By Comfort Obi
The Adamawa State Governorship Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Senator Aishatu Dahiru Binani, should publicly tell her people to shut-up. She should tell them to stop insulting Nigerians and bury their heads in the dust over the shame they brought upon Nigeria. In more civilized countries, all of them, including Binani, could have been cooling their soiled feet somewhere, and charges of an attempted coup brought upon them.
In case nobody has bluntly told the sweet-faced Senator, what happened in Adamawa State on Sunday, 16th April, 2023, which she endorsed, was a coup against a country that was already on edge. She staged it in connivance with some Security Agents and Barrister Hudu Yunusa Ari, the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, for Adamawa. To seal the coup, Senator Binani played the dishonorable role of reading the speech on a Federal Government-owned national television. She was to be the direct beneficiary of the plot if she had succeeded.
I had feigned paralysis of the hands on the Adamawa Supplementary Governorship Election which painted Nigeria in one of its worst colours in recent times because I wanted to keep off every criticism against APC’s Binani. I wanted to keep my admiration and respect for her untainted.
I have never met her. In fact, before she won the Adamawa APC Governorship ticket, I had never heard her name. I never knew of a female Senator bearing that name. Perhaps, I did not pay attention, but I never heard of any bill she sponsored and/or co-sponsored.
A number of our National Assembly Members are just there. They make no contributions. They are bench-warmers, one of the numbers. They simply show face, and disappear. Some are mostly away – either out of the country, or within country, running their personal businesses. They are satisfied answering Distinguished and Honourable. So many of them are not known by the Nigerian public or those they represent. Their constituents see them only when elections are near.
This is not to say that Senator Binani was one of those. As noted above, I may not have taken note. But that disappeared as soon as she won the Governorship ticket of the Adamawa APC . I was thrilled. So, I became her follower. And admirer. I hung on her every word. I cheered. I rooted for her. I was intrigued and impressed by her victory at the Primaries. God, how I rooted for her!
Here are why.
I like strong characters. To me, Binani is one. I admire brave woman. To me, Binani is a brave woman. I admire courageous women, women who refuse to be pushed around, or intimidated because of their gender. To me, Binani is one of such women.
In Nigeria, especially, in Politics, it is difficult for a woman to excel. To do that, she deals with all kinds of persecution and blackmail, including irresponsible talks such as “she slept her way to the top.” It is worse when the woman is also beautiful. From Binani’s photographs which have been adorning the pages of newspapers since her victory in the Primary, she is a beauty, and exudes calmness, inspite of her lion heart.
It takes a female lion heart to beat the men and become a Senator. And, it is a big deal, a very big deal, for a woman to win the Governorship ticket of a major Political Party – the ruling Party no less. A look at the caliber and credentials of the men she beat to clinch the ticket, would confirm she is a fearless fighter.
Nigeria has never had an elected female Governor. Most women have been yearning for it. But Nigeria’s leaders are so chauvinistic that they laugh at the idea. When Binani fought her way through to clinch the APC ticket, just like in 2015 when the now late Senator Aisha Jummai Alhassan did in Taraba State, I celebrated her the way I celebrated Hillary Clinton when she clinched the Presidential ticket of the Democrats.
While I rooted for Binani, it didn’t matter to me whether she won the Governorship election or not. I knew it was going to be a difficult task for her. Firstly, she was up against an incumbent Governor. Secondly, the Presidential Candidate of PDP, the Governor’s Party, Atiku Abubakar, is from the State. Thirdly, APC didn’t have a good name in the weeks running to the elections. It had a lot of baggage behind it.
So, I had made up my mind that even if she lost, as I grudgingly expected, I was going to celebrate her. By clinching that ticket, contested for with heavy weights, she made women proud. Like Alhassan, she entered the history book.
When the results of the election, first held on Saturday, 18th March, 2023, was declared inconclusive, I was jubilant. Binani, even though she was coming behind, was doing well. She was not losing disgracelly. It would be a close race. And I was happy.
Having followed the contest closely, and knowing she would lose brilliantly, I was all set to celebrate Binani on Monday, 17th April, 2023. Then, the thunder struck and threw me off balance. As I watched the scene which was unfolding before Nigerians, before the world, my heart broke.
