…As Ex-NPHCDA boss, Shuaib drops Nasarawa governorship aspiration
By Rotimi Asher, Lagos
As preparations for the 2027 gubernatorial election gathers momentum, Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, yesterday endorsed his deputy, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, as his successor.
Sanwo-Olu, made this known after a closed-door meeting at Lagos House, Marina.
AljazirahNigeria reports that following the endorsement Hamzat officially declared his intention to run for the governorship seat before members of the State Executive Council as well as All Progressives Congress, APC leaders.
The meeting was attended by members of the Governor’s Advisory Council, including former Minister of State (Defence), Musiliu Obanikoro, and Ganiyu Solomon, among others.
Sanwo-Olu, while giving rationale for the endorsement said that it was a unanimous decision reached by stakeholders during the meeting.
According to him, “We just received Mr Deputy, who had come with a very powerful delegation of our leaders in the state to inform us of his intention to contest for the seat of the governorship position of the state.
“It was unanimous with all of us to say that Mr Deputy Governor is a man who is fit and well-prepared for this job. He is a man who knows where all the rooms in the house are,” he stated.
Meanwhile, a former Chief Executive Officer of the National Primary Healthcare and Development Agency, NPHCDA, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, has withdrawn from the Nasarawa State governorship race.
Shuaib also declared his support for Sen. Ahmed Wadada, Gov. Abdullahi Sule’s preferred successor.
Shuaib, who aspired for the Nasarawa governorship position on platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, announced his withdrawal from the race at a press conference on Monday in Lafia.
He explained that his decision was based on a commitment made during a meeting with other aspirants and the governor, to support any of them so chosen by the governor.
“Some weeks ago, the amiable governor of our state in keeping with the consultative tradition of our great party, summoned the gubernatorial aspirants from the Nasarawa West Senatorial District and eight of us contesting from the zone answered the call.
He charged us with a single task to deliberate among ourselves and emerge with a consensus candidate, so the western zone might enter the primaries united.
“We tried, in good faith. We met as colleagues. We met as brothers. We sat with one another, weighing every consideration that decent men can weigh in such a season.
“But the truth is that we could not arrive at a single name by our own hands. And so we returned to the governor and asked him to make that determination on our behalf, undertaking that the rest of us would rally behind whomever he chose” , Shuaib said.
He further explained that two weeks later, the governor reconvened a stakeholders’ meeting where he announced Wadada as his preferred candidate.
Shuaib explained that he had promised to support whoever the governor chooses among the eight of them from Nasarawa West and that he intends to keep to his promise.
“Accordingly, I am formally withdrawing from the contest for the APC gubernatorial ticket in Nasarawa State. I throw my full weight, the weight of my structure, and the weight of my conviction behind the preferred candidate of the governor, Sen. Ahmed Wadada.
“The strength we have built across this state remains intact, and it stands ready to serve the journey ahead.
”I urge every supporter who has stood with me to receive what comes next with open hearts and willing hands. I ask you to give this next chapter the same loyalty, energy, and prayers you gave me”, he said.