El rufai chooses new running mate ahead of the 2019 general elections.

Kaduna State Governor, Nadir Ahmad Elrufai has announced the selection of Dr. Hadiza Balarabe as his running mate for the 2019 general elections.

The choice of Dr. Hadiza Balarabe  as the running mate continues Malam Nasir El-rufai's deliberate policy of promoting women.

There are five female commissioners in his 14-person cabinet, a feat not attained even by the governors that had much larger cabinets.

This is first time in the history of Kaduna State that a major political party will select a female as running mate.

The incumbent Deputy Governor, Arch. Barnabas Yusuf Bala, has opted to go to the National Assembly and has since emerged as the All Progressive Congress, APC candidate for the Southern Kaduna Senatorial district.

Dr. Hadiza Balarabe is the current Executive Secretary of the Kaduna State Primary Health Care Development Agency, a position she had held since February 2016.

In that role, she has overseen the Kaduna State Government's programme to revitalize and strengthen primary health care as the core of health service delivery in the State.

Prior to joining the Kaduna State Government, Dr. Hadiza Balarabe  was Director of Public Health in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

Dr. Hadiza Balarabe was born in 1966, from Sanga Local Government which is located in the Southern Kaduna Senatorial district.

She studied Medicine at the University of Maiduguri and graduated in 1988. She was a Senior Registrar at the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital before joining the services of the Federal Capital Territory in 2004.