“The reason why the governors and president have deputies is in the event of mortalities. I am 58 to 59 years old; I could drop dead. I have to pick someone in the event I drop dead, which can happen anytime. Can that person run the state competently?" el-Rufai said.
Nasir el-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State, says the reason presidents and governors have deputies is in the event of “mortalities”.
He stated this when he featured on Sunrise Daily, a programme on Channels Television.
El-Rufai stated this in defence of his selection of Dr. Hadiza Balarabe as his running mate.
His words: “I think politics is a way to elect leaders that would deliver public good and what is important is not the religion of the person or his ethnicity but whether he can deliver and I am confident that Dr. Hadiza can deliver.
“The reason why the governors and president have deputies is in the event of mortalities. I am 58 to 59 years old; I could drop dead. I have to pick someone in the event I drop dead, which can happen anytime. Can that person run the state competently? That was what determined my choice in 2015 and that determined my choice in 2019. Religion or ethnicity are at the back of my mind.”
Speaking on his decision to adopt a Muslim-Muslim ticket, he added: “I am saying that the policy of allocating the deputy governor slot to a Christian in Kaduna State, which has been more or less the unstated policy since 1992, has not succeeded in advancing unity, integration of Christian and Muslim communities in Kaduna State.
“In fact, one of the worst rounds of violence we have had in the state was in 1992 exactly when Maggie was the first Christian deputy governor of Kaduna State.”
On if the Muslim-Muslim ticket would make a difference, he said: “I do not know. I am ready to try. What I am saying is the Muslim-Christian ticket has not delivered on the promise, so what is wrong in trying something else?”