Wadada: I Am Ready To Build On Sule’s Legacy

When Senator Ahmed Aliyu Wadada walked into the Nigeria Union of Journalists Press Centre in Lafia on Sunday, the atmosphere was that of a man who had just crossed a significant political threshold and wanted the world to know it.

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Flanked by supporters, party loyalists and associates, the Senator representing Nasarawa West in the National Assembly had come not merely to accept a crown but to define what he intended to do with it.

Four days earlier, on April 16, 2026, Governor Abdullahi Sule had done what many had long anticipated but few dared predict with certainty. At a meeting with his political appointees, the governor formally identified Wadada as his preferred successor, effectively signalling the direction of the ruling All Progressives Congress machinery ahead of the party’s governorship primary.

The endorsement set off a wave of reactions across Nasarawa State’s political landscape, and Sunday’s press conference was Wadada’s first major public response.

He opened not with a triumphant declaration but with gratitude. It was calculated, almost deliberate. He thanked God, thanked the governor, thanked his fellow aspirants, the traditional rulers, party leadership and the people of the state. To those listening carefully, it read like a man aware that the path from preferred successor to governor remained long and required broad goodwill.

“The decision by Governor Abdullahi Sule goes beyond political endorsement,” Wadada told journalists. “It is a call to higher service, disciplined leadership and commitment to the people of Nasarawa State.”

For a politician whose career stretches back to the House of Representatives, where he served the Keffi/Karu/Kokona Federal Constituency from 2003 to 2011 before moving to the Senate, Wadada carries considerable institutional history. He was chairman of the House Committee on Information and National Orientation during a period that produced the Freedom of Information Act, a piece of legislation he cited on Sunday with visible pride when asked about press freedom and journalist welfare.

That question from the floor brought out a different register in him, less formal and more personal. He told journalists that nobody gives what they do not have, and that his record spoke for itself.

“As I sit here today, I have added to the welfare of journalists in Nigeria,” he said.

He promised to digitise the NUJ Press Centre in Lafia and to create an environment where journalists could do their work with the right tools and dignity. He framed welfare not merely as financial reward but as the dignity that comes from doing meaningful, well-resourced work.

The centrepiece of his address was what he called the HEART Agenda, a governance framework built around six pillars: Human Capital Development, Energy and Mineral Resources, Agriculture and Green Economy, Rural and Urban Renewal, Trade and Investment, and Security.

He was careful to present it not as a revolution but as a continuation. He traced the governance lineage of Nasarawa State through Senator Abdullahi Adamu’s institutional foundations, the agricultural legacy of the late Governor Aliyu Akwe-Doma, the urban renewal championed by Governor Tanko Al-Makura, who he described as the Architect of Modern Nasarawa State, and the industrial transformation being driven by the current governor under the Nasarawa Economic Development Strategy (NEDS).

“This vision is not about starting anew,” he said. “It is about finishing strong and scaling impact.”

It was a message shaped for a particular audience: party stakeholders who had invested in continuity and did not want disruption, traditional rulers who valued stability, and a wider public that had lived through multiple gubernatorial transitions and was wary of politicians who promised everything and delivered little.

On the question of his fellow aspirants, Wadada struck a tone of deliberate warmth. He acknowledged that not everyone had stood down quietly, that one aspirant had indicated a willingness to contest all the way to the primary. He did not name the individual but spoke of him as an elder brother whom he would visit personally.

“If it is God’s will that we end up in contest, he is going to pray for his younger one to be ahead,” he said, to laughter from the room. He urged his supporters against insults or attacks, insisting that in Nigerian politics, relationships that appear competitive on the outside often carry different textures in private.

The question of women drew a response that was part personal testimony and part policy commitment. He noted that he has two wives, that a woman brought him into the world and that a woman was his first teacher. He tied women’s development specifically to the first pillar of his HEART Agenda, arguing that educating and enlightening women was educating and enlightening the nation.

When a journalist raised the welfare of people with disabilities, Wadada’s answer surprised some in the room. He pointed to Professor Silas Gar, described as the highest-ranking official in his campaign structure, who he said lives with a disability. He pointed also to the APC chairman in Nasarawa State, Dr. Aliyu Bello, as another example.

His argument was that disability, properly understood, was not limited to the physical, and that his administration would ensure every public building in Nasarawa State was accessible. He spoke of vocational centres and economic engagement as the practical tools through which the state would move people with disabilities off the streets and into productivity.

Throughout the afternoon, what emerged was a portrait of a politician conscious of the gap between receiving a governor’s blessing and actually winning power. Wadada knows Nasarawa politics well enough to understand that endorsements open doors but do not guarantee outcomes. His language reflected that awareness. He spoke repeatedly of humility, of collective ownership, of nobody being able to go it alone. He invoked the phrase “build on, move on” as his guiding code.

The primary itself is expected to test the boundaries of that humility. The APC in Nasarawa, like most state chapters, carries internal tensions, competing interests and individuals with their own calculations about the future. Wadada’s ability to navigate those tensions in the weeks ahead will determine whether Sunday’s press conference is remembered as the beginning of a successful transition or simply a moment of political theatre.

For now, the senator from Nasarawa West has stepped out of the shadow of speculation and into the harder, less forgiving terrain of active political pursuit. The crowds around him on Sunday suggested he does not lack for supporters.

Whether those supporters translate into voters, and whether the party’s machinery remains aligned with the governor’s preference, are questions that will be answered not in press centres but in wards, local government chapters and the corridors of Lafia’s political establishment.

What Wadada offered on Sunday was a statement of intent. Nasarawa will be watching to see whether it becomes something more.