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Mohammed Rabi'u Musa Kwankwaso is a Nigerian politician who was Governor of Kano State from 1999 to 2003.[1] He was re-elected for a second term as Governor on 26 April 2011.Mohammed Rabi'u Musa Kwankwaso was born in Kwankwaso village of Madobi Local Government Area of Kano State in 1956.
Kwankwaso attended Kwankwaso Primary School, Gwarzo Boarding Senior Primary School, Wudil Craft School and Kano Technical College before proceeding to Kaduna Polytechnic for his tertiary education.
He also did his post-graduate studies in the United Kingdom. He was an active student leader during his school days and was an elected official of the Kano State Students Association. He started work in 1975 with WRECA.
He joined partisan politics in the aborted Third Republic where he contested elections to the House of Representatives. He became the Deputy Speaker. He belonged to the Peoples Front faction of the SDP Led by General Shehu Yar'adua.
During the 1995 Constitutional Conference he was elected to be one of the representatives from Kano, at that time he belonged to the Peoples Democratic Movement led by Yar'adua. He joined the PDP in 1998 under the platform of Peoples Democratic Movement in Kano led by Mallam Musa Gwadabe, Senator Hamisu Musa and Alh.
Abdullahi Aliyu Sumaila.The group were able to have sympathisers from the PSP group such as Alh. Datti Wudilawa and ANC such as Mallam Abba Dabo who all supported his candidature. He therefore had a victory in the primary elections. The People's Democratic Movement consisted of majority of the Tabo Faction of the P.R.P. and a few loyalists of the Santsi faction of the P.R.P. such as Alh.Abdullahi Aliyu Sumaila their Secretary and Alh. Dodo Fagge and a host of others hence Rabiu Kwankwaso is now seen as the heir apparent to the political dynasty of Mallam Aminu Kano.
Kwankwaso was elected as the Executive Governor of the northern Nigerian state of Kano between 1999 and 2003, under the flag of the People's Democratic Party (PDP). He lost re-election to Malam Ibrahim Shekarau whom he removed from the highest civil service position of permanent secretary to a Lecturer in a higher institution(College of Arts and Science, Kano). His tenure as the Governor of Kano State was very eventful because there were several groups opposed to his high handed governorship, and his attempt at supporting president Obasanjo who hails from a different tribal group. His party the PDP also became split between his supporters and those who opposed him.[citation needed]
He was re-elected as Kano state governor on 27 April 2011 and sworn in on 29 May 2011 for a second term in office.
Kwankwaso's 2003 bid to serve for a second term was unsuccessful. Despite his achievements in the areas of Education,Rural Electrification and Health. He was able to establish a State University of Technology at Wudil, he introduced Free Feeding for Primary School Students in the State which led the United Nations to recognise his effort in that direction. His electrification programme in the rural areas recorded a great success.
He was able to give the Federal Government a property that was turned into the Nigerial Law School at Bagauda. He built a number of bridges in the rural areas and introduce free natal programme for pregnanent mothers. He was then appointed as the Minister of Defence in President Olusegun Obasanjo's cabinet in 2003. In 2007, he was appointed as the Presidential Special Envoy to Somalia and Darfur by the Obasanjo administration after losing the bid from his party to contest the 2007 general governorship election.
He continued to use his influence at the Federal level to undermine his opponents especially the Kano State Government. He resigned his ministerial position to contest the election in 2007 but he lost because he had been indicted by a Government White Paper.His running mate in the elections Alh.Ahmed Garba Bichi contested the elections with Alh.Jibril Gwale as a running mate.
Kwankwaso was the party leader in Kano and was nominated into the party's most powerful political circle in PDP, the Board of Trustees. Recently, was shortlisted for ambassadorial appointment by the Yar'adua administration.But refuse to accept the ambassadorial which consider the position stoneblock for dominating his political rivalry of his home state but later 2009 accept to serve as a board member representing Northwest region of Nigeria in the Niger Delta Development Commission(NNDC).
Kwankwaso was reelected for a second term as Governor on 26 April 2011. He won with a difference of sixty three thousand plus votes, his party won three quarters of the house of assembly seats, by winning 30 out of the total 40 seats in the state. On 26th November he was among the Five PDP governors that defected to the new opposition party APC, who have formed a PDP splinter group in August known as the G-7. He contested for the APC Presidential primaries but lost to Muhammadu Buhari. He was elected to the Kano State central senatorial seat on 28th March 2015.
