THE YEAR 2015 IS SURE A YEAR MANY POLITICIANS WON’T FORGET IN A HURRY FOLLOWING NULLIFICATION OF SOME ELECTED POLITICIANS AND ALSO NULLIFICATION OF SOME STATE GOVERNORS OF WHICH ONE IS THE NULLIFICATION OF TARABA STATE GOVERNOR DARIUS ISHAKU AND SUBSIQUENTLY REPLACED BY AISHA AL-HASSAN
Born on September 16, 1959, Senator Aisha Al-Hassan 56, is a Nigerian politician who was elected Senator for the Taraba North constituency of Taraba state, in the April 2011 federal elections when she ran on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
However, she defected from the ruling party for the APC for whom she clinched the Taraba state governorship ticket at the APC primaries in the state with a landslide victory of 2425 votes, with other candidates Ibrahim Tumba, Dr Julde S & Yusuf polling 18, 5, and 14 votes respectively.
This victory saw Senator Alhassan become the first female to clinch the governorship ticket on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Taraba state.
The success story of Senator Alhassan has been nothing but exceptional as in the January 2011 PDP primaries she defeated the incumbent Senator, former Ambassador Manzo Anthony. It was said that she was a protégé of former Governor Jolly Nyame, who wanted her to defeat Manzo, thinking he could then defeat her. However, after winning the primaries Jummai ran an energetic election campaign, managing to gain Christian support despite the fact that she herself was a Muslim.
Soon enough, her hardwork paid off greatly when in the April 9, 2011 elections, Jummai won 114,131 votes, followed by Jolly Nyame of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), now All Progressives Congress (APC), with 92,004 votes. She was one of four women elected on the PDP ticket, the others being Nkechi Nwaogu of Abia Central, Helen Esuene from Akwa Ibom South and Nenadi Usman from the Kaduna South senatorial constituency.
However, senator Alhassan surprisingly ran a stronger race. She squared up against former minister of state for Niger Delta affairs, Darius Ishaku of PDP, and David Kente of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), a retired director of finance from the national Assembly, in the governorship poll.
Senator Alhassan victory at the tribunal however saw her become the first female governor in Nigeria but the first elected female governor of Nigeria.
Why? Because on November 3, 2006, Dame Virgy Etiaba, was sworn in as the Governor of Anambra state, making her the first female Governor in Nigeria following the impeachment of Governor Peter Gregory Obi.
Senator Aisha Alhassan’s success also caught the attention of the APC presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari who urged Taraba state natives to support the APC governorship candidate in the state.
Buhari made the remarks in a series of tweets on his official Twitter page to commemorate the International Women’s Day marked across the world on Sunday, March 9
Over the years, there have been calls for the empowerment of women in the country and to a reasonable extent these calls seem to have been gradually embraced by the government.
she indeed has made history
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