Professor Hafiz Abubakar, the former Deputy Governor of Kano State resigned on the 4th of August 2018 following a political misunderstanding with his boss Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State.
His resignation from the Deputy Governors seat did not surprise some politicians within and outside Kano state, they saw the battle coming due to strain relationship that ensued then between the Head of Kwankwasiyya movement who was also former Governor of Kano state Engineer Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.
Both Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and professor Hafizu Abubakar rode to power through the Kwankwasiyya political wing under the All Progressives Congress.
When Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje was chosen as the APC Gubernatorial flag bearer in the 2015 General elections on December 4th, 2014, it took the APC in Kano over a month before they came up with the Deputy Gubernatorial candidate.
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By then political analysts saw the move in delaying the emergence of Governor Ganduje’s Deputy Gubernatorial candidate as a move to foist a Deputy Governor on APC candidate Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.
But by the year 2016, Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has parted ways with his erstwhile boss, Engineer Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso who anointed him as a successor on the Night of November 27, 2014, before proceeding to Abuja in the early morning of November 28, 2014.
The political conflict between Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso was triggered following the condolence visit by Engineer Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso over the death of Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje’s mother.
After the condolence visit,t former Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso was accused of Insubordination by the All Progressives Congress Kano State chapter, its former Chairman Umar Haruna Doguwa,a staunch Kwankwasiyya supporter addressed a Press Conference that former Governor Engineer Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso should be dealt with.
But he later went on air in some radio stations in Kano and retracted his statement that he was forced to read the statement of taking disciplinary action against former Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.
With the conflict unfolding, former Kano state Deputy Governor Professor Hafiz Abubakar was seen as a Kwankwasiyya supporter in Gandujiyya government.
But as the 2019 General elections draw nearer, former Deputy Governor Professor Hafiz Abubakar granted an interview about his strain relationship with Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje noting that the Governor has withheld most of his entitlement in his three years stint as Deputy Governor of the state.
That confession by Professor Abubakar was received with mixed reactions from different quarters and on the 4th of August, Professor Hafiz Abubakar tendered his resignation as Deputy Governor of Kano State.
Immediately he resigned as Deputy Governor, Professor Abubakar pitched his tent with Kwankwasiyya group but later parted ways when Abba Kabir Yusuf emerged as the Gubernatorial candidate of PDP in the state.
But even before the general elections professor Hafizu Abubakar and other prominent Kwankwasiyya loyalists went back to their former party, the APC, they include Architect Aminu Abubakar Dabo, Bala Muhammad Gwagwarwa, General Idris Bello Dambazau and the rest.
But with professor Hafizu Abubakar’s resignation two years ago, a number of Nigerian Deputy Governors resigned from their positions or were impeached due to estranged relationships with their governors.
Former Governor of Jigawa state Alhaji Saminu Turaki has three Deputy Governors, they were Late Ibrahim Shehu Kwatalo, Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia, and one other who could not be recalled by the Nigerian Tracker.
Also, former Governor of Bauchi state Malam Isah Yuguda had his Deputy impeached, Late Alhaji Garba Gadi over refusal to follow him to PDP after his decamp from the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party.
Since the return to Democracy in 1999 only two Deputy governors were able to succeed their bosses through anointment, they were Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano state and Mahmud Aliyu Shinkafi of Zamfara state, but the duo all parted ways with their bosses after assuming power in 2015 and 2007 respectively.
