“I have an option to relocate to Niger Republic” – Buhari
National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Adamu, has suggested that Nigerians should not abandon President Mohammadu Buhari after his exit from office.
Buhari has stated that he has the option of relocating to Niger Republic after his tenure expired.
But APC national chairman, Adamu begged Nigerians not to withdraw their supports for Buhari in retirement.
Adamu said: “We want President Buhari to hand over safely by the end of May 29. Buhari has led us to this victory and one way we can pay him is to ensure that he has a very peaceful exit.
“Our support for President Buhari should continue because he is not going to be president after May 29th. Our loyalty to him should not be extinguished after May 29th.”
Adamu spoke when members of pro-democracy group under the auspices of the Natives paid him a thank you solidarity visit at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja on Thursday.
Thanking them for supporting the party to emerge victorious in the recently-concluded presidential election, the former Nasarawa State governor also urged Nigerians to extend the support given to Buhari to the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
He announced that having visited the President-elect twice since his arrival from France, he can confirm that he is hail and hearty, ready to work, rejuvenated and ready to work.
“Anytime I meet any of our support groups, I can’t feel complete in my address without congratulating us, and you for victory in the last election.
“Today, through your concerted efforts, in collaborating with us, in voting us, we have a brand new president of Nigeria in the person of Bola Tinubu.
“He took time off because of the rigours of the campaigns. We thank God he is back. I was with him with members of the NWC.
“He is hail and hearty. He is ready to work. He is rejuvenated and ready to work. We want your continued support for us and the incoming government. We want your support to ensure that our transition is smooth and peaceful.
“The incoming president is our own. We voted for him. We supported him. Everyone of us should be more anxious to ensuring that Bola Tinubu succeeds as President of Nigeria. He will take off by the 29th of May by grace of God.
“The supports of everyone of you is required. As you were in the campaigns so it will be during the governance. It is my hope that God in his infinite mercy and wisdom will protect all of us. I hope that by the time we are in, I will see more of you,” he pleaded.
Speaking during the visit, Leader of the Natives, Olalekan Smart Edwards, thanked the party’s leadership, the APC Northern Governors for ensuring Tinubu’s emergence and victory.
“We came here to celebrate with you and also remind you that you cannot afford to fail Nigeria and Africa as the continent’s largest party for giving us a Stabilizer, Mr. Stabilizer.
“We read the manifesto’s clearly, it was even translated into languages, we saw a workable future, we looked at his background and we saw he had the formula.
“We saw a tremendous difference in his leadership language, he has being consistent and his projects are sustainable, so we reposed so much confidence in him and his ability to turn the fortunes of our various tribes and communities around
“Above all as a party please learn from the lessons of internal wrangling, party rewards, positive determination, engagement of the right hands, celebrate and reward the unparalleled role of youths, women and disabled of all tribes, be fair to all as we look forward to an industrialized and prosperous Nigeria .
Nigeria’s February/March elections undid many things. One of them was the 63-year-old myth that no wealthy and ambitious candidate could emerge president. Until the last presidential election.
Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nigeria’s president between 1963 and 1966, came close. But while ownership of his extensive and authoritative newspaper chain made him influential, he was not wealthy. In any case, he was only a ceremonial president.
The other leaders, especially the elected ones, up till now, had neither money nor ambition. And all, without exception, were also not prepared for office. A number of them even said so publicly.
Bola Ahmed Tinubu would be the first Nigerian leader to have money and ambition and also to publicly say he is ready and prepared to rule and still get elected. Considered to be one of Africa’s wealthiest politicians, he has extensive business interests and investments from real estate and stocks to media.
He would be the first elected president to defy the so-called “owners of Nigeria” who have over the years been obsessed that power in the hands of a wealthy and independent-minded candidate might put the beneficiary beyond their reach.
As it turned out in the February 25 presidential election, ambition alone would not have been enough to get Tinubu over the line, especially after his own party leader President Muhammadu Buhari’s banknote redesign on the eve of the elections threw the country into financial chaos. Money, ambition and dare-devil courage combined to snatch the chestnut of Tinubu’s aspiration from the fire of adversity.
“Do you know why he won the election?,” US diplomat and election observer asked recently. “He got the money; he had the best national organisation that worked for him and the ground game.”
What this means for governance, whether it brings more freedom and accountability or inhibitions and opaqueness, would be interesting to see in the days ahead.
But the loss of kingmaker leverage is not the only lesson from the 2023 elections. The unravelling myth of the sitting president as alpha and omega in determining a successor, is lesson number two.
