Aisha Binani set to become first-ever elected female governor on Mother’s day

Aisha Binani wins governorship election as she becomes first-ever elected female governor on Mother’s day.

Barring any change in the equation, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is expected to make the results official in the coming hours.

Pulse reports that this development is unprecedented in the history of Nigerian politics as no woman has ever been elected as governor in Africa’s biggest democracy.

History beckons in Nigerian politics as Senator Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed, popularly known as Binani, is on her way to emerge the first female governor-elect in the country.

The Senator, currently representing Adamawa Central Senatorial District in the Red Chamber, squared up against the incumbent, Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the keenly-contested race.

Meanwhile, results collated at all the polling units in the 21 Local Government Areas of Adamawa State on Saturday, March 18, 2023, showed that Binani has recorded the majority of votes ahead of her fellow contestants. Aisha Binani was arguably the underdog of APC’s primary elections in the state in May 2022. Most observers expected her to abandon her ambitions to recontest her senatorial seat which they considered a more realistic and suitable pursuit, and many party members and political commentators were surprised by the results of the primaries, having underestimated the reach of her political impact and support.

“Women virtually constitute the larger population of voters – if all the women cast their vote in my favour, certainly we will get there.”

Binani, senator representing Adamawa central, is one of the 11 female governorship candidates in northern Nigeria contesting the election.

She is seeking to unseat Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, the incumbent governor and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Binani has been on the political scene since 2011 when she was elected to the 7th Assembly as a member of the House of Representatives representing the Yola North/Yola South/Girei in Yola under the umbrella of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). After that, she failed to secure a senatorial position under the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) in 2015, and in 2019 contested for the Adamawa Central Senatorial seat under the APC and won. She is one of the seven female senators in the upper house of the 9th Assembly, where she also serves as the chairman of the senate committee on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).