The reported plan by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Adamawa to replace Senator Aishatu Dahiru Binani as its gubernatorial candidate for the 2023 election has been generating concerns and tensions from within and outside the State in recent times.
Binani is the only female candidate to fly the gubernatorial flag of a major political party in eight years after Senator Aisha Al-Hassan (Mama Taraba), who won the Taraba APC in 2014.
Analysts were of the view that Al-Hassan’s emergence in 2014 would have been the best chance for a female governorship candidate to win at the poll if not for electoral manipulations in the 2015 governorship election in Taraba.
The first Nigerian woman to occupy a governorship position is Virginia Ngozi Etiaba who stood in for Governor Peter Obi when the latter was illegally impeached by the Anambra state House of Assembly in 2006.
In Adamawa state, some disturbing patterns are beginning to show against the prospects of having another female governor since Etiaba.
Some APC stakeholders have reportedly started putting pressure on the party leadership to drop Senator Binani and field former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu as its governorship candidate in Adamawa.
Investigations by QUEST TIMES revealed that some party bigwigs angled for the replacement of Binani with the former EFCC czar who may be attempting to preempt the decision of the Court of Appeal which they suspect may order a fresh governorship primary altogether.
Some sources claim that members of the State Working Committee and stakeholders of the Adamawa State Chapter of the APC met over the weekend to discuss ways out of the current crisis rocking the party.
The Aisha Buhari connection
The wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, has expressed her desire to control the Adamawa APC structure since 2018 when she reportedly supported General Buba Marwa, the current chairman of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NAFDAC), as the APC flagbearer for the 2019 gubernatorial election against Senator Jubrilla Bindow, the then incumbent.
Bindow’s emergence against the First Lady’s preferred choice, Marwa, led to serious infighting in the party which subsequently cost the APC the governorship election in the State.
In 2022, the First Lady’s preferred choice is the former EFCC chair who is also said to have full backing from figures in the Presidency.
According to some sources, the First Lady pleaded with APC stakeholders to drop Binani for Ribadu and for them to accept a female Deputy Governorship candidate, Ambassador Patricia Yakubu, the state party women leader.
The First Lady’s directive reportedly did not go down well with all the stakeholders in the party.
Gender barriers in the North
While some analysts following the development have maintained that the issue is not strictly about gender, others insist it is.
QUEST TIMES spoke to Professor Oluyemi Fayomi, a specialist in Gender Studies at the Department of Political Science, Nigerian Army University, Biu, Borno state who noted that there appear to be more cultural biases against women’s political participation in the Northern and Eastern part of the country.
She cited the case of the ongoing Constitutional Amendment where National Assembly members from the North vehemently rejected the proposed clause reserving seats for female candidates.
Fayomi, a former Head of Department of Politics and International Relations, Covenant University lamented and wondered why there are always gender barriers to women’s political participation.
According to the Professor who has authored several publications on women’s participation in politics, women in Nigeria seem to be judged by different standards during elections.
“While countries like Liberia, Malawi, Tanzania, and Ethiopia have produced female presidents here in Africa, Nigeria is still struggling to even elect a female as Governor. Isn’t that shameful?” Fayomi noted.
The President, Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), Mrs. Ladi Bala, recently made a remark urging journalists to focus more on promoting women’s issues, gender inclusivity thereby discouraging gender marginalisation in the electoral process.
“Twice cannot a mistake”
Some analysts and observers have noted that it was not a coincidence that APC is the first major political party to present two female governorship candidates in two different election cycles. The current crisis rocking the party in Adamawa, they say, is an attempt to deny the country its second female elected governor.
According to one analyst, APC cannot present two female candidates at different times and both share the same problems saying “twice cannot be a mistake.”