All Progressives Congress (APC) Kaduna governorship candidate for for the 2015 polls, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, upped the ante in his forthcoming battle with incumbent governor, Alhaji Mukhtar Yero, whenhe picked as running mate a man he says is equally a governor material. The man is Hon. Bala Yusuf Barnabas, an architect and current chairman of APC in Kaduna State.

The choice of Bala, popular known as Bantex, is said to have 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. Bantex eventually emerged from a carefully-considered shortlist of five party heavyweights.

The APC Kaduna Team based its selection on the capacity and ability of thruning mate to play a substantive and dynamic role in the government that will emerge if the party wins the February ballot. 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.

El-Rufai, while confirming the choice of Mr. Bala yesterday 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, 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-Rufai’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-Rufai to deliver the promise of the APC to make Kaduna great again.”

•Photo shows Barnabas Bala alias Bantex.

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