HOW FIRST FEMALE APC GOVERNORSHIP CANDIDATE EMERGED IN TARABA

Senator Aisha Jummai Al-Hassan

...Profile of the Political Amazon

Details have emerged about how the first female governorship candidate clinched the gubernatorial ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Taraba State.

Senator Aisha Jummai Al-Hassan, yesterday emerged the guber candidate of the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

 Alhassan, who currently serves as a senator in the 7th National Assembly representing Taraba North (Senatorial District), defeated three other male aspirants who contested the ticket with her.

She polled a landslide vote of 2425, while the other aspirants, Ibrahim Tumba, Dr Julde S & Yusuf polling 18, 5, and 14 votes respectively.

So far, Senator Alhassan is the only female in the country who will be contesting the governroship seat in 2015. 

 Al-Hassan was elected Senator for the Taraba North constituency of Taraba State, in the April 2011 Federal elections. She ran on the People's Democratic Party (PDP) platform.

 A lawyer by training, Al-Hassan once served as Taraba State Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice. She was appointed the Chief Registrar of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja on 17 December 2003. After she retired from service she went into business.

In the January 2011 PDP primaries, Jummai 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 herself being Muslim. She was also generous with her money, feeding the delegates and travelling with a motorcade of plush jeeps.


In the 9 April 2011 elections, Jummai won 114,131 votes, followed by Jolly Nyame of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) with 92,004 votes. She was one of four women elected on the PDP ticket, the others being Nkechi Nwaogu (Abia Central), Helen Esuene (Akwa Ibom South) and Nenadi Usman (Kaduna South).