Former Kaduna Governor, Nasir El-Rufai has been caught in a video saying the Muslim/Muslim governorship ticket in the state will be sustained beyond 20 years, by the grace of God.
The Muslim/Muslim governorship ticket means having a Muslim governor and a Muslim deputy governor as against the belief in some quarters that a Muslim governor should be supported by a Christian deputy governor to be religious sensitive as Southern Kaduna is dominated by Christians.
In the viral video, El-Rufai was addressing a group of Islamic scholars.
He told the Imams that he nominated a fellow Muslim as running in 2019 because he knew they would win without the votes of Christians in the state.
He said, “Whenever I’m asked why I nominated a fellow Muslim, Dr Hadiza Sabuwa Balarabe as running mate in 2019, I’ve replied that the majority of none Muslim electorate do not vote for our party. Why then should I cede the running mate position to them?
“More so that I’ve calculated that we can win without their ballots, so why do I have to give them the deputy governor’s office? When we went campaigning the last time, they asked but we didn’t tell them exactly so.
“In politics, all that matters is to win, that’s why you go for people who’ll vote for you. We’ve done our survey, the outcome is that we don’t need them to win, so we don’t have to give them the deputy governor. Since the return of democracy, I’ve been able to identify our winning demography; that’s one.
“The second thing we want to prove, which we’ve been able to do in the past four years is that a government where the governor, deputy governor, Secretary to the State Government, Chief of Staff and the finance commissioner are all Muslims, Christians would have their rights protected. We intend to showcase the justice that’s embedded in Islam.
“This we’ve defended everywhere we went. Granted, Kaduna State Government is dominated by Muslims, but can anyone prove that the rights of Christians were violated under us? Better still, is there any district where we didn’t build roads, hospitals, or schools; or is there such a district where we didn’t support farmers through our agricultural scheme, whether or not they voted for us? Absolutely there’s none.
“Of course, for instance, we got more votes from Kubau, that’s why I’ll provide more democracy dividends there. Yes, I have to deliver double what I’ll take to Jaba to Kubau. This is in tandem with what you, the Imams and clerics have taught us; this type of Islamic leadership is driven by justice for all.
“Our revered prophet and his companions cohabited with the Jews, Christians, and even unbelievers and they all were loyal to him because he upheld justice for all. And by the grace of God, this Muslim/Muslim system would be sustained beyond 20 years.”
