Ahead of the 2027 general elections, the National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Julius Abure, has stated that the party would give more opportunities for women participation and opportunities in the elections.
Abure while speaking in Abuja on Thursday at the Aju Morgan Elumelu Foundation (AMEF) noted that leadership was a major challenge bedeviling the country hence women must collaborate to take over leadership positions in the country.
According to Abure, the Labour Party had taken the lead in appointing women in political leadership positions, adding that the party had deliberately created opportunity for women to participate, not just in the affairs of the party, but have also given them opportunity to run for offices, hence the 2027 elections would not be different.
“I want to assure you that by 2027, God sparing our lives under our leadership, we’ll provide more opportunities for women. We appreciate the fact that culturally, economically, financially, there are several inhibitions against women’s participation.
“I want to assure you that the Labour Party is ready and determined to break those challenges that will encourage women to participate,” he said.
The Chief Executive Officer AMEF, Amb. Aju Elumelu, on her part lamented low representation of women in leadership positions, however, appealed to President Bola Tinubu and other stakeholders in the polity to ensure 35% women’s representation and empowerment in leadership positions.
“The goal here is to have women in leadership, elective, appointed position not just in politics but across board. When you go to the oil, we’re not there.
“We’re not here to get mad or agitate but I’m asking you, President Bola Tinubu to help us. We don’t have gloves to fight. We’re just asking you guys to think about us, everyone needs to be involved because we only have a measly percentage,” Elumelu said.
National Women Leader of Labour Party, Dudu Manuga, stressed that
space for women in leadership, governance and politics has been shrinking over the years but maintained that bills for special seats for women should be passed into law to enable women’s involvement in leadership positions.
“I have never seen this kind of effort coming together to see that we have more women in the legislature. So I think if we can have that bill passed and we’ll continue with the aggressive advocacy and mobilization, we’ll get it right this time around,” she said.
Manuga, however, called for collaboration of women at all levels in government to ensure the passage of the bill.
“What we now need to do is to encourage women in every state to meet their legislators and discuss with them.
“Let us lobby for this thing so that we get everybody to be on the same page and have it passed but for now the political parties have a long way to go.”, she added.