Aishatu Dahiru, a 51-year-old politician, could be the first elected female governor in Nigeria’s largest democracy if she wins the election in the northeastern state of Adamawa. Dahiru is the only female flagbearer of any mainstream party in the governorship and state assembly elections. Only 24 of the 416 candidates vying for office are women. Dahiru is seeking re-election under the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and she is challenging 13 other opponents, including the incumbent Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, who is seeking re-election under the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP). The election presents a different challenge for Dahiru, a serving senator since 2019 and previously, a one-term member of the House of Representatives.
In the primaries, Dahiru fended off competition from male political veterans, including former anti-corruption chief and ex-presidential aspirant Nuhu Ribadu and Jibrilla Bindow, the immediate past governor of the state. Months after the primary, a state court nullified the result due to irregularities before a higher court later quashed the judgment.
Religious scholars have openly preached against Dahiru’s candidacy, and a deadly 13-year insurrection by Boko Haram, which outlaws Western education and has abducted women and children, continues. But her supporters, especially the rural working class and women, remain unfazed. For years, she has been widely involved in philanthropic efforts across the state, helping low-income households.
The APC’s guidelines that two of every five delegates elected from each ward, the lowest tier of the electoral structure in Nigeria, must be women, worked in Dahiru’s favor during the governorship primaries. Already popular with women across the state, many of the delegates identified with her ambition. It also helped that Abuja gave its support. She was reportedly backed by the presidency as well as by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the PDP presidential candidate in the 2019 and 2023 elections.
Dahiru has built a formidable political machinery over 20 years that many say could spur her to victory if there is high voter turnout. A businesswoman and trained engineer, she became active in politics after returning from her studies in the United Kingdom. In 2011, she ran for election into the House of Representatives under the People’s Democratic Movement (PDM) to represent the Yola North/Yola South/Girei federal constituency. Four years later, she moved to the All Progressives Congress in 2015 after Muhammadu Buhari defeated then-incumbent Goodluck Jonathan to become president. There, Dahiru lost her bid to get into the Senate before finally being elected in 2019 as one of Adamawa’s three senators and the only female from the North in that electoral cycle.
She has promised to harness the agricultural capacity of the state in addressing poverty and inequality. She has also presented herself as a defender of women’s rights to education and the right to vote and run for office.
Aishatu Dahiru might become the first female governor
Nigeria has had a female governor once, but she was not elected. In November 2006, Virginia Etiaba became governor of Anambra when the incumbent Peter Obi was impeached. She relinquished the seat in February 2007 when a court order nullified his removal. Dahiru’s ascension to the big stage comes as female representation in Nigerian politics is declining. The number of women in federal parliament has consistently dropped since 2011. In the March 2023 vote, the figure dropped further from 21 of the confirmed 423 seats, to 15.
Image Credit: Aishatu Dahiru/Twitter