The 2023 race for the Kaduna South Senatorial seat today is the most competitive and talked about in the history of the area, not just within the 8 local government areas that make up Kaduna South senatorial District but by extension Kaduna state as a whole. Not even the race for Sir Kashim Ibrahim House has generated as much public debate as the Kaduna South senatorial race. This is partly due to the fact that some of the finest political juggernauts from the zone have thrown their hats into the ring for the contest.
The social media have been saturated with narratives and counter narratives on who should be the next Senator to represent the over 4 million people of the area, a people that have suffered various kinds of marginalisation, terror attacks, forceful occupation and injustices of the highest proportion, especially in the last seven and a half years. The area has within the period buried in Mass graves no fewer than 5,000 of its citizens murdered in the most barbaric manner and lost over a hundred communities in the last seven years.
Amongst the aspirants under the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), is a gentleman by name Sunday Marshall Katung, an honourable in the real sense of the word, a lawyer, a philanthropist, one who personifies the word “humility”. Katung, who is popularly known as SMK, is a former Commissioner of Finance and Water Resources under late Governor Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, a former House of Representatives member representing Jaba/Zangon Kataf Constituency from 2015 to 2019.
Looking at the many challenges confronting Kaduna South Senatorial District, Katung by his antecedents and impeccable track record best fits the moment and should earn the trust of the people to deliver robust representation to them, a representation that goes beyond stomach infrastructure and giving of handouts to a negligible few, in contrast to the self-serving representation that is obtainable today. Honourable is one who will put his wealth of experience, training and experience as a lawyer, a business administrator and his international and local connections together to create legislations that will directly impact the lives of the people of Kaduna South positively.
Katung by all indications has prepared himself for this great and daunting task beforehand, and this could be seen in his style of politicking in the last two years. While others were still contemplating whether to run for Senate or not, Katung clearly defined what he wanted and rolled his sleeves to get the job done. It is also evidently clear that Katung has won the hearts of some of the best and patriotic young people from Kaduna South who have been spreading the gospel of his campaign tagline “GetInvolved” to all nook and crannies of the district.
With no disrespect to any aspirant, Sunday Marshall Katung as of today is ostensibly the only aspirant that has been able to clearly outline via a concise manifesto, how he intends to tackle the many challenges confronting Kaduna South senatorial district.
My Plea to Delegates.
It is just 11 days to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Primary election, and you, our delegates, once again, will decide who becomes our Senator for the next years. Opportunity has once again presented itself to you our wonderful delegates to write your names, individually and collectively, on the sand of time. Would you vote for competency, capacity and commitment to service and active representation or you would vote for mediocrity and passive representation that has bedevilled Kaduna South in the last seven and a half years thereby short-changing the people in the committee of senatorial districts in the country? The choice is yours to make but remember that whatever decision you make on whose name appear on the ballot, we all, you included, will live with the consequences in the next four years.
I therefore urge you all to put into consideration the points I have highlighted above in making your decisions.
The ball is in your court, but we are watching keenly.
Steven Kefas writes from Kenyi, Kagarko local government Area of Kaduna state.
