On April 11 2015, womenfolk, feminists and progressives were almost certain that Senator Aisha Alhassan would be victorious in the Taraba state governorship election.

Many were convinced that Alhassan would emerge the first female (elected) governor in Nigeria. Several media outlets reported she had won, albeit prematurely.

Alhassan of the All Progressives Congress was squaring-up with Darius Ishaku of the Peoples Democratic Party, and they were neck in neck, in the race of their lives.

For a while, she was leading by a wide margin and political watchers, analysts and journalists figured it was a slam dunk, home-run victory until INEC announced the official results- that Mama Taraba, as she’s fondly addressed, had lost to Ishaku in the polls.

Her story and foray into politics didn’t start that day, nor did it end there.

Aisha Alhassan grew up in Jalingo and Kaduna states, predominantly the latter, where she attended Ahmadu Bello University.

While in ABU, Zaria, Mama Taraba joined student politics and went ahead to contest the post of Vice President of the Student Union Government at the age of 18. Alhassan defeated two challengers to become the only female member of the institution’s SUG in the 1978/1979 session.

During her tenure, there was a student crisis in the university which led to the expulsion of some of the SUG members including the President. Hence, Alhassan assumed the role of Acting President of ABU Main Campus SUG.

While serving as Acting President, Alhassan met her first husband, Professor Ango Abdullahi, who was at the time, Deputy Vice Chancellor, ABU Zaria- and he would become Vice Chancellor three months after their marriage.

A product of an active politically-inclined family, Aisha Alhassan joined the PDP in 2005 but wasn’t politically active until October 2010.

Aisha Jummai Al-Hassan didn’t start from the bottom of the politics pit, she went straight for the Senatorial seat of her zone, Taraba North constituency, which she contested and won under the platform of the PDP.

She defeated the incumbent Senator, Ambassador Manzo Anthony in the PDP primaries of January 2011, to earn the ticket which made her the first female Senator from Taraba state.

After spending one term as a Senator, Al-Hassan looked ahead, to the top.

She had ambitions of becoming governor of Taraba state, hence, switched camps to the APC, where she went on to contest against Darius Ishaku.

Announcing the official result of INEC, Prof. Kyari Mohammed said Ishaku got 369,318 votes while Alhassan came second with 275,984 votes.

Shortly after the announcement of the results, Alhassan addressed a press conference in Jalingo, describing the election as “daylight robbery”, adding that the party would challenge the results in the elections petitions tribunal.

“The combined governorship elections in Taraba were characterised by violence, massive rigging, ballot snatching and abuse of the card readers in substantial parts of the state by the PDP and their allies,” she had said.

True to her word, she challenged the governorship election result, and on Saturday, November 7, the Taraba State Governorship Election Tribunal, ruled that she was the rightful winner of the election.

Justice Danladi ruled that Governor Ishaku was not properly nominated as the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party for the Governorship election based on the reports of the Independent National Electoral Commission, which said that the PDP didn’t conduct any primary election for the Taraba State Governorship Election.

But before Alhassan’s supporters get too excited, here’s a downer:

She can’t become the first female elected governor in Nigeria’s history, just yet, because she still has one, maybe two more hurdles to cross.

Darius Ishaku would most certainly follow the Nyesom Wike route and appeal the tribunal judgment, and this process, based on precedence, won’t happen overnight.

But then, it’s possible that Mama Taraba may become the first female elected governor in Nigeria, but also, it’s possible she may not get to make history.

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Kolapo Olapoju is the Editor of YNaija