Nigerian women won’t vote for wrappers, salt in 2023 – NILOWV tells APC, PDP, others

Nigerian women won’t vote for wrappers, salt in 2023 – NILOWV tells APC, PDP, others

Ahead of 2023 general elections, the League of Women Voters of Nigeria (NILOWV) has warned candidates vying for various political offices across the country against sharing of wrappers and salt for women, saying Nigerian women will no longer vote base on material things.

The league of women voters lamented that Nigeria’s political space has been male-dominated despite the fact that women constitute a large chunk of the voting population, called on political parties, political office holders, and candidates for the 2023 general elections to include women as agents of change to actualize the 35 percent affirmative action in critical roles in the campaigns, in policy document preparation, strategy sessions, and other critical aspects of the electoral process.

Eighteen political parties, including ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) among others, will be contesting various political offices in the forthcoming national elections.

Addressing a press conference Wednesday in Abuja, national president Dr. Ester Uduehi NILOWV, flanked by the national secretary Barr. Veronica Ngozi Osuhor and other leaders, Wednesday in Abuja, uged political parties to respect the peace accord they signed recently.

The women body also called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to resist pressure from politicians who are opposed to the deployment of the Bimodal Voters Accredidtation System (BVAS) for the 2023 elections.

“As the campaign progresses, we expect a violence-free campaign devoid of hate speech and call on the actors to respect the letters of the Peace Accord signed a few weeks ago.

Political parties and their candidates should know that “Nigerian women will no longer vote for wrappers and salt during the 2023 elections.

“As of the last official release by INEC, women constituted over 40% of the about 84 million voters on the register. However, women remained severely under-represented in key fields, especially in politics and this has manifested in the form of institutionalized discrimination, disenfranchisement, and outright marginalization within the Nigerian polity.

“The League of Women Voters of Nigeria (NILOWV) frowns at the marginalization of women in the political space, therefore, imploring political parties to deliberately create space for women in their parties as well as on the political parties’ campaign councils.

“We strongly condemn the present practice of the ‘handout system’ employed by almost all the political parties and political office holders, and so, we demand that women are given all the support they need to participate and win elections. We equally demand affirmative action; that is how we define gender equity.”

Speaking further, Chief Uduehi urged candidates to address how they intend to tackle security challenges facing the nation.

“NiLOWV expects that the issue of insecurity is tackled by the candidates. The worst hit of insecurity are the women, children, the aged, and people faced with disabilities.

“A clear roadmap on how to tackle insecurity sustainably is expected. Having signed the peace accord, the political parties and candidates should ensure that they abide by this commitment to have a peaceful campaign and election,” She added.