Mrs Stella Oketete, All Progressives Congress (APC) women representative in the party’s Caretaker and Extra-Ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), said unity among women is critical to bring more women into political limelight.
She said this on Thursday in Abuja when she interacted with the APC Women Lobby Group at the party’s national secretariat.
Oketete, also convener of the group, said women had no excuse to sit back and allow normal circumstances or issues derail them from rising to the top politically.
She stressed that all that was needed to achieve political recognition among the women folks, was unity.
“We can only achieve this if we come together, speak with one voice and If we discontinue the pull her down syndrome,” she said.
Okotete explained that to achieve desired results, she came up with the APC Women Lobby Group in partnership with the International Republican Institute(IRI).
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She, however, noted that finance was the biggest challenge facing women politicians in the country.
“In addition to creating visibility in lobbying for financial independence, we need to do a whole lot of work as regard identifying strong women and electable women that can be elected under this platform.
“I can tell you that from this lobby group, we are not just going to lobby for more representation, but we will lobby for financial independence of our women at the party level,” she said.
She noted that in some countries, certain percentage of capital budget was allocated to women enterprises and business promoters.
She expressed optimism that if this was adopted by the APC as the ruling party, more women would be brought into political limelight in 2023.
She said her desire was to ensure that a minimum of 108 female lawmakers were elected into the House of Representatives in 2023.
“We are about to start our congresses that will lead to the national convention soon, gone are the days when we only support women for women leader position.
“It is our cry, it is our appeal to our men, and I know the party men a whole lot, they are for us.
“They think about us, but they just want us to speak with one voice, and I think this is what we are going to do here,” Oketete said.
She expressed hope that more women would be elected into political office in 2023.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that some of the women at the meeting included Mrs Nkiruka Onyejeocha, Mrs Aisha Dukku, Ms Iquo Inyang, Mrs Asabe Bashir, Mrs Omorede Osifo-Marshal, Ms Olubunmi Bello and Mrs Hairat Gwadabe.(NAN)
