Deputy Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Aliyu Sani Madaki, has fired back at Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, leader of the Kwankwasiyya movement, over his recent declaration of January 23, 2026, as “World Betrayer Day.”
Kwankwaso made the announcement at his Miller Road residence in Kano, shortly after Kano State Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf resigned from the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP)—the party that brought him to power in 2023.
But Madaki, a former Kwankwasiyya ally who left the NNPP in 2024, took to Facebook to hit back, saying Kwankwaso lacks the moral authority to talk about betrayal.
“Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso has declared 23/01/2026 as a date to be marked as the International Day of Betrayal. In my view, 23/02/2019 is the appropriate date to be designated the International Day of Betrayal,” Madaki wrote in Hausa.
Representing Dala Federal Constituency, Madaki accused Kwankwaso of betraying not only his political associates but also the 2019 PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
“This was the same day Sen. Rabiu Kwankwaso nominated candidates whom he later abandoned because of an agreement with the APC. At the same time, he betrayed HE Atiku Abubakar to settle scores over his defeat at the party’s primary election in Port Harcourt,” Madaki alleged.
The dispute comes after social media critics of Governor Yusuf’s defection to the APC labeled the move a betrayal. Kwankwaso, echoing that sentiment, declared January 23 as a symbolic day to mark political betrayal.
“Because of that, as a leader of this movement, I am now in support of the 23rd of January as a Betrayal Day. We will now be celebrating that day everywhere,” Kwankwaso told his supporters.
Governor Yusuf resigned from the NNPP alongside 21 lawmakers and 44 local government chairmen, further widening the gap between him and his political mentor.
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