By Babagana Zannah
It is no longer news that the All Progressives Congress (APC) will dominate the 8th National Assembly. What is now preoccupying the minds of the APC lawmakers is the zoning formula as it affects key positions in the National Assembly, from who becomes the President of the Senate or Deputy President, down to who becomes the Speaker of the House of Representatives or Deputy Speaker.
Interestingly, the position of the President of the Senate has been zoned to North-central, with the likes of Senators George Akume (Benue state) and Bukola Saraki (Kwara state) battling for the position. And with the position of the Deputy Senate President zoned to the North-east, there can be no better candidate for the position than Hon. Binta Masi Garba, who hails from Michika in Adamawa North. She is unarguably a woman of change who knows her onions in Nigeria’s political arena.
Little wonder she emerged the first and only female state party chairman shortly after the merger of opposition parties that eventually gave birth to the APC. As chairman of Adamawa state APC, she delivered the state in the March 28 presidential election where Gen. Muhammadu Buhari emerged the winner, even as she won Adamawa North senatorial seat.
On April 11, she repeated the rare feat with APC clinching the state governorship seat, making the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) losing for the first time in the history of the state, and clearing virtually all the state House of Assembly seats; which is also a first against the PDP.
What is more, she also defeated the incumbent governor, Bala James Ngillari, who contested Adamawa North senatorial election against her. She is, indeed, a woman of change and many firsts. She is the only female senator-elect from the entire 19 Northern states in the 2015 general elections. She was the only female delegate from Adamawa to the 2014 National Conference, where she prominently aired her views on several issues of concern to Adamawa people and the entire Northeast.
She is an advocate of women rights and strong voice of the less privileged. Suffice it to also mention, at this point, that she remains the only Nigerian lawmaker to have been elected from two different states into the National Assembly; Kaduna (1999 to 2007) and Adamawa (2007 to 2011).
Binta Masi Garba started her political career in the year 1998 in Kaduna, Nigeria. Before her political adventure, she worked with the New Nigerian Newspapers. As a passionate and advocate of the people, Binta Masi Garba has won several awards.
They include Jaycees International Young Person Role Model Award 2002; The Women of Merit Gold Award; Prime International Women in Leadership Merit Award; Association of Market Women and Men Role Model Award; Leadership Distinction Award (Most Distinguished Representative); valuable Contribution to Development of
Parliamentary Democracy in Nigeria Award, among others.
With her political antecedents as a ranking member of the National Assembly, she is eminently qualified for the position of Deputy Senate President.
It will be a plus for the APC to be the first political party in the country to produce a female deputy president. And with all the contributions she has made to the successes of the party in Adamawa and in the Northeast, there is no better person for the position than Hon. Binta Masi Garba, who is eminently qualified in all ramifications.
Zannah wrote from Sabon Gari, Nangere, Yobe state