A top female politician in Adamawa State, Senator Aishatu Ahmed, better known simply as Binani, has started reaching out to her supporters.
Binani who was the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in 2023, met with hundreds of her supporters in Yola at the weekend when she formally thanked them for their support.
The supporters were mostly the 430 delegates who voted for her to secure the APC ticket with which she contested in the 2023 governorship election.
Binani had won 430 votes to secure the APC ticket during the party’s governorship primary election, defeating five men in the process, including her closest rival at the primary, Malam Nuhu Ribadu who is currently the National Security Adviser and who got 288 votes at the APC primary.
Addressing the delegates who attended the meet and greet event at the weekend in Yola, Binani said, “My delegates, the reason for calling you here today is to say a very, very big thank you. You were the ladder. If I had APC as the party platform, you were the solid bedrock of the ladder which I climbed into the general election.”
She stressed that their votes made her the APC candidate for the 2023 election and that she remained deeply grateful to them.
Binani had gone into the 2023 governorship election with hopes of becoming Nigeria’s first elected female governor but it was not to be, as her total of 398,788 votes placed her second after Ahmadu Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party who polled 430,861 votes.
Commenting on Binani’s weekend felicitation with her supporters, her campaign director general for the 2023 election, Senator Ahmed Barata, said Binani is an unusual politician who chooses to return on a thank-you mission even after losing the 2023 election.
One of the delegates who spoke on the gesture, Hadiza Aliyu, said Binani had always remained in touch with her people, often reaching out with necessary interventions.