Dr Hadiza Balarabe and Nasir El-rufai
Nasir El-Rufai, the Kaduna State Governor, has announced the
selection of a Muslim woman, Hadiza Balarabe, as his running mate for
the 2019 general election.
A statement by the governor’s spokesman, Samuel Aruwan, said the
choice of Ms Balarabe as running mate continues Mr El-Rufai’s deliberate
policy of promoting women.
“There are five female commissioners in his 14-person cabinet, a
feat not attained even by governors that had much larger cabinets. This
is the first time in the history of Kaduna State that a major political
party will select a woman as running mate.
“The incumbent Deputy Governor, Arc. Barnabas Yusuf Bala, has
opted to go to the National Assembly and has since emerged as the APC’s
candidate for the southern Kaduna senatorial district.
“Dr. Hadiza Balarabe is the current Executive Secretary of the
Kaduna State Primary Health Care Development Agency, a position she has
held since February 2016. In that role she has overseen the Kaduna State
Government’s programme to revitalise and strengthen primary health care
as the core of health service delivery in the state. Under her watch,
the state is renovating and equipping 255 primary health centres with
tools to assist better antenatal services and safer delivery. The agency
has also helped expand vaccine coverage to protect children across the
state.
“Prior to joining the Kaduna State Government, Dr. Hadiza
Balarabe was Director of Public Health in the FCT. She studied Medicine
at the University of Maiduguri, and graduated in 1988. She was a Senior
Registrar at the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital before
joining the services of the FCT in 2004.
“Dr. Hadiza Balarabe, who was born in 1966, is from Sanga local
government which is located in the southern Kaduna senatorial
district.”