The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai has stated that he prefers someone from the ‘core team’ to take over from him as State Governor in 2023.
Though he denied anointing any particular person, El-Rufai said despite having a personal preference, it’s not solely up to him to choose his successor.
He explained further that he would prefer someone from the ‘core team’ because this represents a group of people who have been working with him since 2014 and understand the plans of policies of government hence, continuity would not be a challenge.
Governor El-Rufai stated that the leadership in Kaduna State will continue to discuss and rub minds with stakeholders to ensure a worthy successor emerges in 2023.
“I’ve not. I’ve not anointed anybody. Stories go round.
“There are some that say I’ve anointed my deputy governor and there are some that say I’ve anointed my Commissioner for Finance and there are some that say I’ve anointed my Commissioner of budget and planning, there are all kinds of stories arounds, but…I don’t want to anoint anyone,” El-Rufai declared during a Channels TV interview session on Wednesday.
“I think the leadership…our first eleven as I called it, the core leadership of Kaduna State would sit and debate this and see whether we can come up with one person we think is a worthy successor and what that person would do to carry the rest of the team together.
“We have our core team. We’ve started meeting regularly and even our senators join from Kaduna. We discuss this regularly and at some point, we’re going to make that decision, but we’ve not anointed anyone.
“If I tell you I don’t have preferences I would be lying. I do have preferences but because I’m human, even though I have preferences, I’m still praying that God chooses the right person for Kaduna State.
“Because for me, Kaduna is more important than anything, including myself, friendship and any preferences I may have and I’m human only God knows the best person to succeed me. I’m only human.
“My preference is in our core team, that is the first eleven. I said core team because these are the guys that worked with me since 2014 to organize our party, organized our campaign and we won and got elected.
“So, they know all the policies we formulated and implemented. So, they’ll not come and have about-turn changing direction.
“This is why I said our core team. Some are in the cabinet and some are in the National Assembly, but we have our core team and we’ll keep discussing. The reason I want someone from our team to succeed us is because I want continuity,” he added.
This article was originally published on Nigeria News