Adamawa on the cusp of electing Nigeria's first female governor

• Published date: 19 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

Besides her astuteness and grassroots prowess, Senator Aishatu Ahmed Binani, Adamawa State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), parades an intimidating political credential: House of Reps member between 2011 and 2015 before her election into the upper legislative chamber from Adamawa Central District from 2019 to date. In the report, ONIMISI ALAO digs into the complex political undercurrents that may tilt the outcome of the state's governorship poll in her favour

After flagging off her campaign in the state capital on January 9, the governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Adamawa State, Senator Aishatu Ahmed Binani, started her community-to-community campaign on Monday January 16. Following the inaugural campaign in Yola, which went side by side with inauguration of the APC presidential campaign in the state and was consequently attended by President Muhammadu Buhari and the party's presidential candidate, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, Binani was in Ganye and then Toungo in what marked the beginning of her grassroots campaign effort.

She was scheduled to stop in Ganye and see the paramount ruler in the town and then proceed to Toungo for an open air campaign and then return to Ganye where the campaign continued on January 17. The two towns, which are headquarters of Ganye and Toungo LGAs respectively, lie in the southern tip of Adamawa State, next to the Republic of Cameroon. In choosing to start her campaign from southern Adamawa, Binani apparently seeks to get over her toughest terrain, as the zone has always been mostly for the ruling party in the state, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The zone is the largest, with nine of the state's 21 local government areas, with Toungo, Jada, Numan, Demsa, Lamurde, and Guyuk always favouring the PDP. The votes of Mayo-Belwa have in recent times been often deflected to the APC by the Nyako dynasty, currently represented by former Governor Murtala Nyako and his son, Senator Abdulaziz Nyako, who will be expected to be a huge help for Binani in the area as her campaign begins.

For Ganye, House of Representatives member, Abdulrazak Namdas, who has done much for himself in recent history, becoming a high flying governorship candidate of the APC towards the APC primary election that Binani won, has also done the APC a lot of good in the area, becoming a major reason why APC has been doing well for its candidates there. Namdas, unlike one of his other fellow governorship...