By Ali Baba Inuwa
Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso was on born Oct. 21, 1956 in Kwankwaso, a village located in Madobi LGA of Kano State. His father was the village head of Kwankwaso with the title of Sarkin Fulani, Dagacin Kwankwaso; he was promoted to the District Head of Madobi with the title of Majidadin Kano, Hakimin Madobi by the Kano Emirate Council of Emir Ado Bayero.
He attended Kwankwaso Primary School, Gwarzo Boarding Senior Primary School, Wudil Craft School and Kano Technical College before proceeding to Kaduna Polytechnic where he did both his National Diploma and Higher National Diploma.
Kwankwaso was an active student leader during his school days and was an elected official of the Kano State Students Association.
He also attended postgraduate studies in the United Kingdom from 1982 to 1983 at the Middlesex Polytechnic; and Loughborough University of Technology where he received a master’s degree in water engineering in 1985.
He also got his Ph D in water engineering at Sharda University India in 2022.
Kwankwaso joined the Kano State Water Resources and Engineering Construction Agency of the Government of Kano State in 1975. He served there for seventeen years in various capacities and rose through the ranks to become the principal water engineer.
Kwankwaso made his entry into politics in 1992 on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). He was a member of the People’s Front faction of the SDP led by Gen. Shehu Yar’adua.
He was elected as a member of the House of Representatives representing Madobi Federal Constituency. His subsequent election as deputy speaker in the House brought him to the limelight of national politics.
During the 1995 Constitutional Conference, Kwankwaso was elected as a delegate from Kano, as a member of the People’s Democratic Movement led by Yar’adua.
He later joined the Democratic Party of Nigeria (DPN) in the transition programme of late head of state, Gen. Sani Abacha.
Kwankwaso joined the PDP in 1998 and was elected as the governor of Kano State in 1999, but he lost his re-election bid in 2003. After he lost his re-election in 2003, he was appointed the Minister of Defence by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
He was re-elected as the governor in 2011 and in 2015 he was elected as Senator representing Kano Central on the platform of APC.
In 2015, Kwankwaso unsuccessfully contested the presidential primaries nomination on the platform of APC, but lost to Buhari. In 2018, he returned to PDP and contested the presidential primaries losing out to Atiku Abubakar.
He remained in the PDP until May 30, when he defected to the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).
On June 8, Kwankwaso emerged as the presidential candidate of the NNPP for the 2023 general elections.
Kwankwaso, who was the sole presidential aspirant, emerged at the party’s special convention in Abuja. (NAN) (www.