KALU OKORONKWO pays tribute to
Rabiu Kwankwaso, Vice Presidential candidate of the NDC, at 70
At 70, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Ph.D, former Governor of Kano State and Vice Presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) within the January 16, 2027 presidential election, represents one of the intriguing figures in Nigeria’s political area: a politician whose affect is deeply rooted within the political soil of Kano, whose ambitions and alliances have repeatedly drawn him into the broader contest over Nigeria’s future.
His journey from engineering and public service administration to the governorship of his dwelling state of Kano, the National Assembly, the Ministry of Defence and presidential candidate within the 2023 elections, presents greater than a private chronicle of political survival. It tells a narrative about energy, loyalty, grassroots organisation and the problem of translating regional political capital right into a nationwide management.
Perhaps one of the revealing assessments of Kwankwaso’s political journey got here from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his goodwill message to the previous Kano state governor on his seventieth birthday. In a press release issued on October 21, 2026, Tinubu acknowledged Kwankwaso’s contributions as a two-term governor, former Minister of Defence, senator and presidential candidate, describing him as an influential determine and a progressive politician.
In a seven-paragraph tribute, Tinubu said: “My warm congratulations to my friend, Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, former Governor of Kano State, one time Minister of Defence and former Senator representing Kano Central Senatorial District. Senator Kwankwaso and I have longstanding association, dating back to our time in the National Assembly in 1992; he in the House of Representatives and I in the Senate, and later in 1999 when we both emerged as governors of our respective states. “As members of the Class of ‘99 Governors, we both played pivotal roles in laying the foundation for the democracy the nation enjoys today. Shaped by different political choices, our political paths differed until we coalesced in 2013 to form the All Progressives Congress. Since then, history and service have kept us intertwined. “I must acknowledge Senator Kwankwaso’s immense contributions to Kano State and Nigeria as a two-term Governor, former Minister of Defence, former Senator, former presidential candidate, and now a presidential running mate”. “Senator Kwankwaso remains an influential figure and a progressive politician. That we are in different political parties and competing on different platforms in the January 2027 election will not remove my affection for Senator Kwankwaso” the President affirmed.
Tinubu’s acknowledgment that political variations wouldn’t erase his affection for Kwankwaso is a reminder that democratic competitors needn’t extinguish private relationships. It additionally supplied a glimpse into the political historical past of a person whose profession has been formed by alliances, disagreements, altering occasion affiliations and a persistent willpower to stay related in Nigeria’s evolving political order.
As Kwankwaso marked his seventieth birthday on October 21, 2026, the event invited reflection not solely on the places of work he has occupied but in addition on the motion he has constructed, the constituencies he has mobilised and the political questions his subsequent chapter raises. His emergence because the vice-presidential operating mate to His Excellency, Mr. Peter Obi, former Governor of Anambra State on the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) platform has provided that chapter a brand new dimension, bringing collectively two former governors whose political careers developed in several areas however whose public narratives share an emphasis on human capital, public accountability and the promise of extra responsive governance.
Born on October 21, 1956, in Kwankwaso village in Madobi Local Government Area of Kano State, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso started his skilled journey in engineering on the Kaduna Polytechnic and subsequent postgraduate research within the United Kingdom. He pursued a profession in public service with the Kano State Water Resources and Engineering Construction Agency, the place he labored from 1975 to 1992.
This background is related to understanding the political persona he would later domesticate. Engineering calls for an appreciation of techniques, sources, planning and the connection between design and supply. Public administration calls for the extra self-discipline of balancing competing pursuits, managing establishments and accounting for selections. Although skilled coaching alone doesn’t assure efficient governance, Kwankwaso’s early profession positioned him within the sensible world of public infrastructure earlier than he entered the extra unstable enviornment of partisan competitors.
His formal entry into nationwide politics got here together with his election to the House of Representatives in 1992, representing Madobi Federal constituency. He subsequently turned Deputy Speaker of the House, gaining legislative expertise throughout a turbulent interval in Nigeria’s political historical past. The interruption of democratic authorities in 1993 altered the trajectory of many political careers, however the return to civilian rule in 1999 reopened the sector during which Kwankwaso would set up his most enduring political id.
That yr, he turned governor of Kano State, arguably the North’s most politically sagacious state. Kano is greater than a geographical territory: it’s a industrial hub, a significant inhabitants centre and a spot the place politics is formed by the interplay of conventional establishments, non secular and group networks, merchants, employees, college students and a big youth inhabitants. Governing it requires an understanding of the connection between political authority and on a regular basis social realities.
Kwankwaso’s first tenure, from 1999 to 2003, positioned him throughout the technology of civilian leaders who helped consolidate Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. His subsequent appointment as Minister of Defence broadened his expertise past state administration, whereas his return to the Kano Government House in 2011 demonstrated that his political relevance had survived a interval exterior the governorship. He served his second time period till 2015, later represented Kano Central within the Senate from 2015 to 2019, and entered the 2023 presidential election because the candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).
This chronicle is essential because it underscores Kwankwaso’s continued relevance within the politics of the Fourth Republic. He has operated as a legislator, governor, a minister and a presidential candidate. His has additionally modified events and construct alliances in his political trajectory. Such shifts are a part of Nigeria’s aggressive political atmosphere, the place private networks, occasion buildings, regional pursuits and calculations in regards to the future typically intersect. They are finest understood not as a easy story of uninterrupted ascent, however because the evolution of a politician repeatedly looking for to protect and broaden his political base.
