Mr. Muyiwa Adekeye, Special Adviser to Kaduna State Governor on Media and Communication has said the choice of Dr. Hadiza Balarabe as running mate to Mallam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai is simply continuing policies that promote women.
TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports Mr. Adekeye stated this on Sunday while stressing that criticisms of Governor el-Rufai for picking a fellow Muslim as running mate for the 2019 governorship election in the state are acts of hypocrisy.
“Hypocrisy has raged since Mallam el-Rufai picked Dr. Hadiza Balarabe as his running mate. This equal opportunity governor is simply continuing policies that promote women, uphold merit, emphasize residency and incline people to a common purpose, not mire them in identity politics,” the Governor’s Aide stated.
Mallam el-Rufai on Friday picked Balarabe as his running mate for the 2019 governorship election in the state, putting to rest speculations that the Chairman of the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Air Commodore Emmanuel Jekada (rtd.) would emerge as the governor’s running mate.
In the same vein, the Governor’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Samuel Aruwan, said Balarabe’s choice was el-Rufai’s deliberate policy to promote women.
“There are five female commissioners in his 14-person cabinet, a feat not attained even by governors that had much larger cabinets.
“This is the first time in the history of Kaduna State that a major political party will select a woman as running mate,” he said.
Born in 1966, Balarabe is from Sanga Local Government Area in Southern Kaduna, with the Southern Kaduna Elders Forum (SOKEFO) endorsing her emergence as running mate to the Governor.