₦airaland Forum

A former United States mayor, Mike Arnold, has rejected any potential political alliance between former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi and former Kano State Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, describing such a ticket as a “national disaster.”

Arnold accused Kwankwaso of links to terror and extremist networks, extremism in Sharia enforcement policies, and alleged involvement in a series of corruption scandals.

Arnold made the controversial remarks in a lengthy statement posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday night, May 25, 2026, where he declared that he would oppose any Obi-Kwankwaso presidential ticket in Nigeria’s 2027 general elections.

“No, I am not ok with Obi-Kwankwaso — and you shouldn’t be, either,” Arnold wrote. “I like Peter Obi. I am not sold on him yet, but he has potential, and I have an open mind.

“What will close my mind instantly, without any wiggle room, is an Obi-Kwankwaso ticket.”

The former mayor argued that Nigeria did not need what he described as another recycling of old political forces under a new alliance.

“Nigeria does not need more of the same. It does not need different gasoline running through the same engine. It does not need a different conductor on the train — not when the train has to follow the same damnable tracks,” he stated.


Arnold further accused Kwankwaso of maintaining unwavering loyalty to the Sultanate establishment despite moving across multiple political parties over the years, describing the former Kano governor as “a sniveling bootlicker to Sokoto.”

“Why am I against Kwankwaso? Simple. He is the Sultan's man. Most inside of the inner circle. A sniveling bootlicker to Sokoto in a five-decade career arc that has changed parties five times — PDP to APC to NNPP to ADC to NDC — but never once strayed from fealty to the throne,” he alleged.


He also made controversial claims regarding the activities of the current Sultan of Sokoto during the post-9/11 war on terror era.

Arnold alleged that sensitive operations involving countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia were known to only a few top Nigerian officials, including Kwankwaso, who was the Defence Minister at the time.

“When the future Sultan was — as a senior officer of an OIC nation — operating in the shadows during the war on terror, his assignment from the Nigerian government was to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. Every active jihadi theater of the post-9/11 era.

“One Nigerian Defense Attache who is a descendant of Muhammed. Five radical Islamic countries. Three years.

“There are only two other people in the Nigerian government who knew what he was up to. The President. And Kwankwaso, who was serving as Defense Minister at the time,” Arnold claimed.

Arnold further referenced the 2006 military aircraft crash that killed senior Nigerian Army officers and another crash involving the late Sultan Muhammadu Maccido and members of his family, suggesting there were unresolved questions surrounding both incidents.

“Incidentally, when the future Sultan returned from this post in 2006, not long after, the top ten reform-minded generals of the Nigerian Army died in a plane crash. The committee Obasanjo had assembled to clean up the military, gone in one flight,” Arnold said.

“A few weeks later, the sitting Sultan, his son and heir Senator Badamasi Maccido, and several grandchildren were killed in another plane crash. The Abuja airport radar was turned off when their plane went down.

“The Aviation Minister declared it a pilot error within 24 hours. The President ordered the arrests of aviation officials within 48 hours. Question closed,” he alleged.

Arnold also criticised the emergence of Sa’ad Abubakar as Sultan after the death of Maccido.

He alleged, “The future Sultan was turbaned four days later. Record time. Skipping past Maccido's surviving adult sons and past dozens of older brothers in the line, Sa'ad Abubakar was the youngest of 52 children of Sultan Siddiq Abubakar III.

“The Sultanate Council reached past all of them. And not long after that, all those terrorist groups from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia started showing up in Nigeria, where they have been slaughtering Christians and raping the land ever since.”

He claimed Kwankwaso’s tenure as Kano governor was equally troubling, citing the implementation of Sharia law and the creation of the Hisbah Board.

“As Governor of Kano State, Kwankwaso formally declared Sharia law on June 21, 2000, and established the Hisbah Board — the religious enforcement agency that has been arresting Kano residents for 'improper dress' and 'indecent mixing of the sexes' ever since,” Arnold stated.

“He lost his re-election in 2003 anyway, for being insufficiently Islamic for the Kano clerical establishment. Obasanjo handed him the Defence Ministry the same year.”

Arnold also referenced allegations of financial misconduct against Kwankwaso, including claims involving pension funds and pharmaceutical procurement contracts.

“When he returned as Kano Governor from 2011 to 2015, he left behind allegations that he misappropriated roughly N10 billion in pension contributions from Kano state workers,” he said.

“The EFCC interrogated him over it in 2021 and sealed his property. The investigation has stalled.

“A separate panel found that the EFCC chairman at the time had personally directed his operatives not to investigate Kwankwaso.

“Today, his nephew Musa Garba is under criminal investigation in Kano for a multi-billion-naira pharmaceutical procurement fraud allegedly tied to a contract awarded to his company without due process. Kwankwaso is publicly accused of interfering with the investigation to protect him.”

Arnold insisted that any presidential ticket involving Kwankwaso would be unacceptable to him, regardless of who emerged as the presidential candidate.

He said, “Sharia. Hisbah. Pension funds. Pharmaceutical contracts. The defence ministry during a genocide. A different party every cycle. And now the vice presidency.

“That is why I will actively oppose any ticket with Kwankwaso on it. No matter who is on top.

“Peter Obi, if you want my open mind, pick a running mate who is not a puppet of the Sultan.”

lamentor78:
Obi /K is a goal .....lol..
Una never see chumtin ...Obi will not have up to 2 million votes.

jmoore:
You guys said Obi won't get up to 1 million votes in 2023.

Babablu bulabu

mecuries:
Since you are sharing Mike Arnold's post, why don't you share the others he has written about this current government?

bmd1010:
Lobby money active

jmoore:
You guys said Obi won't get up to 1 million votes in 2023.

Babablu bulabu

TimeManager:
Obidients are so predictable. You don't have to deny Mike Arnold now, since you have been butt.. licking him over his attacks against the Administration in power and also when he was pushing the narrative of Christian Genocide until the US Government bought into it and acted on the agenda.
The same man has assured you that he's also going to make sure the US Govt respond strongly against Obi/Kwankwaso ticket.
You cheered him on in the past, so keep the energy and don't turn around like a chameleon.

-Kiss the truth!

Kylekent59:
This is what they call lobbying

Paying someone so as to do a dirty job and speak against or to prevent a success from happening.


Lol, thank God people are educated now.


Shea, I just bought gas at the rate of 1,700 per kg.


We shall know who laughs last.