2023 Election: Major Contenders For Kano Governorship Election

The 2023 governorship election scheduled for March 11 is only a few days away and politicians and their parties are putting finishing touches to their strategies ahead of election day.

One of the states that many people are keeping an eye on is Kano due to its strategic importance to the politics of Nigeria in terms of voting strength.

The incumbent Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje will be concluding his maximum two-term tenure on May 29 and would therefore be handing over to a new democratically elected Governor.

Naija News reports that sixteen political parties will take part in the governorship election for Kano state however, the leading candidates are Yusuf Abba Kabir of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Gawuna Nasir Yusuf of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Wali Mohammed Sadiq of the Peoples Democratic Congress (PDP).

Yusuf Abba Kabir

Yusuf Kabir was born January 5, 1963. He has served as Kano’s state Commissioner of Works, Housing and Transport. In 2019, he contested in the Kano state gubernatorial elections under the PDP but lost to the current governor, Abdullahi Ganduje. He appealed the election result, but the case was dismissed in court. He’s once again running for governorship but this time under the NNPP.

Gawuna Nasir Yusuf

Nasir Gawuna, born on August 6, 1967, is the current deputy governor of Kano state. He’s also the preferred candidate of the incumbent governor.

In 2014, he was Kano’s state Commissioner of Agriculture before he became deputy governor of Kano state in 2018 after the resignation of his predecessor, Hafiz Abubakar.

Wali Mohammed Sadiq

Sadiq Wali is the son of the former minister of Foreign affairs, Aminu Wali. On March 31, 2022, Sadiq Wali resigned from his role as Kano state Commissioner of Water Resources to pursue his governorship ambition.

He was declared the winner of the PDP gubernatorial primary election for Kano state. But in December 2022, a federal high court in Kano disqualified him and appointed Mohammed Sani Abacha as the authentic candidate for the PDP.

However, things took an interesting turn when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) released its list of gubernatorial candidates for the 2023 election as Wali Sadiq, not the court-approved candidate, Mohammed Sani Abacha, was listed as the PDP’s gubernatorial candidate for Kano state.

Furthermore, the Court of Appeal sitting in Kano on Friday, February 10 affirmed Sadiq Wali as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.

The appellate court set aside the judgment of a High Court which recognized Muhammad Abacha as the governorship candidate of the party.