity, particularly in Northern Nigeria.
“Peter Obi and I have discussed a lot of ways we can tackle insecurity. I have worked together with people across board and I am sure of my capacity,” he said.
The former Kano Governor also hinted at a possible future alliance with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar despite their political differences.
“We might still work together before election days. We had to leave because of issues that are very detrimental. So, we are not fighting anybody,” he stated.
Responding to concerns that his move to the NDC alongside Peter Obi had effectively divided the opposition into two competing blocs ahead of the polls, Kwankwaso dismissed suggestions that his exit from the African Democratic Congress had created a damaging split in the opposition.
“Now, we may still work together before the election. I personally, and I think even Obi himself, decided to leave ADC not because we are fighting with Atiku or anybody there. We decided to leave that party because we realised that there are some issues,” he said.
He said the ADC was contending with three major unresolved problems that he believed would make it difficult for the party to field candidates, without specifying what those issues were.
“Whether they will be able to field candidates in that party or not is just a matter of time. It’s not like we had a primary election,” he said.
The remarks came after Atiku recently claimed on Arise TV that Kwankwaso’s popularity was confined to Kano State and further divided there by Governor Abba Yusuf.
Atiku, who is seeking the presidency on the ADC platform, also described himself as the most popular politician of northern extraction, saying none of his contemporaries, including Kwankwaso, Aminu Tambuwal and Nasir El-Rufai, commanded a voter base across the North as wide as his.
Kwankwaso did not engage the slight directly, but made clear he bore no grudge.
“Politics is just like a game. I’m not fighting anybody and I’m not expecting anybody to fight me. I have no issue with that. I think we are past that level now,” he said.
He challenged those predicting a vote split in Kano to wait for the election result before drawing conclusions.
“Let’s wait for the election and see whether votes are split in Kano or not,” he said.
Kwankwaso also acknowledged a history of working with Atiku, recalling that he served as the former Vice President’s northern coordinator during the 2019 presidential election.
“There was an election in 2019 in Port Harcourt. He won the election. I was his coordinator for the north. We worked for him,” he said.
He traced his broader relationship with Atiku to the 2015 APC presidential primary in Lagos, where he placed second behind Muhammadu Buhari, with Atiku third.
Kwankwaso did not spare the country’s state governors, criticising them and claiming many were depending heavily on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for political survival ahead of 2027.
“Our governors have made so much mistakes. I can tell you that all the governors are relying on Bola Ahmed Tinubu to win elections,” he said.
“Things have changed. Northerners no longer want rice or chicken like the other party does,” he added.
In a striking personal disclosure, Kwankwaso revealed that his daughter lobbied him to align with Peter Obi as far back as the 2023 general election — years before the two men eventually joined forces under the Nigeria Democratic Congress.
He used the anecdote to illustrate what he described as a widening gap between Nigeria’s ageing political elite and a younger generation with fundamentally different political instincts.
“Even in the 2023 election, in my own house, my own daughter was telling me to go and work with Peter Obi. She didn’t say she was Obidient, but she wanted me to work together with him,” he said.
The former Kano State Governor said the episode was not an isolated one, suggesting that the cross-regional appeal of both his Kwankwasiyya movement and Obi’s support base ran far deeper than conventional political analysis acknowledged.
“You will be surprised, even in your house or anybody’s house in the south, there may be Kwankwasiyya people there, maybe a watchman is Kwankwasiyya, maybe a house boy that cooks for you is Kwankwasiyya. Unless he knows you are interested, he will not tell you because he doesn’t want to offend you,” he said.
The former Kano Governor argued that the 2027 election would largely be driven by young Nigerians seeking a new direction for the country.
“The fact remains that so many things have changed in this country but we have to realize that it is the turn of youth. I remember my daughter told me to work with Obi in 2023,” Kwankwaso added.
According to him, both the Obidient Movement and the Kwankwasiyya movement share similar ideals and could work effectively together.
“The Kwankwasiyya are disciplined and positive, so are the Obidients,” he said.
Kwankwaso said the divide between older and younger Nigerians on political questions was now impossible to ignore, arguing that the country’s established leaders had largely failed to grasp the scale of the shift.
“People of their age, my age, or especially the age of Atiku, are very few in this country comparatively with the younger people. The younger people have their own way of thinking,” he said.
He said the political class remained trapped in conversations about ethnicity and religion that no longer reflected how young Nigerians were making voting decisions.
“People at that level we are talking about don’t even understand. People are talking of religion, people are talking of ethnicity. But the younger people are looking for the right leadership for this country, and I think they are absolutely right,” he said.
Kwankwaso and Obi formally joined the NDC on May 3, 2026, defecting from the African Democratic Congress amid internal disputes.
The defection by two of the most prominent opposition figures in Nigeria Obi, who came third in the 2023 presidential election on the Labour Party platform with significant cross-regional support, and Kwankwaso, the founder of the Kwankwasiyya movement and former presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party has reshaped the opposition landscape ahead of the 2027 general elections.
With Kwankwaso’s latest declaration of readiness to serve as running mate to Obi or any other Southern presidential candidate produced by the NDC, and his confirmation that the party has agreed to zone its 2027 presidential ticket to Southern Nigeria for a single four-year term, the prospect of a Peter Obi–Kwankwaso joint ticket has emerged as the most likely configuration for the NDC’s 2027 presidential campaign.
The signal from Kwankwaso that he may yet work with Atiku Abubakar before the 2027 elections despite the bitter circumstances surrounding his exit from the ADC also introduces a fresh dimension to the opposition’s strategic calculations, raising the possibility of a broader pre-election realignment between the NDC and the ADC.
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