From: Gyang Bere, Jos
Some women in the North have vowed to contest the 2019 presidential election, while saluting the courage of Minister of Women Affairs, Sen. Aisha Alhassan, for declining support to President Muhammadu Buhari ahead of the 2019 general elections.
A candidate of House of Representatives during e 2015 election and grassroot mobiliser, Jiritmwa Goyit, disclosed this, on Monday, during a two-day engagement forum for women in politics, tagged “Strengthening citizens engagement in electoral processes in Nigeria”, organised by Community Action for Popular Participation (CAPP) in Plateau State.
Jiritmwa also urged northern women to shun traditional and religious believes that considered as taboo for women to stand high and compete favourably for elective positions with their male counterpart during election.
In her words, “I am advocating for women to present a strong and credible presidential candidate in 2019. Women have what it takes to contest and win the election because we all attend the same school and compete under the same environmen with our male counterparts and with our population, I am convinced that women can produce President in 2019.
“We are happy with the outstanding performance of Senator Aisha Alhassan who said she will not support Buhari in 2019, this is the kind of women we hope they will lead the advocacy for a woman president in 2019 and if she is interested, we will support her because she has the credentials.”
Mr. Yohanna Danladi Pam, who presented an overview of issues affecting women in Politics and Governance, lamented that there was no woman elected into the 19 States Houses of Assembly in the North during the 2015 elections except one in Plateau.
He said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) revealed that a total of 68,833,476 people did voters registration during the 2015 general election, men were about 22 million, while women were about 45 million.
He said there were about 990 seats in the State Houses of Assembly during the 2015 election, men won 930 and women won 60. House of Representatives has 360 seats and men won 346 and women won 14 while out of the 109 seats in the Senate, men won 101 and women won 8 which clearly indicated that women are marginalised in Nigerian politics.