By Asma’u Halilu
Whatever fails to pull down the amazing amazon, makes Senator Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed, a.k.a Binani, the APC governorship candidate in Adamawa state stronger to go high, while she sees them going down gradually.
The more Binani’s character, activities and/or aspirations are challenged rather unconstructively, the more her popularity rises along with the reflection of her good deeds beyond the critics who could be speaking and acting in capitalistic terms, negating the spirit of welfarism, even for well wishes; examples abound and beyond comments about.
I laughed. In fact, loud enough to attract attention; the concerned people around sought to know about the meaning of the sound in the laughter, perchance to decide rather constructively thereafter.
I just read a piece intended to pierce the pleasing peace to pieces as I picked the pointless poin put forth by one Benjamin Komolafe who would in vain want to advertise himself with all the attempted failures recorded in the name of promoting feminism in politics even when syncategorematic consideration of gender as unconscious bias has no base in politicking any longer.
Mine is not to ponder but to consider his pomposity anything but emptiness.
As a student of persuasion, I am being taught that it is one thing to be understood and it is another to be believed and that for persuasion to be considered effective, the persuader must be understood and be believed at the same time. The believability has to do with the personality and the knowledge of the subject matter under discussion.
Komolafe, by this context, should not be considered as one who is familiar with what he wasted his energy trying to make it appealing for his readers to be persuaded to believing, other than either to please or appease the opposition against the governor-in-waiting as President Muhammadu Buhari already referred to Binani.
Komolafe addressed himself as a human rights activist rather than a political analyst to have understood the politics within as much as he isn’t a legal luminary to advance any judgement prior to the jury. Can I count this for perjury?
According to him “the fact that the woman has displayed great courage, mettle and political grit in the politics of her home state by winning decisive elections including house of reps and senate made me have convictions that at last, Nigeria is poised for a female governor.
“The fact that the woman hailed from the conservative Fulani creed from Yola South local government of Adamawa state all made the spectacle of her victory heartwarming.
“But as I was exuding and enjoying the feat made by the Amazon, two particularly distasteful stories about the election hit me like a thunderbolt.
“The first one has to do with over voting during the party primaries that returned Binani as the gubernatorial candidate of the most potent opposition political party in Adamawa State. I learnt that while 1009 delegates were accredited, the election recorded 1011 votes meaning that there was over voting.
“Although this may not be the fault of Binani, the issue has the tendency of affecting her candidature as constitutional provisions stated that whenever over voting is recorded during an election, the process has to be repeated meaning a fresh party primary has to be conducted to rectify the a anomaly as the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) may capitalize on the situation to invoke the courts to bar the party from participating in the general election.
“The second infraction, which is the most dangerous one, is the widely reported allegation that EFCC operatives caught two of Binani’s henchmen in vote buying scandal.
“Section five of Nigeria’s constitution which describes vote buying as a criminal enterprise may be invoked to quash Binani’s gubernatorial ambition which may become a sore anticlimax to our quest from having the first female governor from northeastern Nigeria.
“But it is high time the APC as a party put its acts together to save an impending disaster because unless the two issues are investigated and resolved, the party may lose its chances of participating in the gubernatorial election in 2023”.
Does Komolafe know why the authorless book that only the title, HOW TO BECOME A DELEGATE” become so viral via social media some months previously? What justification has he to concretise the allegation that EFCC operatives have intercepted mercenaries linked to Binani trying to induce delegates for her mandate, he would refer to as vote buying?
On the issue of over voting, Komolafe should note that similar experiences were previously quashed with the consideration to the defence a lawsuit submitted that “the maxim of law used to be the minimis non curat lex. Meaning, of small things, the lord knows no cure”.
It articulated that “what are on ground, are petty grievances, administrative errors and no court in the world has ever nullified a presidential election in this case”.
The same way the APC governorship primaries in Adamawa cannot be nullified on the basis of what falls under the mimimous rule.
The case is however before the law, waiting for the passing of judgement. Is it necessary to advise the APC as a party, perhaps to pursue the amazing amazon out before the court judgement?
Or do you think that APC can field any candidate other than the phenomenon Binani to be able to wrestle power from the ruling party, the PDP, as it currently is?
Adamawa echoes “Sai-Matan-Nan” and the President, who is the father of the APC has already addressed Senator Binani as a governor-in-waiting. So, why waste time with wishful thinking?
Asma’u Halilu, a feminist sympathiser writes from Yola.