A former Chairman of the All Progressive Congress caucus in Kaduna State, Alhaji Ahmed Tijjani Ramalan, has appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to consider a ministerial nominee from Kaduna Central or Kaduna South to replace former governor Nasir El-Rufai for inclusiveness.
In an open letter to Tinubu on Sunday obtained by Media Talk Africa, Ramalan said: “The ministerial position should go to Zone 2 or Zone 3, where persons and politicians of high calibre are well placed to take such a position in view that both El-Rufai and Governor Uba Sani are from Zone 1.”
He called on President Tinubu to look critically into the sharing of political positions in Kaduna State, saying that the over-concentration of political offices in one zone is not auguring well for APC in the State.
He explained that before 2015, when APC took over Kaduna State by storm from PDP which had held sway for 16 years, there had been equity in the sharing of the spoils, according to the understanding among politicians and other stakeholders in the state.
According to him, based on gentlemen’s agreement, when the office of the governor goes to Zone 1, naturally, the deputy governorship position should go to the 2nd or 3rd senatorial zone.
He added that for a delicate balance, the ministerial position usually went to the remaining senatorial zone to achieve inclusiveness and complete representation in the state.
He stressed that adherence to that sharing formula meant all three senatorial zones were fully represented at both the state and federal levels.
There are speculations that after the former governor failed to make the ministerial list, he or the governor purportedly forwarded the name of a certain Jaafaru Sani from Kubau Local Government Area, insisting that Zone 1, where the governor hails from, must still produce the replacement.
Ramalan, however, cautioned the President, stressing that the politics of APC in Kaduna State is not about El-Rufai alone but about the entire membership of the party and the people of the state.
He warned that the political isolation of Zone 3 has not in any way helped the fortunes of the APC or peaceful co-existence in Kaduna.
