~ As stakeholders question why facility was ceded to artists for new year frolic
A palpable anxiety has gripped Adamawa State political space as governor Fintiri allegedly denied the major opposition candidate and APC gubernatorial hopeful, Sen. Aishatu Dahiru Binani the usage of Ribadu Square for the flag-off of her Gubernatorial campaign.
Feelers in the camp of the female politician said it amounted to a great travesty for the senator to be denied the venue only for the same venue to be ceded to hip hop artist for new year frolic and revelries.
“INEC, CSOs and other critical stakeholders should intervene to ensure that a level playing ground is provided especially considering the gender of the APC gubernatorial hopeful.
“It will amount to a huge travesty for the state government to willfully deny our gubernatorial hopeful her right to use Ribadu square for her campaign flag off. Such crude abuse of power is indicative of the mindset of governor Fintiri to use state might to crush opposition in the state a development that is antithetical to the letters and spirit of democracy,” a stakeholder, Sallau Amada said.
A public affairs analyst in the state, Shehu Sani viewed the development as another low for the Fintiri administration noting that concerted efforts must be put by all conscientious stakeholders in Adamawa to reclaim our lost democratic space.
“It is not unexpected, considering her ever growing intimidating generic-electorates-support that the APC governorship candidate in Adamawa state, distinguished Senator Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed, a.k.a Binani, the Governor-In-Waiting, as she is being referred to by President Muhammadu Buhari, would be denied the use of Mahmud Ribadu Square for her flag off campaign rally scheduled for January 9, 2023.
“Some feelers were with the mindset that the state governor is a democrat who tested the position of opposition as a governorship candidate, in addition to his position as a governor, denying a popular opposition candidate, especially a lady with intimidating population of generic supporters, would weigh him further down by adding to the believability of the amazing strength of the amazon in political terms,” Sani said.
Some of the ardent Binani supporters who would not want to be referred to as pessimists have since ruled out the possibility of getting approval for the use of the government facility going by the previous experience with the Women Development Centre that Binani was later denied the use thereof when she was sharing N20,000 to the poor traders in the state on behalf of the federal government.
The group has since considered an alternative that is in commensurability with the public venue earlier requested.
“Mahmud Ribadu Square can be denied. But the state government can’t deny or stop the governorship flag off campaign rally scheduled to be held on January, 9, 2023,” a political pundit would point out.