Dr Faisal Shuaib, Former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Primary Healthcare and Development Agency has withdrawn from the gubernatorial race of Nasarawa State and declared his support for Sen. Ahmed Wadada, preferred successor of Gov. Abdullahi Sule.
The aspirant under the All Progressives Congress (APC) stated this at a press conference on Monday in Lafia.
“I stand before you this afternoon with a full heart, and with words I have weighed carefully before deciding to speak them.
“Some weeks ago, the amiable governor of our state in keeping with the consultative tradition of our great party, summoned the gubernatorial aspirants from the Nasarawa West Senatorial District and eight of us contesting from the zone answered the call.
“He charged us with a single task to deliberate among ourselves and emerge with a consensus candidate, so the western zone might enter the primaries united.
“We tried, in good faith. We met as colleagues. We met as brothers. We sat with one another, weighing every consideration that decent men can weigh in such a season.
“But the truth, plainly stated, is that we could not arrive at a single name by our own hands. And so we returned to the governor and asked him to make that determination on our behalf, undertaking that the rest of us would rally behind whomever he chose,” Shuaib added.
He further explained that two weeks later, the governor reconvened a stakeholders’ meeting where he announced Wadada as his preferred candidate.
“I will not pretend that the news landed easily on every one of us in that room. It did not. But I will say that we received it with the dignity that the occasion demanded.
“Several of us asked for time to consult our supporters before taking a final position, and over the past week, that is what we have done and came to this decision,” he said.
Shuaib explained that he has promised to support whoever the governor chooses among the eight of them from Nasarawa West and that he intends to keep to his promise.
He therefore said that he had thrown his full weight, the weight of his structure, and the weight of his conviction behind the preferred candidate of the governor to succeed in the primaries and the 2027 general election. (NAN).
