Abubakar Ahmadu Maishanu
Abubakar Ahmadu Maishanu is a politics reporter with Premium Times who focuses on the power struggles, security shocks and governance disputes shaping party competition in northern Nigeria. His coverage brings together daily reporting on elections and party manoeuvring with close attention to how violence, corruption investigations and economic strain intersect with political authority.
Bauchi APC primaries and PRP realignment
Maishanu’s reporting on Bauchi’s 2027 governorship race follows the breakdown of internal democracy within the All Progressives Congress and the resulting wave of defections. In his coverage of the Bauchi APC primaries, he details how senators Shehu Buba and Samaila Dahuwa left the party, with Buba withdrawing from the governorship primary in protest over alleged violations of both the APC and national constitutions and Dahuwa resigning after losing his senatorial ticket. He documents that the contested primary produced former governor Mohammed Abubakar as the APC’s candidate, even as disaffected figures exited the party. Maishanu then tracks Buba’s rapid move to the Peoples Redemption Party, showing how, within a day of leaving the APC, Buba secured the PRP governorship ticket after emerging as the sole cleared aspirant and being formally affirmed by the party’s deputy national vice chairman, Haruna Buhari. Through this sequence, he highlights the mechanics of party constitutions, primary procedures and factional realignments rather than treating defections as isolated drama.
2027 election calculations and party power-sharing fights
Beyond Bauchi, Maishanu reports on the 2027 cycle as a series of power-sharing disputes, candidate substitutions and elite mobilisation efforts across northern states. In Jigawa, he covers how arguments over power-sharing and candidate changes inside the African Democratic Congress threaten the party’s chances ahead of the 2027 elections, framing the story around internal disputes rather than campaign rhetoric. His reporting on Yobe’s 2027 contest captures a senator’s public rejection of an APC consensus governorship pick, including the lawmaker’s statement on social media and criticism of those who use ethnic backgrounds to define political choices. He also follows the formation of a Tinubu reelection mobilisation group involving figures such as Ibrahim Shekarau, Ibrahim Shema, Geidam and Badaru, showing how established politicians organise around the presidency well ahead of the vote. Across these pieces, Maishanu’s focus is on the rules, negotiations and grievances that sit under party labels, treating consensus arrangements and mobilisation committees as concrete structures that shape electoral outcomes.
Banditry, political figures and local security crises
Maishanu regularly links political reporting to the security realities faced by communities and officeholders in the North West.
In Kano State, he documents how armed bandits killed at least five people in Yankamaye, a community in Tsanyawa Local Government Area, and rustled livestock during the attack. His Zamfara coverage includes a highway assault in which gunmen opened fire on the vehicle of a prominent APC chieftain, a cleric and former commissioner for religious affairs, who narrowly escaped death.
In another Zamfara report, he details how bandits abducted a local government chairman and killed four security personnel, underlining the vulnerability of both citizens and political officeholders on the ground. These stories are reported with specific locations, casualty figures and roles of victims, making clear how insecurity intersects with political structures without turning the incidents into abstract conflict narratives.
Corruption investigations and economic pressure
Maishanu’s work also reaches into corruption scrutiny and economic hardship, showing how governance issues play out beyond party headquarters.
A report on police actions in Kano identifies him as a Premium Times reporter whose recent investigations exposed shady dealings involving former governor Abdullahi Ganduje in a multi‑billion‑naira Dala Inland Dry Port ownership scandal, a case serious enough to prompt a formal summons from the state’s Criminal Investigation Department. His inclusion in a multi‑reporter special report on soaring cooking gas prices documents how rising costs are squeezing Nigerian households and businesses, adding an economic dimension to his broader interest in how policy and market conditions affect ordinary lives.
Taken together, his investigative work on alleged corruption and his contribution to reporting on domestic energy prices underscore a through‑line of examining where political authority, public resources and everyday hardship meet.
Across this body of work, Maishanu treats politics as a system of rules, contests and consequences, not just personalities, tracking how party constitutions, security breakdowns and economic shocks shape the choices available to politicians and citizens in northern Nigeria.
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