By Tina George, Minna
The women in Niger state have called out on the governorship candidates of the various political parties in the state to reveal their plans and agenda for women.
They stated their stand during a town hall meeting organized with women groups and gender-focused civil society organizations in the state by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to foster gender responsive electoral process.
The women said that they will cast their votes on March 11 for the candidate whose plans and agenda for women are practical and genuine.
The state chairperson of the National Council of Women Societies (NCWS), Salimat Takuma who stated the stand of the women, said that if none of the candidates comes out to tell them their plans, they would not come out and vote for in the state.
“We want the candidates to come out and tell us what plans they have for women. We do not want lip service, we want practical plans that if it is violated, we can checkmate and hold the government.
“It is only when we get their plans that we will decide who to vote for. We will mobilize women’s support for anyone who has concrete plans for the women of Niger state,” she said.
A Director in the Ministry of Women Affairs, Larai Ibrahim appealed to the state government to protect the women before and during elections given the heightened youth restiveness and clashes that have been happening in recent times.
“If the violence in Minna continues, women may not be able to come out to vote because we do not want to be caught in the clash. So the Ministry of women affairs is seeking protection for women at every point of the election. We need massive security support.”
The Niger state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Ahmed Isha’u Garki, expressed the readiness of the INEC for the general elections, saying that women and vulnerable groups would be given special consideration during the elections.
He urged the women groups and gender-focused CSOs to mobilize women to come out for the elections, adding that with their numerical strength, the women can determine who would become the country’s next president and other leaders.
Garki said that the town hall meeting is part of the plans of INEC to ensure not only free, fair and credible elections but also inclusive elections across the country.
He said that the objective of the town-hall meeting is to provide the opportunity for INEC to disseminate information on the role of women in the 2023 general election and provide a platform for participants to interact and proffer solutions to possible and envisaged challenges that may confront the Nigerian women in the forthcoming elections.
“This meeting is focused to sensitize women on their roles as mothers who bear the brunt of most of the violence in elections, to dissuade their children from being used as tools of destruction and mayhem by desperate politicians and to sensitize women on proactive ways of extracting commitments from candidates, before making informed decisions on who deserves their votes,” he said.
