Makarfi Urges Kaduna State Citizens To Vote PDP’s Ashiru, For Peace, Unity And Justice
The Oasis Reporters
March 5, 2019.
Worried about the continuity of his legacy of peace, unity of Kaduna state citizens and justice for the people, former Kaduna state governor and immediate past national chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Sen. Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi has urged his people in Kaduna state to vote for Hon. Isah Ashiru while describing the gubernatorial candidate of the PDP in Kaduna state as one whose administration will bring about peace, progress and justice if elected.
“I humbly request all party men and women not to relent, following the outcome of the just concluded presidential polls… I urge all citizens of Kaduna to vote for a candidate that means well for the people come 9th March, 2019.
“A vote for Isah Ashiru is a vote for peace, progress, justice and stability irrespective of religion, ethnicity and background – And lest we forget, during the buildup to the 2015 presidential elections, the All Progressive Congress, APC dismissed a muslim/muslim ticket of Buhari-Tinubu because the leaders of the party understood the effects of that in a country as complex as Nigeria”, Makarfi added during an interview granted in Hausa language, widely spoken in Kaduna state and all of North West Nigeria. The interview was kindly translated into English by YSAP media.
“We must be able to vote for a candidate who will make life easier and better… We will not fall into the trap of someone or some people dividing us along religious lines, that may usher in continuous conflict, unrest and in fact, the peace and unity that we have tried to build in the past years will be lost,” Makarfi added.
Ahmed Makarfi became People’s Democratic Party, PDP governor in 1999, meeting a state that was deeply divided in fratricidal crisis along Kaduna’s ethnic and religious fault-lines with hundreds dying or displaced due to its internecine conflicts.
Makarfi is widely credited for setting up a Commission of Enquiry that examined the root causes of the hate in Kaduna, then went on to dismantle both the internal and external colonial aberrations that caused the trouble in the state. He also uncommonly moved against the pack to implement the Committee recommendations that granted Chiefdoms to Southern Kaduna ethnic tribes and all the hate suddenly evaporated. Southern Kaduna tribes were no longer being ruled under Muslim Fulani emirs.
Till the present time, Ahmed Makarfi, former banker and financial analyst is highly eulogised across ethnic groups in Kaduna state for his uncommon sagacity in establishing peace in Kaduna state.
A Kaduna State indigene Hanna, had this to say about Senator Ahmed Makarfi:
“I feel he’s the best governor Kaduna State has ever had, though Governor Patrick Yakowa couldn’t finish his tenure for us to compare them”.
Another long term Kaduna resident from the South, added, “to me Makarfi is one of the best governors Kaduna state has ever had. Sabo by garage road today is because of him. It used to be very bumpy and dusty. He is simple and dogged in what he believes is best for the state whatever people think. He is a good and a humble man.”
Current governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai who is running on a Muslim-Muslim ticket after dropping his Christian deputy from the ticket has decided to redraw the Kaduna State map, putting some ethnic groups allegedly under areas that may seem to fall under old Emirates, while insisting that Chiefdoms in largely Christian tribes in Southern Kaduna must change their nomenclature to reflect the Muslim system of governance.
In the midst of the peaceful protests, alleged herdsmen militia have been suspected to have kidnapped a few chiefs in Southern Kaduna and after collecting huge ransoms, equally killed some of them, prominent amongst them is the late Agom of Adara Chiefdom. While he was killed, his wife was set free.