For a frontrunner who has spent many years in public life, birthday tributes inevitably invite a extra demanding query: what stays after the places of work have been vacated? In Kwankwaso’s case, training, infrastructure and human-capital improvement occupy a distinguished place within the account of his governorships. His printed biography highlights investments in colleges, universities, vocational and manpower improvement establishments, scholarships, roads and housing. Worthy of be aware is the institution of two universities and 26 manpower institutes, alongside greater than 2,600 overseas scholarships and intensive vocational coaching for younger individuals and ladies.
In a rustic the place poverty, unemployment, uneven instructional alternatives and insecurity constrain tens of millions of households, a highway can join markets and communities. A college can widen entry to studying. A college can broaden a society’s capability to provide information {and professional} experience. Vocational coaching can open pathways into employment and enterprise. This is the place the evaluation of Kwankwaso’s legacy should transfer past celebration of birthday. The identical commonplace ought to apply to each Nigerian chief, no matter occasion, area or political following. Public service will not be an inheritance to be claimed by loyalists; it’s a file to be examined by residents.
Perhaps essentially the most distinctive function of Kwankwaso’s political profession is the Kwankwasiyya phenomenon. The motion has given his politics an id that extends past the standard equipment of a celebration. Its symbolic crimson cap, recognisable public presence and organised networks have helped make Kwankwaso a readily identifiable determine in Kano politics and amongst sections of the northern citizens.
The crimson cap is subsequently greater than a visible emblem. For adherents, it serves as a marker of political id and collective belonging. It connects particular person supporters to a bigger story about illustration, alternative and participation in public affairs. That connection could be a highly effective supply of mobilisation in a political tradition the place many voters really feel distant from the establishments that make selections on their behalf.
Conversely, the political partnership between Mr. Peter Obi and Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso brings collectively two figures whose careers have developed alongside completely different regional {and professional} trajectories, but whose public narratives include factors of convergence. Obi emerged from the world of commerce and enterprise earlier than turning into governor of Anambra State. Kwankwaso’s skilled beginnings have been in engineering and public administration earlier than his personal ascent by way of the legislature and govt authorities. One constructed his political id round fiscal prudence, public accountability and the environment friendly use of public sources; the opposite established a political profile carefully related to mass mobilisation, instructional growth and grassroots organisation.
The first space of convergence is the significance each males have hooked up to human capital. Kwankwaso’s public-service narrative emphasises colleges, universities, scholarships and vocational coaching. Obi’s file and public commentary have positioned appreciable emphasis on training, healthcare, fiscal accountability and the redirection of public sources in direction of social improvement. Their approaches and data require separate analysis, however each have made the connection between public spending and residents’ long-term welfare a distinguished a part of their political identities.
The second is the function of non-public political actions in mobilising residents past standard occasion buildings. Kwankwasiyya has developed a particular id round Kwankwaso, whereas the Obidient motion turned a distinguished function of Obi’s 2023 presidential marketing campaign, significantly amongst youthful voters and sections of the citizens looking for alternate options to established political order. The actions differ of their histories, organisation and social composition, however each illustrate how political identification can prolong past formal occasion membership.
A third level of convergence lies within the language of political change. Both males have offered themselves as alternate options to facets of the established political order.
The partnership additionally brings distinct political property and challenges into the identical dialog. Kwankwaso’s established community in Kano and his broader northern connections provide a unique constituency base from the one related to Obi’s strongest mobilisation in 2023. Their alliance may create alternatives for dialogue throughout regional traces.
On May 3, 2026, Obi and Kwankwaso formally joined the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC). Later that month, the NDC ratified Obi as its presidential candidate for the 2027 election, and Obi introduced Kwankwaso as his operating mate. The improvement introduced their respective political constituencies right into a shared electoral mission and positioned the previous Kano governor in a brand new function inside his lengthy pursuit of nationwide management.
Kwankwaso’s seventieth birthday presents a second to contemplate the connection between political affect and nationwide accountability. His profession has given him a particular place in Kano politics, whereas the Kwankwasiyya motion has made him a recognisable determine in wider debates about grassroots mobilisation and northern political illustration.
His partnership with Peter Obi beneath the NDC banner provides a brand new chapter to that story. It brings collectively two politicians with completely different backgrounds, distinct political actions and overlapping public commitments to improvement and improved governance. The significance of Kwankwaso at 70 will not be that the journey is full. It is that the journey has reached one other level at which expertise should be examined towards accountability, affect towards institutional function, and political loyalty towards the calls for of public accountability.
Kwankwaso’s place in Nigeria’s political historical past is already a topic of significant dialogue. His unfinished quest for nationwide management will probably be judged not merely by the places of work he seeks, the alliances he enters or the scale of the crowds he instructions, however by the substance of the concepts he advances, the standard of the establishments he helps to strengthen and the general public worth that his years of political engagement finally depart behind. For Kwankwaso, subsequently, 70 is neither merely an age nor an event for nostalgia. It is a second to look at a legacy nonetheless in movement.
In the ultimate evaluation, essentially the most enduring legacy of any political chief will not be the size of time spent in public life, the variety of places of work occupied or the depth of non-public loyalty. It is the extent to which that life contributes to a society during which residents have better entry to alternatives, public establishments command better belief and the promise of management turns into seen within the on a regular basis expertise of the individuals. That is the unfinished work of public service. And that’s the reason, at 70, Kwankwaso’s political story stays a legacy nonetheless in movement.
Okoronkwo is a communications strategist, a management and good governance advocate
