2023: Aishatu Binani’s ‘Multiplier Effect’
By Nafisat Bello
“If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then, you are an excellent leader.”
– Dolly Parton
In Economics, Multiplier Effect can be defined in different ways. Some economists refer to it as the effect on national income and product of an exogenous increase in demand. For example, suppose that investment demand increases by one, frms then produce to meet this demand. That the national product has increased means that the national income has increased.
Other scholars see Multiplier Effect as the proportional amount of increase, or decrease, in final income that results from an injection, or withdrawal, of capital. In effect, it measures the impact that a change in economic activity—like investment or spending—will have on the total economic output of something.
In common parlance, ‘Multiplier Effect’ has to mean the larger effect a measure taken for a particular purpose, has in other areas of life that may not have been intended.
In the run up to the 2023 general elections in Adamawa state, the term, ‘Multiplier Effect’ is beginning to make more sense to avid followers of politics within and outside the state. This is because since the emergence of frontline philanthropist and business mogul, Senator Aishatu Binani, as the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), political permutations have changed beyond prediction.
Binani had against all odds polled 430 votes to defeat former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu, former governor, Jubrilla Bindow and a sitting House of Representatives member, Abdulrazak Namdas in the primary election conducted in June. Since then, unprecedented excitement has hit the length and breadth of the state, with women, youth and workers and private sector operators declaring a new dawn since they have an opportunity to in February 2023 vote for the first woman to lead the state and also to vote out a sitting governor who has been alleged to have underperformed.
It is not in her base and among the neutrals alone that Binani’s exploits are causing massive impact, it is also shaking the base of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.
Since Binani’s emergence, more governorship candidates have been emboldened to pick women as running mates, swelling the number of females who would be on the ballot in the 2023 governorship election.
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Also basking in the euphoria of Binani’s exploits, First Lady of Nigeria, Mrs Aisha Buhari, called on presidential and governorship candidates in the 2023 general elections to pick women as their running mates.
According to Mrs Buhari, the United Arab Emirates reserves 50 per cent slot for women in ministerial appointments and bureaucracy. Thus, the Gulf States had started to integrate women in ministerial positions up to 50 per cent. She added that Nigeria cannot afford to lag behind.
Following the First Lady’s lead, the following gubernatorial running mates emerged from across the country: Dr Hadiza Balarabe (Kaduna), Mrs Josephine Piyo (Plateau), Lady Emana Duke Ambrose-Amawhe (Cross River), Tonto Dikeh (Rivers) and Funke Akindele (Lagos).
Meanwhile, when I penned my previous article on Binani titled: “Aishatu Binani: A Courageous Attempt to Break the Glass Ceiling” to celebrate her emergence, I did not envisage that even the Government House which should naturally be the most protected building in the state would also feel the heat.
In an apparent bid to counter the wave Binani is making among the women therefore, the governorship candidate of the PDP and incumbent governor, Ahmadu Fintiri, dropped the current deputy governor, Crowther Seth, and chose the Vice-chancellor of the Adamawa State University (ADSU), Mubi, Professor Kaleptapwa Farauta, a female, to pair with him ahead of the 2023 election. How else can you define impact if not what Binani is forcing the governor to do few months to election.
Farauta, a seasoned technocrat, is the North-East region’s first female Vice-Chancellor. Just like Binani’s triumph at the APC primary election, Farauta’s nomination is historic, as she is the first woman in the North-East to be nominated for such a position. Binani is also the first woman to bear a major party ticket in the history of the Northeast zone.
It then means that at least one woman is on the ticket of each of the major parties. So whatever happens in February next year, on May 29, it is either Binani is sworn-in as governor or Farauta is sworn-in as deputy governor. Either of the scenarios – which were both forced by Binani’s growing popularity – will be unprecedented in the history of the Northeast generally. This will represent massive triumph for women emancipation in politics in northern Nigeria, the country at large, and Africa as a whole.
It is difficult if not impossible not to admire the courage and strong will of Binani and the early, massive impact that she already has on the polity in the state. She is blazing the trail and pushing more women across the North to seek to break the glass ceiling. She has also proved the point that there is no stopping the women folk from rising to the zenith of their careers, not in the corporate world, not in the academia, and definitely not in politics.
With Binani, head or tail, Adamawa women will win in 2023.
