Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state, says the most
daring decision he ever took is the selection of a Muslim as his running mate
in the 2019 election.
Speaking at the government house, Kaduna, during a programme
put together in honour of his 60th birthday, el-Rufai said his choice of Hadiza
Balarabe as his deputy, was made to take religion and ethnicity off the table
in Kaduna.
He said he inherited a state deeply “religionised and
ethnicised” and he needed to make a difference.
“A lot has been said about some the decisions I have taken
over the years, what people call daring decisions, let me make a confession
today, all the examples of the decisions that I have made that are supposed to
be daring and courageous,” he said.
“The most daring one is that, last year, I took a decision
to pick a woman, a Muslim as my running mate to contest election in Kaduna
state. It was the most daring decision I have taken because in this state,
everything is religionised.
“If you invite someone to a lunch, he would try to add
religion connotation to it. We are trying to cure our state of that
religionisation and ethnicisation and I thought the best way to do it is to
take religion off the table of Kaduna state politics. That was why we finally
settled for Dr. Hadiza Balarabe. She confessed to me months after we had won
the election that, when I called to inform her I was nominating her to be my
running mate, she thought, oh, this man is going to lose election because of
me.
“But, we won. And I say we probably won because of her, not
the other way round. So, I want to thank our team. We have a very hard-working
team in Kaduna. I have been blessed to have hard-working, intelligent people
around who do all the work, while I end up taking the credit that I don’t
deserve.”
Among dignitaries who attended the event were Senate
President Ahmad Lawan; Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of APC; John
Odigie-Oyegun, former national chairman of APC; Rotimi Amaechi, minister of
transportation; and Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance.
The governors who attended are Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos),
Godwin Obaseki (Edo), Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti) and Simon Lalong (Plateau).
Also in attendance were Adeyeye Ogunwusi, ooni of Ife, and
Muhammadu Sanusi, emir of Kano.
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