Abba Kabir Yusuf

Abba Kabir Yusuf (born 5 January 1963) is a Nigerian civil engineer and politician who has served as Governor of Kano State since 29 May 2023. Born in Gaya, Kano State, he studied civil engineering at the Federal Polytechnic Mubi and Kaduna Polytechnic and later obtained a postgraduate diploma and an MBA from Bayero University Kano.

A long-time associate of former governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Yusuf served as commissioner for works, housing and transport from 2011 to 2015. He contested the 2019 governorship election on the PDP platform and lost to Abdullahi Umar Ganduje. In 2022 he moved to the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and won the March 2023 governorship election with Aminu Abdussalam Gwarzo as his running mate. An election tribunal and the Court of Appeal nullified his victory in late 2023, but the Supreme Court restored him on 12 January 2024.

In May 2024 his government repealed the 2019 law that had split the Kano Emirate into five, and reinstated Muhammadu Sanusi II as Emir of Kano; the move led to a prolonged legal and political dispute. His administration has given particular budgetary priority to education, including recruitment of teachers, school renovations, payment of examination fees and the revival of foreign postgraduate scholarships.

In January 2026 Yusuf resigned from the NNPP and joined the All Progressives Congress (APC), together with most NNPP members of the state assembly and the local government chairmen. Deputy Governor Gwarzo, who remained in the NNPP, resigned on 27 March 2026, and Murtala Sule Garo, a former Kano commissioner and the APC's 2023 deputy-governorship candidate, was confirmed by the state assembly as the new deputy governor on 27 April 2026.