In the last election, Buhari showed himself as the master of strategic ambivalence. He did not want Tinubu as his successor. Yet, in his valley of indecision, he knew that the surging wave would land the shore, and was quite pleased, in spite of his misery, to go with the flow. It was not always like that.
President Olusegun Obasanjo made his own wave. As military head of state, he moved heaven and earth to install Shehu Shagari as civilian president in 1979. And in his second coming as civilian president he went over, above and beyond the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) at the time to choose Umaru Shehu Yar’Adua as successor.
And I remember that after he fell out with the party and tore his card, he told a visiting reconciliation party to Abeokuta comprising President Goodluck Jonathan that after God and Jonathan’s parents he was the most consequential person in making the former president.
It now appears that those days are going, or gone. What the 2023 elections show is that every serious and determined candidate can make their own victory.
The governor-king has been undone, too. And that is lesson number three. For decades, Tinubu, for example, ruled the roost in Lagos. He survived the wiles and deadly onslaught of the Obasanjo era, going for years without one kobo for Lagos councils from the Federal Government which illegally seized their statutory allocations following a dispute over the creation of additional councils by the Tinubu administration.
Yet, in what his associate and Minister of Works, Babatunde Fashola SAN, recently described as “blindsiding”, Tinubu lost Lagos to Labour Party’s Peter Obi, a rookie in the presidential race. But it was not only Tinubu who suffered defeat in his stronghold.
Other party stalwarts, including seven governors, failed to get election to their new retirement home – the Senate. Six states featuring the governors’ preferred candidates on the ballot also flipped.
Lesson number four: Abraham Lincolns come once in a blue moon. Famous among things for contesting and losing eight elections, two of them the presidency, Lincoln could have been a distant political cousin of Nigeria’s former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, in another life. Atiku, the presidential candidate of the opposition PDP, was on his sixth attempt in 30 years.
He did not lose the last election, though. He won it for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) which may have found it far more difficult to keep power if Atiku had let his decades of political experience guide him.
Unlike Lincoln whose multiple losses taught him that the only way to win the 1860 presidential election was to keep the Republican Party united, Atiku’s strategy to win was keeping his party divided.
Even Buhari, another serial loser, had learnt that his fabled 12 million voter-base in one section of the country could not win him the presidency. It took Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) an alliance with Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and three other parties to win at his fourth attempt in 2015.
In Atiku’s world of contrarian politics, the PDP “split” not into two but into four parties – Labour Party, NNPP and the Wike-led Integrity Group. In his next life, no matter the degree of temptation or provocation, it’s unlikely that Atiku would yield to the dissociative political maths of subtraction and division.
Kenyan political veteran, Raila Odinga, shared the fifth lesson during the LEADERSHIP Awards and Conference in Abuja shortly before Nigeria’s election, but we were not listening: “Don’t trust technology too much,” he said, or something to that effect. “They can fail or be made to fail.”
In spite of Odinga, we believed otherwise. The bimodal voter verification system (BVAS) was advertised as the gamechanger, but widely believed as the miracle-worker. Unfortunately, the system was undermined by glitches in a number of areas and the electoral management body which seemed unprepared for a Plan B, found itself seeking refuge in a backhanded electoral guideline that it was not obliged to transmit results electronically.
Machines fail, just as people fail them. But whether they fail or are made to fail, the recourse must be clear beforehand and consequences applied.
And yes, the ground game, infamously called “political structure” still matters. That is the sixth lesson of the last election. Even though Obi despised those who criticised the Labour Party for not having political structures, he still relied significantly on the structures of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to mobilise support.
Obi commanded the social media army. Unlike the APC and PDP, however, his extra-terrestrial troops were largely absent in many of the over 176,000 polling units where party agents needed to be physically present to oversee voting, counting and collation of results. If, as Joseph Stalin said, it is who counts and not who votes that matters, then LP lost the election before it was even held.
Lesson number seven: Polls are like mini-skirts. They are short enough to attract attention but long enough to hide the subject matter. They disappointed catastrophically in the U.S. elections in 2016. It was the same in Nigeria. Nine polls, including those by Bloomberg, CNN, ANAP/NOI among others, projected Obi would win. Only three, including Stears Polls, were close to the mark.
Even where strong anecdotal evidence suggested that the polls would be wrong, the pollsters did not let such evidence get in the way of their will. In the light of what eventually happened, there would still be enough humble pie left for pollsters, their sponsors and subscribers to eat before the next major election in Nigeria.
