2023: Adamawa Central Elders, Youths disagree over Binani’s re-election
Barely eighteen months to 2023 general elections, some Adamawa central leaders, youths say they will not support Aishatu Binani’s re-election or any elective position if she decides to contest.
Binani They, however, shied away from announcing their preferred senatorial candidate in the elections, insisting that the candidate to support remained the person that carries everyone along and attract federal presence to Adamawa central.
The Convener of the Adamawa Central Elders’ Forum (ACEF), Dr Usman Abdullahi, spoke the mind of the Adamawa central leaders in Yola.
According to Abdullahi, the Adamawa Central Elders decided to dump Binani for another Adamawa central senatorial candidate because she failed to fulfil the basic conditions they handed to her in 2019 when they rejected then – PDP candidate and elected her.
“Two of the conditions we gave Binani upon her assumption of office were that he should take concrete steps to address the abject poverty and underdevelopment in Adamawa central and she has woefully failed to marginally address any of them,” he said.
The ACEF leader also accused the senator of bringing strange elements into government, thereby adding no value to governance and “we are vindicated on this score because many elders and youths from the central Zone have been lamenting since we supported her in 2019”.
He went on: “Assuming that things are working in the Central Zone as a whole, we would have taken a different position, but everyone can see that things are not working under Binani as a senator.
Perhaps, as a prelude to where Binani has taken this zone, Binani wasted one-year eight months today without nothing to point to.
“As things stand today, we in the ACEF do not believe that Adamawa central’s cause will be helped by Binani’s re-election in 2023.
That is why we have decided to pick another senatorial candidate from the central for 2023 contest.
“It would be futile for anyone to blame anybody for the decision of the ACEF against Binani because her body language has openly alluded to our position that some persons, who do not have the interest of Adamawa central at heart, are running the Binani’s senatorial administration without adding real value to the governance of the central zone”.
Abdullahi, who is APC stalwart, pointed out that Binani was the architect of her own misfortune, having repeatedly rebuffed all entreaties by Adamawa central leaders and youths to meet with her and address the issues raised against her.
How Binani is making things easy for a new senatorial candidate in 2023 –
Bappare Mohammed, an APC stalwart Adamawa central, explained that the outcome of an enlarged meeting of 18 Adamawa central groups in October which reviewed Binani’s performance and its impact on the zone.
“Apart from her poor performance to the dissatisfaction of those who made her a Senator, Binani has deliberately rebuffed all attempts by the Adamawa central Elders Forum and Youths to meet with her and discuss issues pertaining to the zone”, he said.
“This is the reason we will reject Binani if she decides to seek any elective position in 2023. “We believe that there is no need for us to be talking to Binani again about what she needs since that will not change anything.
We have moved and our votes will not be based on the sentiment of tribe or religion but strictly on performance”.
The youths leader said they were pained by the behaviour of the Senator, having taken the risk to be at the forefront of her election in 2019 on account of which she was called unprintable names by her opponents.
According to him, Senator Nyako withdraws from seeking re-election into the senate due to the ominous signs he saw in 2019 because he would have been rejected.
However, the decision by the ACEF to dump Binani in 2023 has not gone down well with some members of the ACEF who openly disagreed with the leadership.