A Word of “caution” by:-
Hon. Umar Bello Jada.
History is unforgiving to leaders who forget the paths that led them to power, in politics, legitimacy is not sustained merely by occupying political office, but by fidelity to the ideals, people, and movements that made leadership possible in the first place. This is the moment Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano State must reflect deeply, beyond power calculations, on legacy, loyalty, and moral responsibility, there is no dispute in the court of public conscience that Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf is a product of the Kwankwasiyya movement, his political rise was neither accidental nor solitary, it was nurtured, defended, and sustained by the political philosophy, structure, and sacrifices of Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. Kwankwasiyya is not just a political label, it is a movement rooted in trust, discipline, grassroots empowerment, ideological clarity, and the collective hope of millions who believe in a different kind of politics.
To contemplate abandoning this movement for the APC, a party Kano people overwhelmingly rejected at the polls, would not merely be a strategic miscalculation, it would amount to a profound betrayal of trust. Political realignment may be legal, but it is not always moral, the people who queued under the sun and rain, defended your mandates in the courts, and stood firm against intimidation did so not for selfish interest or opportunism, but for principle.
History offers very harsh lessons to leaders who rise by collective struggle but govern through personal ambition as they often end isolated, weakened, and rejected by both sides. Political defectors rarely find dignity in their new homes, and they almost always lose the moral authority they once commanded. Power gained through betrayal is fragile and it won’t survives neither storms nor time.
Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf must ask himself difficult but necessary questions:-
Will history remember him as a loyal torchbearer who consolidated a movement, or as a beneficiary who dismantled it for temporary comfort? Will Kano people see him as their own, or as another politician who traded conviction for convenience?
Kwankwaso not only groomed and mentor him for 40 years, he stood by him in adversity, defended his mandate when it was threatened, and invested decades of political capital to ensure his success. Such loyalty is rare in politics, and betrayal of it is even more remembered.
This is not a call for political stagnation, but a plea for political integrity. Movements are sustained by loyalty, not transactions, Governance is strengthened by consistency, not contradiction. The Kwankwasiyya movement still represents hope for millions across Kano and beyond, to abandon it would be to abandon the very soul of the mandate entrusted to him.
Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf still has the opportunity to choose legacy over convenience, principle over pressure, and honor over ambition. Power may be temporary, but betrayal leaves a permanent stain.
History is watching, Kano people are watching, and time, as always will deliver its final judgment.
My brother the devil you know is better than the angel you don’t know.