Lesson number eight is that ideology is an elite fiction. Ideology is dead! The tribe is resurgent. Long live the party! Peter Obi, a self-confessed capitalist trader, ended up flying the flag of LP! Apart from Tinubu who has maintained his progressive bonafides and AAC’s Omoyele Sowore who has remained unapologetically anti-establishment, other candidates have elevated political flirting to an art.
The courts have blessed this infidelity by ruling that it is the party and not the individual candidates that matters. And since the difference in policies and ideas among the major parties is a matter of form rather than of substance, candidates have become rolling stones gathering no moss.
With no real incentive to debate or discuss issues in spite of elite consternation over the lack of ideology, candidates relapsed to their primordial strongholds, invoking religion and ethnicity for redemption.
Post-election Nigeria feels like Humpty Dumpty. On top of the serious challenges of inflation, unemployment, stark economic deterioration and insecurity facing the country, not to mention the growing sub-regional instability, the incoming government has to first pick up the broken pieces of hope before it can start the difficult job of putting the country together again.
After several hours of deliberation, the National Executive Council, NEC, has decided that the Petroleum Subsidy should not be removed at the earlier planned date.
The Federal Government had said that come June 2023, the Petroleum Subsidy will be removed, but the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, said that the Council has agreed on the need for continued discussions on the issue adding that the FG, together with states and representatives of the incoming administration, require more preparatory work.
She said, “Council agreed that the timing of the removal of fuel subsidy should not be now. But that we should continue with all of the preparatory works that need to be done and that this preparatory has to be done in consultation with the states and other key stakeholders including representatives of the incoming administration.
“Council agreed that the fuel subsidy must be removed earlier rather than later because it is not sustainable. We cannot afford it anymore. But we have to do it in such a way that the impact of the subsidy is as much as possible, mitigated on the lives of ordinary Nigerians.
“So, this will require looking at alternatives to the fuel subsidy that needs to be planned for and subsequently put in place. But also what needs to be done to support the people that will be most affected as a result of the removal.”
She made the disclosure after the Valedictory Council meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Ahmed added that the FG will be synergizing with representatives of the states between now and June 2023.
“We have a plan that we will start working on, putting the building blocks towards the eventual removal of the first subsidy.
“And if I may remind this forum that the budget for 2023 has a provision for fuel subsidy only up to June 2023 and also the Petroleum Industry Act has a provision that requires that all petroleum products must be deregulated 18 months after the effective date of the PMS removal and that that period is also up to June 2020,” Ahmed explained.
Five APC governorship Aspirants in Kogi State that participated in the primary election have sought legal option to cancel the outcome of the exercise as it seems their pressure and calls have failed.
They are Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District, Smart Adeyemi, a son of former Kogi State Governor, Shuaibu Abubakar Audu and three others.
In their separate suits marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/556/2023 and FHC/ABJ/ CS/557/2023, filed by Senator Adeyemi and Shuaib Abubakar Audu respectively, the plaintiffs are asking the court to declare as illegal, unlawful and invalid the purported Direct Primary election said to have been conducted by APC which produced Ahmed Usman Ododo as the governorship candidate for November this year election.
The grouse of the aggrieved governorship aspirants was that the alleged unlawful selection of Ododo ran foul of Section 177 of the 1999 Constitution and Section 29 and 84 of the Electoral Act as well as Article 20 of the APC’s Constitution.
Apart from Adeyemi and Shuaib Abubakar Audu, other aspirants who have already commenced legal action against the outcome of the primary election include; a former Minister of State for Education, Professor Stephen Ocheni, Deputy National Publicity Secretary of APC, Martala Yakubu Ajaka and Dr Sanusi Ohiare.
A Federal High Court in Abuja had earlier nullified the first primary election of the party following similar complaints of fraud and irregularities in the conduct of the purported primary election.
Justice James Omotoso had ordered the APC to conduct a fresh primary election in line with the provisions of the law and guidelines and Constitution of the APC.
However, the plaintiffs in the fresh suits amongst others, are praying the court to invoke Section 177 of the Constitution, Sections 29 and 84 of the Electoral Act and Article 20 of the APC’s Constitution, to declare the purported primary election invalid.
They also asked the court for an order compelling the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to reject and refuse recognition of the name of Ahmed Usman Ododo as APC’s governorship candidate on the grounds that he emerged from an invalid primary election.
Similarly, the aggrieved governorship aspirants also prayed for another order compelling APC to conduct a fresh primary election and to give all aspirants equal opportunity as prescribed by the Electoral Act, 2022.
Senator Adeyemi’s suit and that of Abubakar Audu are instituted on their behalf separately by Dr Adekunle Oladapo Otitoju.
