Mrs Amina Salihu, the Co-Director, Board of Directors, Nigeria Women’s Trust Fund, has urged Nigerian women to vote for many credible women in 2015 general elections.
Salihu gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday.
“As 2015 comes closer, let us build on 2011. We have seven per cent in the National assembly, why can’t we have 30 per cent?
“Women should work together with women to vote for credible women.
“I say credible women because it is not just about being a women, a woman must have an agenda.
“If I get there what will I do to make life better for my community, for my country as a whole?
“Let women vote for credible men, (too) because I am not going to say don’t vote for men because women and men are working together.
“But I am also going to say where a strong woman emerges and she look like a good candidate who will deliver change for the community women should support her and voter for her.
“If we do not support women, nobody will support them; we have to use our number very strongly and strategically.’’
Salihu noted that women were now more involved in politics than before as it was discovered in 2011 that majority of the registered voters were women.
“Women are emerging more on the (political) scenario and women are participating better.
“In fact some of us in the civil society women call it a new kind of dance because usually they will say women are in a political party to dance, to serve food, do welfare and mobilisation.
“But women now say, if we dance, we dance for ourselves.
“There is increasing negotiation. Women now are working better with men; men are working better with women because the key objective is not really to take the space, women from men or men from women.
“It is to have the hands washing each other so they can be clean. We need partnership, we need complementarity.’’
Salihu, who commended Nigerians that kept supporting women to participate in decision making, stressed the need to give women more chance in politics as it was being done in South Africa and Rwanda.
“We were told that Rwanda has about 54 per cent women representation in parliament and other areas of decision making, including the judiciary and the executives.’’(NAN)
