page_title: Rabiu Kwankwaso
section_title: Elections
hierarchical_section_title: Rabiu Kwankwaso / Elections
caption_attribution_description: On the inauguration of the elected Governor of kano state and supreme leader of the new ideology may 29 2011 With more than five million members dress in white and Red cap to Mach that's Kwankwasiyya kano Nigeria.
context_page_description: Rabi'u Musa Kwankwaso, FNSE, FNIQS is a Nigerian politician who was the Governor of Kano State from 1999 to 2003 and 2011 to 2015. After he lost his re-election in 2003, he was appointed the first Minister of Defence of the Fourth Republic with no prior military background from 2003 to 2007. He was later elected to the Senate in 2015, serving one term under the platform of the All Progressives Congress representing Kano Central Senatorial District.
  Kwankwaso enjoys widespread support in Kano, he has been viewed as a charismatic populist. In 2011, he was re-elected governor of the state and went on to join the All Progressives Congress in 2014. In 2015, Kwankwaso unsuccessfully contested the presidential primaries nomination under the opposition All Progressive Congress, but lost to Muhammad Buhari. In 2018, he returned to People's Democratic Party and contested the presidential primaries losing out to Atiku Abubakar.
context_section_description: In 2007, Kwankwaso resigned his ministerial position to contest the Kano State governorship election but he lost because he had been indicted by a Government White Paper. Alhaji Ahmed Garba Bichi later replaced him as the governorship candidate of the party. After losing the bid from his party to contest the 2007 elections, he was appointed as the Special Envoy to Somalia and Darfur by President Olusegun Obasanjo; and was later appointed by President Umaru Yar'Adua as a Board Member of the Niger Delta Development Commission, a position he resigned from in 2010.
  In 2011, Kwankwaso was re-elected for a second term in office as Governor of Kano State from 29 May 2011 to 29 May 2015.  In 2014, Kwankwaso used his large political following in Kano to contest the APC presidential primaries. The presidential primaries results held in Lagos was: Muhammadu Buhari with 3,430 votes, Kwankwaso with 974 votes, Atiku Abubakar with 954 votes, Rochas Okorocha with 400 votes and Sam Nda-Isiah with 10 votes. Coming in second, Kwankwaso endorsed the winner Muhammadu Buhari and later secured nomination to the Senate of Nigeria representing Kano Central Senatorial District from May 2015 to May 2019.
  In July 2018, Kwankwaso alongside fourteen serving senators of the APC defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In October 2018, Kwankwaso contested the PDP presidential primaries. At the presidential primaries held in Rivers, amongst twelve presidential aspirants Kwankwaso came in fourth behind: Atiku Abubakar with 1,532 votes, Aminu Tambuwal with 693 votes, Bukola Saraki with 317 votes and Kwankwaso with 158 votes. Kwankwaso later endorsed the winner Atiku Abubakar and refused to seek re-election into the Senate, with Ibrahim Shekarau replacing him. Kwankwaso campaigned heavily for his son-in-law Abba Kabir Yusuf to emerge as the Governor in Kano State. The election was later declared inconclusive in favour of incumbent Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.
caption: Crowd of supporters (distinguished by the red hats) at the inauguration of Kwankwaso as Governor of Kano state and supreme leader of the Kwankwasiyya ideology, May 29 2011
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