Nigeria’s “backward north” may set the pace, if it produces first elected female state governor in Adamawa

If the reports from Adamawa State are credible enough to run with, then the Conservative, backward northern region may be moving towards dismantling the culture of silencing and relegating women to the background with the likely emergence of Senator Aisha Binani as the first elected female governor in Nigeria.

Unofficial reports said that the governorship race in Adamawa is going down to the wire.

Although an unconfirmed report had earlier said that the vote counting had been concluded with Binani scoring 409,909 to defeat the incumbent governor, Ahmadu Fintiri who scored
406,617 votes, THE CONCLAVE has just gathered from sources on ground that the result collation is still on with about seven local government areas to go. The result of Binani’s victory that is doing the rounds might be from the situation room of one of the election monitors or observation groups or one of those set up by the political parties.

But one fact that remains undeniable is that both candidates are running neck and neck in the collated results.

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An earlier report by Premium Times had captured the atmospherics and the nuances of the contest, the result collation and announcement on local government basis.

This is how the Premiun Times presented the interesting report:

“The governorship candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Adamawa State, Aishatu Dahiru, popularly known as Binani, is in a close race with the current governor and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ahmadu Fintiri, in the ongoing Adamawa State gubernatorial election.

“Should Binani be declared the winner, she would become Nigeria’s first woman to be elected governor of a state.

“To achieve that feat, however, she has to defeat Mr Fintiri, whom she currently trails, although narrowly, based on official results declared by the electoral commission, INEC, in the capital, Yola.

“After the announcement of results from 10 of Adamawa’s 21 local government areas, Mr Fintiri has so far polled 186,536 votes while Binani has 179,264 votes, a difference of about 7,000 votes.

“Binani is not just facing an incumbent, she is also running against religious and cultural biases that have long stood against women in contests for power in Nigeria

“Binani, a serving senator, is popular in the state mainly for her philanthropy, although she faces a strong challenger in the incumbent who is credited with major infrastructure work in the state, particularly in the state capital, Yola.

“Of the 24 female governorship candidates across the country, Binani is considered the only candidate with a real chance of winning her governorship seat.”