By Henry Umoru
ABUJA – FORMER Clerk to the National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Abubakar Maikasuwa, has signified his interest to contest the 2019 governorship seat in Nasarawa state on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

His choice of the APC platform followed a resolution by stakeholders from the three senatorial zones of the state.

Meanwhile,, stakeholders, under the aegis of the Coalition for Good Governance and Civil Participation from the southern zone, Nasarawa Youth Mobilisation for Good Governance from the northern zone and Nasarawa West Zone Coalition for Credible Leadership, had last month called on him to enter the governorship race to offer service to the people.

Maikasuwa had accepted the call and had, in addition, tasked the stakeholders to choose a political party platform on which to answer the call.

The stakeholders, in three separate letters signed Ubandoma Abdullahi and Haruna Muhammed for Coalition for Good Governance and Civil Participation; Donald Gwado Moshi and Secretary, Muktar Ahmed Keffi for Nasarawa Youth Mobilisation for Good Governance; and Mustapha Mahmood Usman Nasarawa West Zone Coalition for Credible Leadership, had resolved on the APC platform.

The consensus by the stakeholders in their letters to Maikasuwa dated March 13, 2018 is that the APC platform in Nasarawa state is the most popular and acceptable to the people of the state.

In his reply, also dated March 13, 2018, Maikasuwa said he had accepted their choice of the APC platform, declaring that “accordingly, it is now my singular honour and cherished privilege to present myself as a 2019 governorship candidate in Nasarawa state on the platform of the most popular, most reliable and most accommodating political party, the APC.”

Maikasuwa, an alumnus of the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPPS) and currently a lecturer in the Department of Public Administration, Nasarawa State University, retired as Clerk to the National Assembly in August 2016.

The stakeholders decided to tap him for the position in order to ensure, according to them, continuation and consolidation of the development projects and programmes of the outgoing Tanko Al-Makura administration.

Al-Makura had also benefitted from the statewide support of the stakeholders in 2011 when, against the run of play as candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), he defeated the incumbent, Governor Aliyu Akwei Doma of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who died last month.

There are indications that some influential political leaders in government across the state are working quietly to actualize Maikasuwa’s governorship in 2019 because he is believed to have demonstrated capacity for public administration.

He is also said to be enjoying “enthusiastic” support from the state civil service against the backdrop of the history of his effective administration and the team leadership model that he brought to bear on administration and workers’ welfare as the Head of Service in the bureaucracy of the Federal Legislature.