Ahead of the March 11 governorship election in Kaduna State, President Muhammadu Buhari’s in-law, Sani Sha’aban, has begun his governorship campaign on the platform of the Action Democratic Party.
Sha’aban, a former governorship aspirant and founding member of the All Progressives Congress in Kaduna, resigned from the ruling party last year.
The former member of the House of Representatives, who contested for the governorship primary in May 2022, had noted that the APC in Kaduna had “little or no regard for human lives, social integration, and rule of law,” hence his decision to quit his membership of the party.
To realize his dream, Sha’aban moved to the ADP.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that while flagging off his campaign at Tashan Yari in Makarfi Local Government Area of the state, on Monday, he reeled out promises including tackling poverty as well as the prevailing insecurity in the state.
Addressing the crowd, the governorship candidate, who had contested for the position in the state on the platform of the All Nigeria People Party, noted that he was in the race to add value to the people whom he claimed, were living in abject poverty.
While saying that he would reclaim the state from its current state of decadence, Sha’aban maintained that he would tackle the spate of insecurity that had over the years, prevented farmers from farming.
Speaking shortly after the rally, the governorship hopeful told newsmen that he would bring back the lost peace and glory enjoyed in the state in the past three decades “where Muslims and Christians lived in peace without suspicion.”
He added: “My number one priority if God gives me the chance and opportunity, is to bring back the past glory of Kaduna, a state where Christians and Muslims dwell among themselves without any fear or any thought of being harmed in whatever way or manner.
“I will bring back the peace and glory the state used to enjoy in the last three decades, then all other development projects such as education, agriculture and normal trading will begin to take place.
“Kaduna used to be the hub of ginger; potatoes and various cash crops but today, all we can see is abject poverty on the faces of those who are growing such crops. Kaduna is in a serious catastrophic situation today.
“What is the basis of having roads and you don’t have the vehicles to ply them or what are the basis of having roads when you have people that have not been paid salaries, whose children cannot go to school; people that have no places that they can call trading places in the form of markets. Kaduna is virtually on its knees.”
Also speaking, the Director-General of the ADP Governorship Campaign Council, Ben Kure, told the crowd that if elected, the administration of Sha’aban would carry the masses along and listen to their yearnings.
He added that the campaign council decided to take the rally off the state capital “because if we say the masses are our topmost priority, we must go to where the masses are.”
According to him, “With our government, the masses will have their demands met, unlike in the past where political actors promise you and abandon you after the election.”
Earlier, the state chairman of the party, Umar Isah, noted that the state was in dire need of positive change, adding that only Sha’aban could effect such change of bringing succour to the state.
He, therefore, appealed to the people of the state to close ranks and flush out the ruling All Progressives Congress and Peoples Democratic Party in the state.
“The people of Kaduna State are yearning for change and Sha’aban will bring in the much needed change in the state. And the only alternative is to bring in the ADP and Shaban in the forthcoming election,” he said.
