Zainab Musa Kwankwaso, daughter of former Kano governor and senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has reportedly filed for divorce from her husband, Kano State Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, after 20 years of marriage.

The court case

The case was filed at the Upper Area Court in Gudu, Abuja. A civil summons directs Governor Yusuf to appear in court on Tuesday, 17 November 2026.

Zainab is reported to be seeking khul'i, a process under Islamic law that allows a wife to end her marriage, and has offered to refund the dowry Yusuf paid when they married.

The summons is not a divorce order, and the court has yet to rule on the matter.

Her reasons

According to the filing, Zainab cited a long absence of mutual care, love and emotional connection in the marriage, and said reconciliation efforts had failed.

The couple married on 29 July 2006, when Zainab was working as an aide to her father, who was then governor of Kano State. They have six children.

The political backdrop

The marriage once symbolised the close bond between Kwankwaso and Yusuf, his long-time political protégé. That relationship has since broken down.

In January 2026, Governor Yusuf left Kwankwaso's party, the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), a move Kwankwaso's camp described as a betrayal.

Some reports have linked the political split to tension in the marriage, but the reasons given in the court filing focus on the breakdown of the relationship itself.

No comment yet

As of Saturday, neither Governor Yusuf, Zainab nor Senator Kwankwaso had made a public statement on the divorce, and the Kano State Government had not commented.

Over to you

Did politics cost this 20-year marriage, or is this simply a private family matter that should be left to the court?

Details of the Federal High Court judgment that nullified the David Mark-led leadership of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) have emerged from the certified true copy of the ruling.

The resignation letter

Justice Peter Lifu, who delivered the judgment on 5 November 2026, examined three main issues. The first was a letter said to show that the party's deputy national chairman, Nafiu Bala Gombe, had resigned in May 2025, before the meeting that installed the new leadership. After comparing signatures, the judge found clear differences, described the letter as fictitious or fabricated and rejected it as evidence.

Powers of the executive committee

The ADC argued that its constitution allowed the National Executive Committee to dissolve the old leadership and appoint a new one. The judge accepted that parties may run their internal affairs, but held that this cannot override the Constitution and the Electoral Act, which require parties to elect their principal officers through periodic democratic elections. He ruled that the committee's administrative powers did not allow it to appoint national executives in place of an election.

No proof of a vote

The judge also found that the party could not show that members or delegates had been given the chance to vote for candidates of their choice, and said notifying INEC of a meeting was not the same as complying with the law.

Background

The judgment also voided the primary that produced Atiku Abubakar as the ADC's presidential candidate. The party has appealed, and INEC says it will obey the final court decision. Atiku and his running mate Rotimi Amaechi are continuing to campaign.

Rotimi Amaechi, the vice-presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), says the party is on course to defeat President Bola Tinubu in 2027.

His predictions

Speaking at the ADC's presidential rally in Bauchi on Saturday, 14 November 2026, Amaechi gave a state-by-state breakdown of the race. He claimed Atiku Abubakar had secured the support of 13 states across the North-East and North-West, and said Tinubu could count on only five of the six South-West states, with the sixth going to the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), the party of Oyo governor Seyi Makinde. He named Niger, Kogi and Nasarawa as North Central states Atiku would win easily, said the South-East would offer Tinubu nothing, and said the ADC would campaign hard in the South-South.

Background

Amaechi, a former Rivers governor and transport minister, is Atiku's running mate. Their candidacy faces a legal challenge after a court voided the ADC primary that produced them, a judgment the party has appealed. Tinubu's campaign has received endorsements from several state leaders in recent days. The claims could not be independently verified. The presidential election is scheduled for 16 January 2027.

Social media activist VeryDarkMan (VDM) has raised questions about a photograph showing the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) with a leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the UK.

What he said

In a post reported on Saturday, 14 November 2026, VDM clarified that the man wearing an APC-branded cap in the photo was not INEC chairman Professor Joash Amupitan, but Tunde Doherty, chairman of the APC's UK chapter. He asked what the APC official was doing with the INEC chairman and whether the UK leaders of other parties, including the NDC, Labour Party, PDP and ADC, had been given the same opportunity to meet him. He went on to claim that INEC was compromised.

Background

Amupitan was in London this week to speak at Chatham House about preparations for the 2027 elections. Protesters confronted him outside the venue, accusing the commission of bias, and he pledged to reject any political appointment after leaving office to show his independence. INEC has also denied reports that he plans to resign. INEC had not responded to VDM's post at the time of writing, and the circumstances of the photo are not clear.