Aisha Alhassan confident of becoming first female governor saying UDP has attracted 120,000 members in two weeks

FORMER minister for women's affairs Hadjia Aisha Alhassan is confident that she can win the Taraba State governorship contest next year despite leaving the All Progressives Congress (APC) saying that her new party has attracted 120,000 members over the last fortnight.

Popularly known as Mama Taraba, Hadjia Alhassan, 59, was the APC's Taraba State governorship candidate in the 2015 elections and had been hoping to run again next February. However, last month, the party's screening committee decided to drop her, questioning her loyalty, after she had said that she would back former vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar's presidential bid.

Incensed with the decision, she resigned her appointment as minister for women and quit the APC, joining the United Democratic Party (UDP), who have now adopted her as their governorship candidate. Hadjia Alhassan is optimistic that she can become Nigeria's first female governor, saying it was not the name of your political party that mattered but the structure and followership in any election.

Speaking in Abuja yesterday when she visited the UDP national secretariat to submit the Taraba State report to the party’s national chairman Godson Okoye, Hadjia Alhassan said she now has more followers than she had before because of the injustice that was done to her by APC. She added that what the APC did to her had turned out to be a blessing.

Hadjia Alhassan said: “APC is just a platform like any other political party and you can win elections on any platform as long as you have people from the grassroots and you have the structure. It is just the name of our platform that is changed and as far as we are concerned, the followership is still intact, in fact we have more followership now.

“Because of the injustice done to me by the APC, we have a lot of sympathies now and the request for the UDP membership card now is overwhelming. I have told them to get a big hardcover note book and just be writing the names as so far we have printed 120,000 membership cards within two weeks and people are still asking for more."

She assured the party leadership that there was nothing to be afraid of about the coming elections in Taraba, saying UDP is well rooted. According to Hadjia Alhassan, all her followers, supporters and key stakeholders left the APC to join her in the UDP.

“All of us that nurtured the APC to where it was, completely left the party to the UDP. The executives and all that matter moved and the party has no structure any longer in Taraba," she added.