Victor EzejaAs the 2023 general elections draw closer, presidential candidates of various political parties have acknowledged the indispensable role of women in governance and pledged more inclusion to give them more opportunities in the public space to contribute their quota to national development.
The presidential candidates took turns to express their plans for women at a programme organised by the Voice of Women funded by the MacArthur Foundation, Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA Nigeria) in partnership with Affirmative Action Initiative for Women.
The Women Voice Conference and Awards 2022 took place at the Nigeria Air Force Conference centre in Abuja on Tuesday.
Speaking at the event, the All Progressives Congress (APC) vice presidential candidate Sen. Kashim Shettima said the APC government will be friendly to women, noting that they are the backbone of society.
Shettima stated that the APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu equally recognizes the role of women and had involved many of them in public offices when he was governor of Lagos State for eight years.
The APC vice presidential candidate also stated that his administration as governor of Borno State had 25 per cent of women as members of his cabinet.
He said, “The estimated measure of assessing any society is the way they treat their women. In 2023, we are not preparing for Olympics, but an institution that relies on the superiority of ideas and tracks records to show.
“Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was the first governor in Nigeria to appoint a woman as deputy governor, when he finished his two-term as governor of Lagos State, he was given the opportunity to come to the Senate but he declined and rather sent a woman.
“Twelve years ago, when I became the governor of Borno State, I appointed five women commissioners, that means 25 per cent of my cabinet were women,” Shettima noted.
“An Asiwaju administration will be a government that will be friendly to the women, importantly, they are the backbone of our society, and they constitute over 50 per cent of our total population.”
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Shettima advised that if Nigeria is to realize its full potential, it must give women better opportunities in leadership positions in order to create positive impacts that only men cannot achieve, adding that equity and fairness are among the top priorities of the Tinubu’s administration.
“If Nigeria is to reach its full potential, we must give everyone a fair chance to make their best contribution to the well-being and betterment of our nation, the growth of our economy and the achievement of our nation rest on equity and the safeguarding of the fundamental human rights and decency in our society.
“Equity and fairness to women will be a top priority of the Tinubu’s administration. We shall establish the following programmes and policies:
“We will promote more female inclusion in politics and governance. Social inclusion and political empowerment, economic empowerment whereby commercial banks would be compelled to support women in businesses nationwide.
“We will fight domestic violence and abuse, educational priority and help the most disadvantaged in our society,” Shettima added.
On his part, the Labour Party presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi promised more inclusion of women in his cabinet. He said he believes so much in the ability of women, adding that he had 40 per cent of women in his cabinet as Anambra State governor.
Obi said he found out that “women were far more committed and trustworthy,” adding “when you need work done and done satisfactory, get a woman to do it and you will not be disappointed.”
Going forward, the former Anambra governor said that when elected as president, he would make more efforts to carry women along and “bring them to the leadership table where decisions are being made, and also allowing them to utilize their potentials for the betterment of Nigeria.
“Nigeria is about to hire the next CEO and I appeal to you our mothers that what we are going through today as a country, you will not believe it, our country is collapsing and you can save it, and you mothers are the ones that will suffer more if it goes wrong.
“I believe in the women, and I believe you can save our country. For me, if anybody is coming to tell you what he is going to do tomorrow, let’s start with what he did yesterday, let’s look at his past and where he is coming from.
“I had a female deputy governor, my chief of staff was a woman, my commissioner for planning a woman, commissioner for local government was a woman, commissioner for education and my accountant general were women and so on,” he said.
The former Anambra State governor said that women are far more productive than men, and his success as governor for eight years would be attributed to the role women played in his government.
“When you talk about my success today as a governor, I will attribute it to those women. For me, women are critical, if you want to get Nigeria to move we have to surround ourselves with women.
“What we are going through today is cumulative of leadership failure, we are now about to pick a new leadership and we must go beyond all those considerations of yesterday and think about the future of this country and we cannot do it without the women on the driving seat.
“We must have a law in this country giving women and youth a percentage in all electoral positions and every position in Nigeria,” he added.
Others who attended the event include presidential candidates of the Young Progressive Party (YPP), Malik-Ado Ibrahim and the Action Alliance (AA), Hamza Al-Mustapha.
Tinubu was represented by his running, Shettima while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar was neither present nor represented.
The presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, was not in attendance, while Tinubu of the APC was represented by his running mate, Shettima.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
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