Ishola Michael, Bauchi
Members of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) who are a faction of the party from the defunct All Nigeria Police Party (ANPP) in Kano State, have endorsed the gubernatorial candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, Dr Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna for the rescheduled March 18th elections.
The group led by Hon. Mustapha Muhammad Bagwai who is the Coordinator of the NNPP and PDP coalition for Gawuna 2023 made the endorsement in a statement issued on Friday, copies of which were made available to Journalists in Bauchi.
According to Mustapha Bagwai, “We are all convinced that Nasiru Gawuna is the most experienced of all the gubernatorial candidates in Kano State having worked with the first civilian Governor of Kano State since the return of democracy in 1999, Engr. Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso and his two successors, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau and Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.”
He stated that,”Whoever had ever had the opportunity of living in Kano state from 2004 when the then Governor of the State and currently a serving Senator representing Kano Central, Sen. Ibrahim Shekarau first appointed Dr. Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna as Caretaker Chairman of Nasarawa Local Government where the duo hail from could without any iota of doubt, tell you that Dr. Gawuna is a great performer and a silent achiever.”
“He performed creditably well by making sure that no single ward in Nasarawa Local Government did not get capital projects worth hundreds of millions of Naira ranging from road construction, provision of portable drinking water, training thousands of youths in various fields of occupation, building of schools and hospitals as well as equipping them with sophisticated working materials to enable the teachers and the health workers carry out their jobs without any hindrances,” he stressed.
Mustapha Bagwai stressed further that, “In fact, Dr. Gawuna was one of the three best performing Local Government Chairmen who made the then ANPP proud owing to the innumerable projects he executed in Nasarawa Local Government Area.”
He said that, “The achievements was used as a yardstick by the people of Nasarawa Local Government who made sure he succumbed to the pressure they mounted on him to run for the same office he was occupying at that time which he did out of the respect he has always had for his fellow human beings and won.”
According to him, “It is imperative on us (members of the defunct ANPP family) to throw our weight behind one of our own, Dr. Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna, irrespective of our current political affiliations, hoping that he will, if elected Kano State Governor, turn the state around religiously, economically, socially and politically as did our political Godfather, Senator Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau.”
He said that,”Some of us who are currently in the NNPP and PDP from all the Three Senatorial Zones met several times and agreed unanimously to support Dr. Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna in our various capacities.”
“This is because we strongly believe that Nasiru Gawuna will not hesitate in giving out to the Local Governments their monthly allocation from the federation account which is popularly known as grant,” he stressed.
He concluded saying, “Because he too knows having been one of the Local Government chairmen who worked closely with the former Governor of Kano State Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau that denying the Local Governments their financial autonomy is as good as entrenching poverty and poverty is a root cause of all social of evils in every society.”
