From Olanrewaju Lawal, Birnin Kebbi
Kebbi State Governor, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu has described the emerged of the National President of Nigeria Union of Teachers(NUT), Dr. Nasir Idris as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress(APC) as the will of God.
Bagudu, who stated this while speaking after the announcement of the winners at the party’s primary held at Haliru Abdul Satadium, Birnin Kebbi, disclosed that, Idris had accepted to run for House of Representatives before all stakeholders held a meeting and resolved to support him for the governorship race.
According to him, “in the last weeks, what we saw was evidence of Malami sacrifices. Abubakar Malami was in the ballot whom members of the party were waiting to cast their votes for was, out of love for the nation, was returned by the Mr. President to help him to transform their works till 2023. And that is why he was unable to unable to participate in the primary as much as we want him.
“I remembers, when we have a stakeholders meeting few weeks ago. All stakeholders of the party enthusically endorsed Malami. But as believers, power comes from God and God shown us that it is Him who decide who takes that power. Today, we are happy,our brother, equally, loyal to the party,loyal to the state,President of NUT and Deputy President of NLC, Dr Nasir Idris has been so honoured by the delegates to be the flag bearer of the APC.
“ Dr Nasir Idris indicated his interest to be the governor, but when he was prevailed upon, that, look, we want to present united candidate and Kebbi want to show an example all the time. He graciously accepted to contest as an aspirant of the House Representatives. Little did he know that, that humility would pay off for him to be where he is today”.
Bagudu also commended the second runner up at the contest, Alhaji Abubakar Gari Malan for also conceding defeat stressed that God will surely reward him.
In his remark, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Chika Malami, congratulated the winner, Governor Bagudu, party members for the successful governorship primary stressing that, what was displayed at the primary, was democracy at work.
He said: “ What was displayed today, is actually democracy. The essence of democracy, the essence of security, the essence of collaboration. Democracy has gathered us here,to collectively and individually have a say , not only in the administration of our great state,but having a voice on whom and who should be consider, whom and who should be vested with the administration of our state. This has truly established what a true leader can do. Our Governor of Kebbi state has provided an atmosphere of peace,atmosphere of security, atmosphere of collectivity and effort of agencies of government which translated to the peaceful democracy processes today”.
“ In every local governments, our agents were represented, it was conducted freely, there was no any rancour, all our agents witnessed what had happened, including the screening, up to this point. We thank God for that, and all this was possible as a result of good leader, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu. He is so quite, but he has achieved a lot, we thank you for that”.
In his acceptance speech, Dr. Nasir Idris,thanked the State Governor, Malami and all the party members for the confidence they reposed in him and promised not to disappoint them.
“ I accept this nomination as a loyal and faithful flag bearer of our party in the forthcoming election in our state. I want to confess that my election as the flag bearer has humble me and I am sure I am not the only best person who qualified because all aspirants in the race were all qualified. I accept this with highest responsibility, knowing fully that this is big trust to service. I invite you to join me in prayer for guidance to fulfil the trust which God has rested on our shoulders together.