When in 1999, Alhaji Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi defied all odds to emerge the governor of this very important state, very few people were prepared to give him even the benefit of doubt, given the history of the volatility of the state as well as the enormity of other problems that had always left even the most rugged of some of its past administrators stunned.
A distinguished Nigerian patriot, a political strategist and tactician, a courageous democrat, a tested and trusted administrator, Governor Makarfi’s assumed office at Sir Kashim Ibrahim House, Kaduna, his administration came in with the primary goal of running a government that was dedicated to the service of the collective interests of the state as necessitated by the peculiar socio-political environment on ground.
As Governor Makarfi was set to end his tenure in 2007, the people of the senatorial zone decided that he must not retire from public life at his prime. They thus decided to massively support him all the way to represent them and served the country as senator till 2015.
After the 2015 elections, which the PDP lost, the party was beset by so much confusion and crisis that some people feared that the end had come for it. In the quest to give it a new lease of life, leaders came together and unanimously agreed to ask Senator Makarfi to head a Care Taker Committee that would reposition the party, breathe new life into it and organize a convention that would elect a new leadership to steer its affairs.
For being an intelligent and gifted administrator and leader of men, Distinguished Senator Ahmed Makarfi is hereby honoured as Excellence Recognition Awards 2018 POLITICIAN OF THE YEAR.
