By Dahiru Sani
… Heralding the ascension of Nigeria’s towering amazon to seat of power
… Why Fintiri mimicks her projects
… Survey gives her 70 percent margin of victory
… How her fear pushes Fintiri to go on overdrive, engage in last minute vote buying
… Real reasons why she enjoys cult like follower-ship
Adamawa State, the land of beauty is on the threshold of history as Senator Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed Binani is set to make a triumphant entry into the Dougirei seat of power as the first elected female governor in Nigeria’s political annals come March 18, 2023.
Going by the pulse of the state one can say with absolute certainty and precision that Binani is only few days away from the government house as her election as the successor to governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri is a fait accompli if popular votes are the drivers of electoral victory.
Apart from former governor Murtala Nyako, no governorship candidate enjoyed an unprecedented, cult like follower-ship and the goodwill Binani is currently enjoying which made many to believe that the March 18 election is going to be a walk over as Binani makes a scintillating and spectacular outing to the Dougirei seat of power.
Her popularity was reinforced by a survey recently conducted by an independent survey firm, Democracy Watch Network (DWN) in one of the biggest vox populi ever conducted in the state.
According to Mr. Stephen Godwin head research, planning and statistics, of DWN, Binani is set to emerge victorious with about 70 percent margin of victory which is unprecedented in the history of election in the state.
He said the survey which was carried out meticulously in the course of nine months involved over 500,000 respondents across the 21 local governments of the state with 95% degree of confidence.
He noted that women, youth and the people living with disability have the greatest preference for the female candidate as 80 percent of them endorsed her ambition. They expressed optimism that with Binani occupying the driver’s seat in Adamawa, they expect enhanced lifestyles, serious empowerment drive and a robust social investment packages which will save many families from the rampaging poverty currently ravaging the state.
Also corroborating DWN, a politician in Adamawa State, Sen. Ahmed Barata predicted a landslide victory for the female politician going by the avalanche of goodwill she enjoys on account of her meritorious service to the people.
“I have no doubt that the sassy, ebullient and enigmatic candidate of APC, senator Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed Binani a woman with large heart and a solid reputation of philanthropy and excellent service to humanity will trounce her male contenders especially the governor anytime any day.
“Sen. Binani, has paid her dues in leadership excellence and service to humanity; attributes that project her well above her competitors and will reap abundantly from the reservoir of goodwill she invested for years in the people.
“Binani has brought glamour, allure and colour to the all important business of leadership. Her sojourn into the realm of public service and politics has yielded unprecedented dividends to the people. Binani has broken leadership myths of under performance, raised the bar of good governance and upped the expectations of people from those they invested their future in. This has brought a paradigm shift of enhanced performance by those we elected in Adamawa State,” he said.
How destiny people’s will pushed Binani into politics
Binani’s sojourn into politics is predicated by destiny and the people’s prodding, two factors that conspired to push her into the game of numbers even against the will of her husband, Dr. Ahmed Modibbo at first instance.
Before she joined politics, Sen Binani was a budding young business woman who invested heavily on the people. Because of her interest to touch the lives of the people through philanthropy, she opened an NGO under whose canopy she began her massive empowerment drive in Yola South and Yola North being her immediate constituency.
Through that rare gesture, Binani was able to bring succour and relief to poor households, engaged in massive empowerment of women, youths and people living with disability, provided scholarships to orphans and other indigent students as well as ambulances to both christians and Muslims in the two local governments and many more.
Like the proverbial golden fish, Binani’s giant intervention which was phenomenal in history attracted massive goodwill to her from the people who issued a fiat directing her to go into politics so as to serve them better.
But as a married woman Binani referred them to her husband Dr. Modibbo who told them point blank that his wife is not carrying out the humanitarian intervention for reward and hence he declined the request.
The people who could not allow a good opportunity to pass by remained undaunted and kept pushing till Dr. Modibbo surrendered and gave his wife the green light to go ahead because of the belief that the prodding of the people is archetypal to a national call to duty.
Infact, Binani earned her popular political acclaim and sobriquet Kiran Jama’a (call to national duty) from that happenstance. In the first instance the people prodded her to represent Yola South, Yola North and Girei federal constituency. With the support of the people she became the first female in history to represent her people at that level. After satisfactory representation culminating in massive accrual of democracy dividends never witnessed before, the people again promoted her to the Senate.
After a spectacular performance at the Nigerian senate, the people also deemed it fit to again prod the amazon for a higher call of duty which translates to her phenomenal victory at the APC guvernorship primaries where she defeated her five male opponents comprehensively to the extent that the cumulative votes scored by the five candidates are less than her votes.
