Kano Governor’s wife Zainab Kwankwaso files for divorce, offers to refund dowry amid political fallout
Abdullateef Fowewe
Zainab Musa Kwankwaso, the second wife of Kano State Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf and daughter of Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has filed for divorce at the Upper Area Court in Gudu, Abuja.
Court documents show she is seeking dissolution of the marriage through the Islamic procedure of khul’i and has offered to refund the dowry paid by the governor.
A civil summons (CV/97/26) requires Governor Yusuf to appear in court on 17 November 2026.
The couple married on 29 July 2006, when Zainab was working as an aide to her father.
They have six children. In her court filings, Zainab cited an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage, describing a prolonged lack of mutual care, love, affection and emotional connection.
She stated that reconciliation efforts had failed and that she had developed a deep aversion to remaining in the union.
The divorce petition comes against the backdrop of a political rupture between Governor Yusuf and his former mentor and father-in-law, Rabiu Kwankwaso.
Yusuf was elected governor in 2023 on the platform of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) with strong backing from Kwankwaso.
He later defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC), triggering a prolonged fallout that began roughly a year ago.
Sources link the political disagreement to growing strain within the marriage.
Reports indicate that on 28 October 2026, Zainab left the Kano Government House for her father’s residence on Miller Road in Kano before travelling to Abuja by air without her police orderly or other security personnel.
The development has drawn widespread attention as a further sign that reconciliation between the governor and the Kwankwaso political camp remains unlikely, with potential implications for Kano’s political alignments ahead of the 2027 elections.