In a 35 paragraph affidavit in support of his own originating summons, Senator Adeyemi claimed to have obtained his nomination and expression of interest form at N50 million upon which he was screened and cleared to participate in the primary election slated for April 14, 2023.
Adeyemi further claimed that while waiting at his constituency to cast his vote along with his people, he was shocked when information came to him that a purported primary election had been conducted and a purported winner had emerged.
Addressing a joint press conference shortly after filing the suit Senator Adeyemi and Abubakar Audu described the purported primary that produced Ododo as a phenomenal rape of democracy and must not be allowed to stand if democracy is to thrive in the country.
Adeyemi alleged that Governor Yahaya Bello had asked all the aspirants to step down for his preferred candidate who is from the same zone with him, adding that it is the turn of Kogi West which had not produced a governor in the history of the state to do so.
While noting that some aspirants have been subdued already, the Senator assured that he would fight the injustice to the last in the interest of Kogi people and democracy.
“If election was rigged, we know that election was rigged, but election never took place at all.”
Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa has decided to wield the big stick on those behind the illegal declaration of Aishatu Dahiru popularly known as Binani as the winner of the April 15th Supplementary Polls which plunged the State into crisis.
He has requested that the Police should commence investigation into the crisis that engulfed the State during this period. Those found guilty, he said will face the wrath of the law.
The Chief Press Secretary to Governor Fintiri, Humwashi Wonosikou, signalled the intent of the State Government to prosecute all those behind the illegal declaration of Governorship candidate APC’s Binani.
He said that the Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice of the state has written the Commissioner of Police to immediately commence investigations for possible prosecution of all those found culpable, in the saga that played out in the polls.
The Adamawa State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Hudu Yunusa-Ari, had sneaked into the Collation Center to declare Binani the winner of the Supplementary Polls leading to crisis in the State, prompting the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Headquarters in Abuja to summon him and declared the result void.
On the 19th April, INEC Returning Officer for the election in the State, Muhammed Melee, declared the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and incumbent governor, Fintiri, the winner of the governorship election.
Wonosikou said the attorney general and commissioner of Justice Afraimu Jingi, has mandated the police to start investigations for possible prosecution of all those behind the botched ‘civilian coup’.
The Statement reads; “The State Government in a letter to the State Police Command signed by the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice Afraimu Jingi wants the Police to prosecute for possible prosecution of all those found culpable in the saga and role played by each.
“The State Government has pledged its support to the state police command towards ensuring the logical conclusion of the investigation.
“The State Government is worried that Hudu’s action threatened the hard-earned peace that the present administration has built in the last four years.”
It, also, noted that the declaration by Hudu while collation was still ongoing, of the candidate of APC as the winner of the governorship elections resulted in a breach of the peace in the State.
Elated by the successes achieved by the Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation (EdoBEST) programme, Governor Godwin Obaseki has threatened to lead a state-wide protest if the programme is discontinued by his successor in office.
The Governor Obaseki-led Government had, in 2018, introduced the EdoBEST programme in the primary school educational system with the purpose to stem the alleged slide in the basic education sector in the State.
Obaseki made the threat while addressing Heads of Schools and teachers in Benin City, as part of activities to mark the Edo State Education Week 2023 with the theme, “Education for Alaghodaro: Investing in quality education and access for our children and youth”.
He said, he will mobilize over 370,000 students who are in the State school system, over 15,000, 20,000 teachers and education managers to the streets in protest against any government after him that try to stop the programme.
He lamented that in spite of his achievements in the education and other sectors of the state economy, there have been a lot of backlash of criticisms directed against him and his government on the social media.
According to him, those who refused to contribute to the future of the children are waiting to see the end of EDOBEST.
“They are waiting to let Obaseki go so that they will kill it. They are saying why is he wasting all these money to buy books for the children? Na books we go chop?
“They are angry. So, if we do not sustain it, the threat is from them. They are not interested in the future but the experience of the last one or two years have taught us that they will not succeed.
“They can’t because we can see the political evolution in our country.
“Students and teachers would be mobilized to oust any government that refuses to continue with the programme in the state.
“With the parents of the 370,000 children in our school system, with the over 15,000, 20,000 teachers and education managers, we will go into the streets, we will go to every household, we will go to everywhere children’s are, and they have wards and caretakers and let them know that EDOBEST must be sustained
“It is part of the reform process. Unfortunately, it is a group of politicians like me who refused to do what we are doing for more than three decades, for over two generations.
“Anybody who succeeds me or any politicians that doesn’t prioritize education, we will throw them out of office. Will you not?
