Ahmed Yar’Adua, a cousin of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, has declared interest in the Katsina 2023 governorship race. 

“The late President Yar’Adua is my first cousin. I believe that I earned my own right to contest this position,” said Mr Yar’Adua. “My relationship with my late cousin helped me but also my experience in the public service matters.” 

After purchasing the PDP’s nomination and expression of interest forms, Mr Yar’Adua, a former secretary to the Katsina government, announced his gubernatorial ambition in Abuja on Wednesday.

The PDP governorship aspirant, who attributed insecurity in Katsina to poverty and poor governance, especially at the local levels, said local government areas would be his top priority.

“Now, back to banditry. It is the issue of total neglect, not only in governance but also in the approach to governance itself. When there is no local government, you can see what is happening,” explained Mr Yar’Adua. “What’s happening is that they are only sending these administrators to go for part-time, go in the morning and return to their local government.”

He added, “But if you have an elected representative, people tend to enjoy because they now know their representatives and are being represented well.”

He expressed confidence that PDP would reclaim Katsina.

“We may have an incumbent governor, but we were incumbent once, but we lost. So the APC will lose again because it is about what the people believe and (what) we can deliver,” he pointed out. “We didn’t lose due to bad governance, performance but based on sympathy.”

(NAN)