A former Minister of State for Aviation, Mr. Felix Hassan Hyat, has said that the endorsement of Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero to contest for the 2015 governorship election in the state by Southern Kaduna lawmakers, cannot stand.
Federal lawmakers from Southern Kaduna, led by Senator Nenadi Usman, had endorsed Yero’s governoship ambition even as they adopted President Goodluck Jonathan as their candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential ticket.
In his reaction to Yero’s endorsement, Mr. Hyat said it negates the principle of togetherness as “Consultations were not done before the endorsement, and the people who organized it neglected basic sensitivity to appease personal interests to the detriment of the state”.
Speaking to reporters shortly after he returned from the United Kingdom, Hyat also said that he would not step down for Yero in the PDP gubernatorial primary in the state.
He said he would contest for the governorship primary on the platform of the PDP because as a politician from the southern part of the state, he is morally entitled to clinch the PDP ticket.
“Makarfi was governor from zone one and governed Kaduna for two terms of eight years. Namadi Sambo came from zone two in 2007, and while warming up for second term in 2011, he became vice president in 2010.
“Yakowa who was his deputy from zone three became the governor and was elected in 2011 and by December 2012, he died in a plane crash. Now, the governor is from zone one and some people from zone three said they have endorsed Yero for two terms of eight years.
“If you calculate eight years of Yero and Makarfi, it will give you 16 years. Zone two will have two terms of eight years producing vice president. What then will be of southern Kaduna? Yakowa spent only one year and some months after 2011 elections”, Hyat said.
