By Falmata Zanna
The House of Representatives has, over the years, seen them: the good, the bad, the ugly as well as the conservative, the controversial and the colourful. And so when a certain teacher-turned-politician called Binta Bello waltzed into the hollowed lower legislative chamber in 2011, not much attention was paid to her.
The conventional wisdom was that she would be one of those who usually come, see and eventually step out of the House with little or nothing to show in terms of legislative bills and constituency projects. Those who “scorned” this amazon that way must be hiding their heads in shame now.
For barely had Rep Binta Bello settled down at the House of Representatives than she started dazzling all and sundry with her legislative acumen, administrative ability and leadership prowess. Like a consumate actor who had mastered her profession with aplomb over the years, this proactive woman has been on top of her game at the National Assembly right from the onset.
Born in 1970, Rep Binta Bello attended Women Teachers College (W.T.C), Badoja, graduating in 1988 with a Teachers Grade II Certificate. She proceeded to the University of Maiduguri, Borno state, for a degree programme in Public Administration. After graduating with a Bsc, the industrious and indomitable politician worked for many years as a classroom teacher. She was subsequently appointed Commissioner in Gombe state where she distinguished herself as one of the shiny lights of the Governor Danjuma Goje administration.
Her next port of call was the House of Representatives and after sparkling on the job between 2011 and 2015 under the banner of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the people of Kaltungo/Shongom federal constituency of Gombe state didn’t hesitate to renew her mandate in 2015. In fact, she has earned the distinction of being one of the very few female legislators from that part of Nigeria to have won their re-election in the past two decades.
What, you may wonder, endears this woman of substance to her constituents and milllions of other compartriots across Nigeria? The answer lies in her all-encompassing legislative endeavour, open-door policy, integrity and milk of human kindness as evidenced by her unsurpassed humanitarian and philantrophic efforts.
Ask her colleagues in the House of Representatives and they would chorus that with her legislative interests in terrains such as poverty eradication, development of rural areas, autonomy for local governments councils and proper implementation of the budget, this amazon of inestimable value is a winner any day, any time. In other words, she is not just blessed with beauty and brain, she is a lawmaker who has been recording one breakthrough after the other every season to the admiration of her supporters and envy of her opponents.
