Kaduna shrugs off anti Muslim-Muslim ticket threat, Uba Sani picks Hadiza

The Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kaduna State, Senator Uba Sani, has picked a fellow Muslim, Dr. Hadiza Balarabe, as his running mate for the upcoming 2023 gubernatorial elections in the state.

This comes as the two major religious groups, Islam and Christianity, in the state had forewarned about the danger in presenting a Muslim-Muslim ticket by the candidate of the APC.

Balarabe, from southern Kaduna, is Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s deputy.

Sani who made the announcement on Monday night after consultations with “critical stakeholders” said: “I am happy to announce that I have picked Her Excellency, Dr. Hadiza Sabuwa Balarabe, as my running mate in the 2023 governorship election in Kaduna State.”

The lawmaker said in statement that Dr. Balarabe had contributed immensely to the successes recorded by the El-Rufai administration, in infrastructure and human capital development. 

“Dr. Balarabe has demonstrated hard work, punctuality, dedication and team spirit in the discharge of her responsibility as Deputy Governor which has endeared her to the critical stakeholders in the State. 

“I wish to therefore call on the good people of Kaduna State to support the choice of Dr. Hadiza Sabuwa Balarabe as my running mate.

READ: Terrorism: More killings in Southern Kaduna, 11 dead, 30 houses burnt down

“I also enjoin them coming out en-masse to vote for our ticket during the forthcoming 2023 general election. Your mandate in 2023 will enable us to build a peaceful, prosperous, and greater Kaduna State.

“Together, we are determined to make the State a reference point for good and responsive governance,” Sani stated.

In a statement earlier, the Concerned Group of Christian Religious Leaders in Kaduna had warned the APC candidates of the House of Assembly and House of Representatives not to in any way support Sani’s Muslim Muslim ticket.

The group said it would reject any attempt by anyone to support the governorship candidate to go for a Muslim-Muslim ticket.

Pastor Gideon Alkhana, leader of the group, said it would be sacrilegious and evil should Senator Sani pick another Muslim as his running mate.

“If our brothers, who are vying for different political offices in southern Kaduna decided to support Uba Sani’s decision to fly a Muslim-Muslim ticket, we’ll make sure we mobilise against their elections in 2023.

“Kaduna State has already been deeply divided within the fault lines of ethnicity and religion. Uba Sani and his party cannot afford to continue with El-Rufai’s dangerous trend,” the group had said.

READ: Southern Kaduna: Groups, lawmakers indict federal, state govts for killings

In the same vein, the Kaduna Fairness and Justice Monitors had described as insensitive and deceptive the speculated plot by Sani, to repeat El-Rufai’s divisive politics of floating a Muslim/Muslim ticket in 2023.

The KFJM in a statement by its leader, Haruna Sahabi, had said its response was in reaction to speculation that Balarabe may be paired with Senator Uba Sani by the APC.

Sahabi had warned that his group would resist any attempt to use Islam as cover to deceive the Muslim voters, like El-Rufai did and ended up imposing Balarabe and widening the ethno-religious fault lines in the state.

“Besides neither Uba Sani nor the purported deputy has any record of being of any value to the Islamic religion and the Muslim community. This is just another desperate attempt to smear the religion of Allah by fronting it in politics to achieve a dubious political goal by people who clearly lack conscience.

“For the past three years since El-Rufai used lady as a bait for Muslim voters, this woman has not added any value to the government or to women folk and the state, beyond dragging the blessed name of Islam into ridicule.

“We are Muslims and we know for certain that a combination of Uba and Hadiza would not in any way be representative of the state’s Muslim community. At best it is another attempt to use Islam as bait to impose incompetence and gross insensitivity on the population,” Sahabi said.