There, REC Ari sat and wrecked our joy. There he sat, like one under a spell, like one under the influence, brazenly throwing into the gutter, the hopes and yearnings and future of a people. As I watched, I kept asking nobody in particular: What’s wrong with this guy? As Nigerians would say, “did they swear for him”? Is he drunk. Everything pointed out that something greater than him was pushing him. Now, we can guess, almost, accurately.
You know the story. But a brief reminder. He usurped the responsibility of the Returning Officer, Professor Muhammed Mele, and announced Binani the winner – two hours before the agreed time of re-assembling. Collation of results was still ongoing.
Yet, two things shocked the most. Firstly, Senior Security Officers flanked “wreck Ari”, as he read what, without prejudice to the ordered investigation, was an illegal, fake result. None of them could stop him. None of them could shut him up. And none of them walked out on him. The conclusion, sadly, is that all of them were in that inexplicable disgraceful act together. Why was money spent on them to go to Adamawa? What was their brief, their job? Did they go there to support and elevate fraud? Otherwise, why did they do nothing? And said nothing.
The second surprise was that Binani had an acceptance speech ready, even when she knew, from the first poll, that it would be a miracle for her to win; even when she knew, at least, as a Senator, that the person who declared her “winner” was a usurper, had breached the Electoral Act, even when she knew, as a Candidate, that collation of results was still ongoing. And, still, she went on and read her coup speech. Excuse this cliché, to add insult to injury, when INEC decided to distance itself from the shame, Binani went to Court! To plead what?
I was prepared to ignore all that and not write a word to criticise Binani. I was like, she is down already, why hit her. I was prepared not to add to her obvious discomfort. But this was until Tuesday, 26th April when Binani’s Campaign Council Coordinator insulted women, and tried to blackmail Nigerians by flaunting Binani’s gender!!
Speaking in an interview with Channels Television, Binani’s Campaign Council Coordinator, Vrati Nzozo, gave the impression that his Principal won the election but was cheated out because she is a woman. He said people were biased against his candidate because of her gender. Say that again?
“As far as we are concerned, there seems to be a very biased position taken against our candidate. And it’s unfortunate. As far as we are concerned, she is being witchhunded and she is being drowned using the Media and other individuals that are out there to victimise her, may be because she is a woman. We are proud of her and her achievement”, Nzozo said.
Absolute nonsense. What has Binani’s gender got to do with the absurdity in Adamawa. What has it got to do with the coup that was staged? What has it got to do with the crisis caused by Ari’s criminal rascality, along with those who backed his illegal action? Does Nzozo realise that innocent people were humiliated and beaten up publicly because of this irresponsible incident? Does he realise that a Professor, a former Vice Chancellor of the Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto, Professor Abdullahi Abdu Zuru, was beaten up and stripped to his underpants by those who mistook him for Ari?
How I hate it when “because I am a woman” is used as a weapon of blackmail! Who was Nzozo trying to incite? Nigerian women? So, because Binani is a woman, Nigerian women should clap for her for the disgraceful incident in Adamawa? Nigerian women should condone a brazen fraud?
In other climes, Senator Binani should have been facing interrogation since after her acceptance speech to explain her role in the national embarrassment which caused, almost, a national crisis. She should have been apologizing profusely, including to her Party.
But here, nothing. Orders have been given for an investigation, but what’s the update? Instead, INEC tells a cock and bull story of how Ari disappeared into thin air. Who would believe that? The man was with senior Security Officers as he announced the fake result. We saw him being shielded by Security Agents as he exited the hall after her infamous act. And, suddenly, INEC tells us a story fit for the marines. It is a shame.
This case must not be swept under the carpet. If the Federal Government, God forbid, does that, then, all the innocent people who were beaten up and humiliated, especially, Professor Abdullahi Abdu Zuru, should rise up. They should sue INEC and Binani for everything they have got. Our Country has gradually become a joke!
Obi is the Editor-in-Chief/CEO of The Source (Magazine), https://thesourceng.com. Email: comfortobisource@gmail.com, comfort@thesourceng.com
