El-Rufai: Muslim-Muslim ticket my most daring decision

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.