“Often time you go online and you see the attacks on me and my government, you will ask, if the government is doing all these things he said he is doing, why is there so much attacks on him?
“I am sure if you go on most of the blogs, the critical blogs, you will not see any stories about what we are doing, about the improvements we have made in our schools, about how we have transformed our school system into learning systems. You will not see.”
He, however, assured teachers that the programme would be sustained after his tenure in office just as he urged teachers and parents to keep spreading the messages of hopes and sustainability of the EDOBEST in the state.
Nigerians are likely to be relieved with the news about the postponement of the removal of petroleum subsidy till another day.
The outgoing administration had planned to remove the subsidy on May, which may likely lead to increase in prices of petroleum products and other commodities.
However, the National Economic Council (NEC) which has been meeting in Abuja, announced the suspension of the planned removal of subsidy on petroleum products by the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
The Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed disclosed, this on Thursday while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the NEC meeting.
The meeting was presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, with state governors and other stakeholders in attendance.
According to the minister, the NEC concluded in its meeting that it is not a favourable time for the action.
She stated that the Council deliberated on the matter and resolved that it cannot be removed for now.
It equally agreed on the need to continue the discussion on the matter and the necessary preparatory work in conjunction with states and representatives of the incoming administration.
A very senior Lawyer, the 26th President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Okey Wali, SAN, kidnapped ten days ago, is still languishing in the den of his abductors.
Wali was kidnapped in Porthacourt where he resides on Monday, 17th April, 2023.
The abduction which happened in broad daylight took place along the Obiri Ikwerre flyover on East- West Road, Obio/Akpor Local Government Area, Rivers State.
During the bloody incident, one of Wali’s aides was shot dead, and two Policemen attached to him, critically injured.
On Wednesday, 26th April, the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau, SAN went to see Wali’s family with his team on a solidarity visit in Port Harcourt. They were received by his devastated wife and his younger brother, Kingsley. The team, also, visited the Commissioner of Police, Rivers State, apparently to discuss Wali’s case, and the Chairman of the Body of Benchers, Her Lordship, Honourable Justice Mary Peter-Odili, JSC, Rtd.
A statement by the NBA after the visit informed that “The kidnappers shot and killed one of his aides while two policemen attached to the former NBA President were seriously injured in the incident.
“Mr. Maikyau, SAN, and his delegation of Chairmen, Secretaries, and other senior members of the Bar from the branches of NBA in Rivers State were received by Mr. Kingsley Wenenda Wali, and Mrs Wali, the younger brother and the wife of the kidnapped former president. The duo commended the NBA President and his delegation for the visit.
“The NBA President expressed his concern over the unfortunate incident and prayed for God’s intervention on the difficulties the family is going through following the kidnap of their beloved one who has paid his dues as a former President of the Bar.
“Prayer session was held for God’s intervention to secure his release. The President urged the family to keep faith in God and believe that Mr Okey Wali, SAN, would be released to the family by the grace of God Almighty.
“The President and the delegation, thereafter, paid a courtesy call on the Commissioner of Police Rivers State where the President held a closed door meeting with the CP.
“The President of the NBA and delegation, also, paid a courtesy call on the Chairman Body of Benchers, Hon. Justice Mary Odili (JSC Rtd), at her residence. The Chairman of the Body of Benchers appreciated the President and the delegation for the visit. Discussion centered on the promotion of the rule of law and the justice sector.”
The federal government is no longer sure about the removal of the petrol subsidy during the lifetime of this administration.
The Buhari administration had earlier said subsidy on petroleum products will stop on May 29 when the incumbent is expected to leave office, urging consumers of the product to prepare for the inevitable.
But as it seems, the decision on the issue has obviously been transferred to Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Buhari’s successor who is expected to take office next month.
As part of the plan to phase out subsidy, the government had earmarked $800 million to be distributed as monthly stipends to vulnerable Nigerians.
The administration has now backtracked, saying subsidy will outlive the Buhari-led government.
According to the Minister of Finance and Planning, Zainab Ahmed, who spoke after the National Economic Council Meeting, NEC, in Abuja, the nation’s capital subsidy removal has been suspended.
Speaking after the meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, the minister said the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIA, Act will need further amendment to accommodate the policy.
Instructively, the PIA Act provided that subsidy be paid until June this year when the current government would have been out of power.
From all indications, the removal is not likely to take effect soon as the 10th National Assembly will have to do necessary amendment to the PIA which is likely to take weeks if not months, watchers of the nation’s politics said.
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.
Senator Aishatu Dahiru Binani
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!