“It should be stressed here that Binani has never vied for any political office on account of her personal interest. She is always pushed by the people that is why she is in the habit of winning elections with landslides because it is the people who want her not the other way round.
“And the covenant between her and the electorates has been fulfilling and rewarding. On their parts the people willingly give her their mandates and she in return provides dividends of democracy to them.
“The reason why people asked her to vie for governorship position is due to her sturdy performance while in the senate. Despite being a senator she works like a governor by carrying out capital intensive projects like building of roads, hospitals, sinking of industrial boreholes providing empowerment packages and starter packs to hundreds of thousands of people. She has also made good laws whose impacts will outlive her.
“As a senator, she also turned Adamawa into her constituency as people from Madagali to Toungo, Guyuk to Belel recieved her support in the areas of skills acquisition, provision of empowerment packages, farm implements and starter packs which really helped a lot of families.
“Many people thought Binani won the last APC guvernorship primaries because of the influence of women. That is not true. Binani won that election overwhelmingly because she is the most sought after candidate who got genuine support from men and women alike as a payback for her immense gestures.
“She will still replicate similar feat of victory in the coming guvernorship election more than the primaries because the people will come out en masse to vote for her on account of her goodwill, track record of excellence ebullience, empathy and higher expectations,” Barata added.
Fintiri mimicks Binani’s gesture, earn rebuke as people cry foul
But in his attempt to score a political point, governor Fintiri has in a move many described as copycat, has been forced to take detour from his vow not to accord the people the much sought after “stomach infrastructure” which equates to empowerment by hastily organizing what could be described as a vote buying frenzy days after the March 11, guvernorship and state assembly election was postponed.
The governor according to reports has pencilled down Tuesday for the program in which no fewer than 10,000 women will receive a token of N50,000 from the governor.
But political analyst in the state who described the governor’s move as an attempt to buy people’s conscience rebuked him for his primitive desperation and abuse of privileges and perks of office.
They urged those lucky to be involved by the superfluous empowerment to collect the package but vote according to their conscience during the coming election as vote buying constitutes a gross human rights abuse.
They recalled that due to the governor’s failure to assist the people, one of his associates, Hon. Umar openly counsels the governor to direct his energy in providing succour to ameliorate the suffering of the citizens, but the governor through one of his aides Saidu Sarkin Zana excoriated and blackmailed Umar for daring to tell truth to power and even forced Umar to withdrew his statement on the strength that the governor was not happy with his submission.
Feelers from the government house indicated that after INEC shifted the guvernorship and state assembly election from March 11, to March 18, the governor planned a deceptive empowerment package ostensibly to empower 10,000 women. But investigation indicated that the number is over exaggerated as the women pencilled down for empowerment are in the region of 600.
“The governor has no such plans to empower the women but Binani’s serious empowerment is making him to lose sleep. So the shift of the polls offered him a window to decieve our mothers by lying that he will empower about 10,000 of them with N50,000 capital to start businesses.
“In truth, the program is a complete sham and dead on arrival. It is stage managed to decieve the women as the government does not have the capacity to compile the names of 10,000 women within a short period of time. So instead a handful number of women that may pass as mistresses, concubines and relatives to some highly placed people were quickly put together for the ruse,” a source close to the government house said.
Another fear induced action taken by the governor as a result of the Binani phenomenon is the proscription of activities of NGOs over a phantom allegation of vote buying. The rash and imperious action as expected has precipitated considerable disquiet in the state as stakeholders said such action is a crude display of power and an attempt to muscle peoples rights at will.
Feelers also reveal that the governor has few weeks ago in a futile attempt to deny Binani the opportunity to participate in the election has sought an experte motion to debar her from participating in the polls but sources said the attempt was frustrated by the judiciary which asserted her independence by refusing to tow the governor’s doomed path.
Why Binani enjoyed cult follower-ship in Adamawa
Binani currently straddles Adamawa political space like a colossus and enjoyed massive goodwill from the people on account of her passion, empathy, support and down to earth posture.
She is a woman that can go to any length to fight for the development of her state and the people through direct empowerment, life changing projects and impactful laws.
A conservative estimate has it that since her sojourn into politics, Binani has empowered no fewer than 100,000 people and has addressed multi-dimensional poverty which straddles many communities.
“In the last four years, Binani has carried out a number of critical life changing projects that only a governor can attempt and touches the lives of all Adamawa citizens despite being only a senator. Such display of wit, spiritedness, valour and can do spirit was the major reason why she will win election in Adamawa State any day,” Hon. Sen Barata added.
Dan Zaki Media 