Adamawa: How Binani’s dream of becoming Nigeria’s first elected female governor ended abruptly

The All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in the just concluded Adamawa supplementary poll, Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed popularly called ‘Binani’ had many Nigerians talking about her for a couple of weeks. She was said to likely emerge Nigeria’s first elected female governor after the late Aisha Alhassan (Mama Taraba) polled a similar strength in Taraba in 2015.

No doubt the Adamawa State governorship election will go done as one of the most controversial in the country’s history. Adamawa’s case portends a significant interest to most Nigerians because Binani was the strongest of all the female aspirants who threw their hat in the ring for the governorship poll. Recall that there have repeated calls for more female representation in Nigeria’s political and most political parties either slashed their nomination forms or gave out for free to encourage women.

Of the 416 candidates who vied for the office of governor in the country, only 24 were women and the 51-year-old Binani put up an impressive fight from start to finish of the race, daring to wrestle power from a sitting governor and strong ruling party in the state.

Inconclusive governorship polls

Unlike the remaining 26 states where the governorship poll was concluded and winners announced on March 18, INEC declared that of Adamawa and Kebbi inconclusive.
The election umpire said its decision was due to the margin of votes recorded in the election by the contestants.
As at then, the APC candidate Binani, scored 390, 275 while the incumbent governor of the state and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ahmadu Fintiri, polled 421,524.

The State Collation Officer, Prof. Mohammed Mele, said there were 69 polling units where elections were cancelled and therefore affected no fewer than 37,016 potential voters with PVCs in those units.
For Kebbi, INEC Returning Officer, Prof. Yusuf Sa’idu declared the poll inconclusive over massive vote cancellation and over-voting in 20 out of the 21 Local Government Areas in the State.
According to him, while the APC candidate scored 388,358, Mohammed Bande of the Peoples Democratic Party polled 342,980.
“We aggregated the total number of collected PVCs in those polling units and it came to a total of 91,829. And when we checked the results, the two leading political parties in this contest, APC and PDP polled 388,258 and 342,980 votes respectively. When we looked at the difference, it stands at 45,278”, Sa’idu said.
INEC later fixed supplementary polls for the two states and some national and state assembly elections to April 15.

Dramatic supplementary poll and declaration of Binani as winner while collation was underway

While the supplementary poll in Kebbi was duly concluded and Nasiru Idris of the All Progressives Congress (APC) declared winner, that of Adamawa further pushed into more controversy.
As collation was underway on Sunday, the state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Hudu Yunusa Ari, prematurely declared Binani as the winner, contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act.
Section 25 of the Electoral Act, 2022 empowers only the returning officer to announce the result and declare the winner of an election at the state collation centre in the case of election of a governor of a state.
The declaration was however voided by INEC and the embattled REC suspended. The electoral body also suspended collation of results.

Binani’s acceptance speech

As the drama unfolded, Binani delivered an acceptance speech shortly after she was illegally declared the governor-elect of the state by the REC.
Results from the remaining local government had not been received by INEC when the REC announced Binani as the winner.
In a short acceptance speech watched Binani thanked the people of the state for electing her.
She said her election as the first female governor in the country would encourage other women to participate actively in politics.
“……You’ve made history in electing the first female governor in our dear country, Nigeria. This will no doubt broaden political participation by encouraging our daughters, sisters, aunties, mothers and indeed the girl child….,” she said in the 21 seconds clip seen by NewsClick Nigeria and broadcasted by the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).

Binani’s alleged N2bn bribe to INEC official to be declared winner

After her declaration, there were reports that Binani gave INEC officials N2 billion to be announced as the winner.
Countering the allegation in a statement, she declared the report as “very bizarre, unfounded and wild allegations”.
“I never did, I would never do such,” the statement reads.
“I wish to reiterate that I am a democrat. I have always been a committed democrat and will never do anything to subvert the democratic process. I am not a do-or-die politician. In the past, I have won elections into the House of Representatives and the senate in a free and fair manner.
“What happened in Adamawa was an unsuccessful attempt to subvert the will of the people. The REC was illegally told to stand down by two INEC national commissioners from Abuja who were supposed to be in Adamawa in a supervisory capacity. Even more curious is the nocturnal visit of some INEC national officers to the Adamawa state government house and the bizarre declaration the same day after the visit that they have taken over the collation through the backdoor with the collation and returning officers selected by the governor of Adamawa.
“The roles of these INEC officers from Abuja and the real mission of the two to the government house should be of interest to all democrats.
“I urge all lovers of democracy to take a deeper interest in our electoral process and democracy not only in Adamawa but in the whole country.”

INEC declares Fintiri winner

Fintiri won the supplementary election which was held in 69 polling units in the 20 local governments in the state, with 9,337 votes, defeating Binani who polled 6,513 votes.
At the end of the entire exercise, Fintiri polled 430,861 votes, defeating Binani who got 398,738 votes. He was declared duly elected and returned by the state’s collation officer, Prof. Mohammed Mele.