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From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

The Chairman of the All Progressives Party (APC) in Kaduna state, Mr. Barnabas Yusuf Bala was yesterday chosen as the running mate to Malam Nasir El-Rufa’i, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for Governor of Kaduna state in the 2015 election.

The choice of Mr. Bala, an architect and current chairman of the APC in the state, followed extensive consultations with senior party figures, the governorship aspirants and elder-statesmen across the

state. These consultations produced a long list of 16 party members.

Bala, popularly known as Bantex, eventually emerged from a carefully-considered shortlisted candidates of five party heavyweights. The APC Kaduna team based its selection criteria for a running mate on the

capacity and ability of that person to play a substantive and dynamic role in the government that will emerge.

The party also considered political experience and exposure, within a framework that the embraces diversity. The party, in Kaduna state, worked to identify an individual with the talents, intellectual acumen and professional background to be a competent partner to an elected governor.

Malam El-Rufa’i, while confirming the choice of Mr. Bala to the public, said “I am delighted that a person of Mr. Barnabas Bala’s quality has been selected by the party to share the responsibility of governance

with me when we are elected. The APC Kaduna team demonstrated its resolve to produce a running mate that can be a capable governor in his own right, not a sinecure spare tyre. I welcome and proudly accept the choice of Barnabas Bala.”

Mr. Barnabas Bala holds a 1981 Master of Science, with distinction in Architecture from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He earned his first degree, a second-class upper in Architecture from the same university in 1979. He was born in 1956, in Kagoro, Kaura local government area of Kaduna state while his father was schooling in Bible College, Kagoro, but he is from Randiyam, Manchok district of Moro’a Chiefdom, in Kaura local government area.

Mr. Bala is a former local government chairman and also a former member of the House of Representatives.

Announcing his acceptance to be El-Rufa’i’s running mate, Mr. Bala said “I am humbled by the choice the party has made. I will give my best as a worthy partner to Nasir El-Rufa’i to deliver the promise of the APC to make Kaduna great again.”