Vice Presidential Candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Rabiu Kwankwaso, has warned political parties against assuming that control of a large number of states would guarantee victory in the 2027 general election.

Kwankwaso, a former governor of Kano State, said many governors, particularly those in Northern Nigeria, had performed poorly in office and could find it difficult to campaign for their parties ahead of the election.

He made the remarks on Thursday while speaking at the NDC Town Hall Meeting in Rivers State. A video of the event was shared on X by a user, ChuksEricE.

The former Kano governor argued that previous elections had demonstrated that an incumbent government could be defeated regardless of the number of states controlled by the ruling party.

He cautioned politicians relying heavily on their numerical advantage among state governors against repeating what he described as a major political mistake.

“The sitting president lost the election. I’m giving you an example, especially those who think because they have over 30 governors, they cannot lose the election. That is a very big mistake,” Kwankwaso said.

He predicted that several governors, especially in the North, would face difficulties campaigning for their parties because of what he described as their poor performance in office.

“By the grace of God, all of them, especially the ones in the North, because I studied the trend. The trend is those governors and their party have performed woefully to the extent that it is very difficult for them even to come out and campaign,” he said.

Kwankwaso also criticised the management of public resources by state governments and the Federal Government, arguing that government revenues had increased substantially compared with previous years without a corresponding improvement in the living conditions of Nigerians.

Reflecting on his experience as governor in 1999, he said state and local governments received about N4 billion each at the time.

He contrasted that with the significantly higher revenues available to governments in recent years, questioning how the increased resources had been utilised.

“Now in one year, we have seen it on social media that our government collected over N1.11 trillion, just less than one year. You go around, what have you done with that money? Close to nothing,” he said.

The NDC vice-presidential candidate said the alleged poor performance of governments had contributed to growing public dissatisfaction across the country.

He identified insecurity as another major source of concern, particularly in Northern Nigeria, warning that the combination of public anger and persistent insecurity could have significant political consequences ahead of the 2027 elections.

“And people are very angry. And this anger is bad, and worse is the issue of insecurity, especially in northern Nigeria,” Kwankwaso said.