Achilleus-Chud Uchegbu
The duo of Uba Sani and Dr. Hadiza Balarabe will enter the 2023 governorship election as the team to beat with El-Rufai providing guidance. El-Rufai has worked very hard to make the team a reality. However, the bigger task is to get the generality of the Kaduna people standing firmly behind them as they did with El-Rufai. The transformation of Kaduna under El-Rufai will stand as positive testimony in support of what Uba Sani and Balarabe represent for the future of the state. Together, they will be expected to translate the un-executed portion of El-Rufai’s transformational vision for Kaduna into practical deliverables that will bring out the best in the promise that Kaduna holds for its people and for Nigerians generally, because, as it is said, talent win games but teamwork win championships.
Last Monday, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kaduna state, Senator Uba Sani, announced the selection of the incumbent deputy governor of the state, Dr. Hadiza Balarabe, as his running mate for the election holding in 2023. Making public the decision, Sen. Uba Sani 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. Dr. Hadiza Balarabe has contributed immensely to the giant strides recorded by Mallam Nasir El-Rufai’s 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”
Instructively, Sen. Uba Sani said the decision was taken “after consultation with critical stakeholders of Kaduna state”, and, then, assured that “together, we are determined to make the state a reference point for good and responsive governance”. The announcement was followed by some feelings of ecstasy among APC followers in the state who believe, and insist, that El-Rufai, hate him or like him, has raised the bar in transformational leadership and governance in Kaduna state. It is also believed that such a bar can only properly be sustained by a team that understands the development mindset of the governor and would be ready to take off from where he stopped.
The choice of an incumbent deputy governor, as running mate in the next election cycle, on the ticket of the same party, is novel. Unless memories fail, it comes as the first such experiment since 1999. What Nigerians have become used to is the situation where an incumbent deputy, who fails to achieve the ticket of the party to become a candidate, jumps ship and seeks to actualize such ambition elsewhere. This practice, as democratic as it presents itself to be, has also robbed states of institutional memory and created a vacuum that new administrations seek to fill by engaging in a series of trials that often fail to achieve the purpose. Sometimes, the relationship between a governor and his deputy has been akin to that which obtains between cat and mouse, but in Kaduna, we see a leadership transitional process where the deputy governor is an intrinsic and active part; one which critical stakeholders in the state-approved of.
Somehow too, this new development adds flavour to the leadership recruitment process in Kaduna, which has seen the incumbent work the process to produce a capable hand that had undergone tutelage and is prepared to take on the task of governance from day one. By also working the process to bring forward his deputy as running mate, El-Rufai shows a trait that is rare. He shows trust in Dr. Balarabe’s competence and capacity. By also accepting to be running mate to Uba Sani, by implication continuing in office as deputy governor, Dr. Balarabe also shows humility and willingness to lend her hands towards achieving the development blueprint started by El-Rufai. For one, she brings forward institutional memory of the administration into the new administration when it is empaneled at the 2023 election. For this, El-Rufai may have introduced a new leadership recruitment template that may resonate across the country in the future. What it means, therefore, is that in recruiting a running mate, a candidate is expected to select someone, male or female, who is as competent and capable of leadership trust even in the absence of the principal. Dr. Balarabe had demonstrated this very much to the appreciation of stakeholders in the state.
Let’s not forget that Dr. Balarabe had acted as Kaduna state governor on occasions when El-Rufai took a holiday. On such occasions, the leadership of the state went on seamlessly. It shows how trustworthy she is. Trust is therefore an essential quality of leadership and ought to come into play in the leadership recruitment process of the country. This had played a huge role in denying some persons, who the public hitherto thought, and believed, to be eminently qualified to take over the mantle from their principals, the opportunity of stepping into the bigger shoe. Those who betray trust often find themselves alienated from the leadership process. So, beyond other variables that cause governor/deputy squabbles, trust comes in very strongly as a factor. In El-Rufai’s Kaduna, it is clearly demonstrated. Dr. Balarabe would not have made it this far if El-Rufai did not trust her to be as supportive of Uba Sani, as she was with him.
Beyond trust, what the leadership recruitment process of Kaduna state has clearly established is the place of women in the governance of the state. Kaduna is the only state where a female deputy has been given so much voice and made relevant in leadership. Dr. Balarabe is the first female deputy governor in Kaduna State. She is also, now, on the course, to becoming the first female deputy governor to work with two different governors. That should be an attestation to her quality, and the value she brings to government. She may well be on the march towards greater calling and service to Nigeria.
The duo of Uba Sani and Dr. Hadiza Balarabe will enter the 2023 governorship election as the team to beat with El-Rufai providing guidance. El-Rufai has worked very hard to make the team a reality. However, the bigger task is to get the generality of the Kaduna people standing firmly behind them as they did with El-Rufai. The transformation of Kaduna under El-Rufai will stand as positive testimony in support of what Uba Sani and Balarabe represent for the future of the state. Together, they will be expected to translate the un-executed portion of El-Rufai’s transformational vision for Kaduna into practical deliverables that will bring out the best in the promise that Kaduna holds for its people and for Nigerians generally, because, as it is said, talent win games but teamwork win championships.
