They promised progress, empowerment, and to uplift the women of Kano State.
Instead, the All Progressives Congress government of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf is handing out underwear with the governor’s face stamped on the crotch.
Photos and reports circulating online confirm that Kano State government supporters distributed red underwear printed with Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf’s image to women across the state as political mobilization material. The distribution has gone viral — but not for the reasons the governor’s camp hoped.
The backlash has been swift, merciless, and deeply mocking. And it comes at a particularly sensitive time, as Yusuf finds himself locked in an intense political rivalry with his former mentor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, ahead of the 2027 elections.
The Insult Beneath the Fabric
Let us be clear about what is happening here. The women of Kano State do not need underwear from their governor. They need functional schools for their children. They need accessible healthcare when they fall sick. They need clean water that does not require walking kilometers to fetch. They need economic opportunities that do not force them to depend on handouts from politicians who only remember them when elections are near.
But underwear? That is what the APC government has decided to offer. And not just any underwear. Red underwear with the governor’s face branded directly on the fabric and in the exact location that no woman wants to think about any politician, let alone the man governing her state.
The symbolism is almost too grotesque to unpack. A woman putting on this underwear is, in the most literal sense, placing the governor’s face between her legs. What message is being sent? Does the state own the bodies of its women? Does Governor Yusuf see himself as so omnipresent that even the most intimate garments must bear his image? That the APC government’s relationship with women not one of service, but of violation?
As one Nairaland user put it: “His face is even on the underwear. When those women wear those underwears at night, he will appear to them in their dream, making sweet love to people’s wives like the incubus”.
If the government truly believed in women’s empowerment, it would invest in vocational training centers. It would fund maternal healthcare. It would ensure that girls can complete their education without being forced into early marriage. It would address the economic desperation that makes a pair of underwear seem like a gift worth accepting.
But that work is hard. That work requires money, planning, and political will. Printing your face on underwear is easy. It is cheap. And it is deeply, profoundly insulting.
The Political Context: A Bitter Rivalry
This bizarre stunt is not happening in isolation. It comes at a moment of intense political realignment in Kano State, where Governor Yusuf has found himself in a heated rivalry with his former political godfather, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.
Yusuf rose to power in 2023 largely due to Kwankwaso’s influence and political machinery. But in early 2026, the governor formally abandoned Kwankwaso and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), crossing into the APC and aligning with former governor Abdullahi Ganduje.
The move has been widely interpreted as a strategic effort to consolidate governance and strengthen access to federal support. But it has also opened deep wounds. Kwankwaso has described Yusuf’s defection as “the worst betrayal I have witnessed in my life,” warning that the governor’s political fate was sealed the moment Ganduje raised his hand at the defection ceremony.
Against this backdrop, the underwear distribution takes on a new meaning. Analysts see it as a desperate attempt by Yusuf to build grassroots visibility and secure the women’s vote amid a fierce battle for Kano’s political soul. The governor’s camp may have hoped the flashy red fabric would boost his image. Instead, it has handed his opponents a propaganda gift.
The Online Firestorm
On social media, reactions have ranged from disbelief to fury to dark humor.
One viral commenter wrote: “Kano governor’s face on underwear crotch? This is a new level of madness”.
Another posted: “Imagine buying your wife underwear and seeing the governor’s face down there. Divorce is the only option.”
A third commented: “2027 is coming, and politicians have officially lost their minds. Underwear with a face on the crotch? Who approved this?”
The backlash is not just about decency. It is about the growing perception that politicians like Yusuf have run out of ideas. In the midst of a heated rivalry with Kwankwaso, who still commands a massive grassroots following in Kano, the governor’s decision to resort to such bizarre tactics suggests a campaign in panic mode.
The outrage is justified. Women in Kano face real, life-altering challenges: Poverty. Illiteracy. Lack of access to healthcare. Gender-based violence. These are not problems that can be solved with a distribution of underwear — let alone underwear that turns women into walking advertisements for a politician’s face in the worst possible location.
Instead, the government is offering fabric with a face. And expecting gratitude.
The Desperation Behind the Stunt
Why would a sitting governor approve such a degrading campaign? The answer lies in the high stakes of Kano politics.
Kano State is the most populous in northern Nigeria and a key battleground in any election. With less than two years until the 2027 polls, Yusuf knows that women are a critical voting bloc. He also knows that economic hardship has made many women vulnerable to even the smallest gestures.
The underwear distribution is not happening in isolation. It is part of a broader strategy of appealing to women with low-cost, high-visibility “gifts” that cost the government little but generate political goodwill among those who do not have the luxury to question the motive.
His opponent, Kwankwaso, has already built the ADC into a formidable opposition platform in Kano. The former governor has a reputation for loyalty among his followers. If Yusuf cannot match that loyalty with performance or policies, he may be reduced to gimmicks.
This underwear stunt suggests that the governor’s camp may have run out of substantive ideas.
The Bottom Line
The Kano State APC government under Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf has been distributing red underwear printed with the governor’s face to women across the state ahead of the 2027 election. The placement of the face — right where the crotch is — has sparked viral backlash and widespread mockery online.
The official explanation is social intervention. The political reality is something else entirely: a desperate attempt to buy votes with the most intimate and degrading gift imaginable, amid a fierce rivalry with former mentor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.
The women of Kano deserve better. They deserve governments that take them seriously, not governments that stamp their faces on underwear and expect women to wear them in silence. They deserve policies that lift them out of poverty, not handouts that treat them as objects. They deserve dignity.
And a pair of underwear with a governor’s face on the crotch is not dignity. It is an insult. It is a violation. And it is proof that those in power have lost all sense of shame.
