For nearly a decade, few political decisions have generated as much debate in Kaduna State as former Governor Nasir El-Rufai...
For nearly a decade, few political decisions have generated as much debate in Kaduna State as former Governor Nasir El-Rufai's choice, in 2019, to run for re-election alongside Dr. Hadiza Balarabe, a fellow Muslim from Sanga Local Government Area in the Southern Kaduna senatorial zone. The arrangement broke with the state's long-standing convention of pairing a Muslim governor with a Christian deputy, a convention widely regarded as one of the informal safeguards for peace in a state whose history has, at various points, been scarred by ethno-religious conflict.
It is important, however, to be honest about what that decision was, and what it was not. El-Rufai himself, on several public occasions, explained the choice not as an attempt to advance any faith over another, but as a calculated political gamble aimed at winning elections in a deeply divided environment, and at demonstrating that competence and capacity, rather than religious identity, should determine leadership. Whatever one makes of that reasoning, the record shows a governor making a strategic wager, not a cleric issuing a doctrinal position. The ticket won at the polls in 2019, and Governor Uba Sani retained Dr. Balarabe as his running mate when he emerged as the APC's candidate in 2023.
That context matters today, because it clarifies what is genuinely new. Announcing the nomination of Mr. Jerry Adams, FCTI, FNIM, CNA, as his running mate for the 2027 governorship election, Governor Uba Sani described the decision as far greater than the mere selection of a deputy, a reaffirmation of the values of inclusion, justice, fairness and equity that have guided his administration since he took office on 29 May 2023. The Governor framed Kaduna's diversity of faiths, ethnicities and cultures not as a burden but as the state's greatest strength, and called on citizens to view the nomination through the broader vision of a Kaduna where every faith is respected and every citizen holds an equal stake in the state's future.
That framing deserves to be taken seriously, and it deserves to be reinforced, including from within the Islamic tradition that the Governor and his predecessor both belong to.
Justice, or “adl” is not a peripheral value in Islam; it is one of its central commands. The Qur'an instructs believers to stand firm for justice as witnesses for God, even when that justice runs against their own interest, their parents, or their kinsmen (Q4:135), and it commands that hatred of a people must never lead one to deviate from dealing justly with them (Q5:8). Islamic scholarship has long held that justice is owed to all people regardless of faith, and that a ruler's legitimacy rests substantially on his fairness to every community under his charge, Muslim and non-Muslim alike. Seen through this lens, a Muslim governor's decision to widen inclusion by ensuring that Southern Kaduna and the Christian community have genuine representation at the highest levels of government is not a departure from Islamic principle but an expression of it. Justice built on equity is a value Kaduna's Christian communities recognise and cherish as their own as well, and it is on that shared ground, rather than on competing claims of religious virtue, that lasting unity is best built.
Governor Sani's own account of his three years in office lends weight to this reading. He has pointed to investments in roads, schools, hospitals, water supply, agriculture and social protection across all twenty-three Local Government Areas, and to sustained engagement with traditional rulers, religious leaders, women and youth groups as the basis for a steadier peace, one in which farmers have returned to their land and confidence in government has been gradually restored. Whether one credits security improvements, economic recovery or reconciliation efforts, the underlying claim is consistent with the choice of running mate: that fairness and inclusion are governing principles, not campaign slogans deployed once every four years.
Kaduna's political class and its citizens; Muslim and Christian, Northern and Southern, have every reason to welcome this direction. The state's history has taught a hard lesson: that when politics hardens along religious or sectional lines, ordinary people pay the price, often in blood, while political actors on all sides move on largely unscathed. Whether under a Muslim-Muslim arrangement or a faith-balanced one, the deeper obligation of leadership has always been the same; to govern for all of Kaduna, not for a section of it.
This is why the current moment matters. A governor signalling that unity, rather than division, will define his political strategy is not simply making an electoral calculation; he is setting a tone, and grounding it explicitly in justice. That tone should be encouraged, not treated with cynicism, and certainly not weaponised by those who benefit from keeping old wounds open. Religious and community leaders across the state from the Christian Association of Nigeria and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria to Muslim clerics and traditional institutions have a role to play in reinforcing this message of cohesion rather than relitigating past grievances.
None of this requires anyone to pretend that Kaduna's history of tension between its Northern and Southern zones, or between its Muslim and Christian communities, did not happen. It did, and it should be remembered honestly, precisely so that it is not repeated. But remembering honestly also means acknowledging that political calculations including the Muslim-Muslim ticket of 2019 were not, in themselves, assaults on any faith. They were choices made by politicians pursuing power within a competitive system. Recognising this distinction allows the public conversation to move forward without either excusing the risks such choices carried or unfairly casting them as religious aggression.
As Kaduna approaches the 2027 election cycle, the responsible course is clear: support the building of bridges wherever they are being built. Governor Uba Sani's commitment to a united, sub-national space free of bloodshed and sectional suspicion, a commitment he himself has grounded in justice, fairness and equity — is one worth encouraging, openly and consistently, across every divide the state has known. The time to do so is now and never tomorrow.
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