The battle for the 2023 presidential election seems to have shifted to Kano State at the moment.

DAILY POST reports that there is an ongoing tussle among the leading presidential candidates to inherit the millions of votes in Kano State, as President Muhammadu Buhari will not be on the ballot.

The supremacy battle between Governor Umar Ganduje, ex-governors Rabiu Kwankwaso and Ibrahim Shekarau could decide where the pendulum swings for or against any of the presidential candidates.

For the past 20 years, Buhari monopolized the votes in Kano. In 2011, Buhari under the Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) polled 1.6 million votes. Shekarau of the ANPP, was at that point the incumbent governor of Kano State.

In 2015, Buhari polled 1.903 million votes, while PDP polled 215,777 votes. In 2019, even with Kwankwaso in PDP, Buhari still polled 1.4 million votes, leaving Atiku Abubakar with 391,593 votes.

However, during the 2019 governorship election, Ganduje won the election with a margin of 8,982.

With Buhari not on the ballot for the first time in 20 years, presidential candidates are scheming to crack the Kano votes. As it appears, Buhari’s votes are non-transferable to anyone. When he won the 2019 election with a margin of over 1 million votes, two weeks after, Ganduje struggled to win the election with 8,982.

Last week, the candidate of the PDP, Atiku, his running mate, Ifeanyi Okowa and several other presidential bigwigs were in Kano to receive Shekarau. The main opposition is counting on the former governor to deliver the votes.

Kano’s political cobweb

The ruling party is relying on Governor Ganduje to deliver the votes against his former boss, Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP.

The political relationship in the State is like a cobweb. In 2003, Shekarau defeated Kwankwaso and his deputy Ganduje. In 2011, the duo of Kwankwaso and Ganduje made a comeback when they defeated the ruling ANPP led by Shekarau, who had completed his tenure.

By 2016, Kwankwaso, who was in the Senate had a fallout with his successor, Ganduje and was forced to move to the PDP. In the 2019 election, both Ganduje and Shekarau teamed up against Kwankwaso but managed to win the governorship race with less than 10,000 votes

Within this election cycle, Shekarau has been in APC, but left after losing the supremacy battle. He defected to NNPC, however, he claimed that he was betrayed by Kwankwaso and he is now finally in the PDP.

Interestingly, the Shehu Sagagi-led State executive of the Kano PDP is loyal to Kwankwaso. However, on Tuesday, the Court of Appeal removed the Sagagi led exco. Which means Shekarau will be the leader of the PDP in the State.